photo by: Contributed photo

Members of the Free State High boys wrestling team pose with 2022 state champion Mady Gray following Gray's win in the 138-pound bracket on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 in Park City. Gray finished her prep career with an undefeated record and four state titles.

The final pin of her prep career came Thursday in Park City, where Free State High senior Madyson Gray rolled to her third consecutive girls state wrestling title and finished with a career record of 95-0.

She shared the moment with her father, Darin Gray, the FSHS head coach, and several members of the Free State boys team who made the trip over early to support their old friend.

The boys will wrestle Friday and Saturday, many of them hoping to join Gray as state champions.

In 3:27 of mat time, Gray pinned Emporia’s Virginia Muñoz, giving her four pins for the week in the 138-pound weight class and an incredible 93 pins or technical falls for her career.

Only one of her matches as a Firebird was won by decision. The other was a major decision, which she dominated but did not finish with a pin. This week, none of the four competitors Gray faced scored a single point on her that she did not let them have.

It was a far cry from the moment back in seventh grade, when Gray wrestled for the first time and finished her initial season with a record of 2-19 against nearly all boys. She knew she loved the sport then and she knew she wanted to keep going with it. There was just one thing she wanted to change.

“After that season, she really committed to the sport,” her father said on Thursday. “She came home after her final match and said, ‘Next year, I want to be the bad (expletive) that all the boys are afraid of. And she went there.”

The Grays turned their living room into a weight room. They bought an extra freezer for meal prep. And they spent the next five years living and breathing wrestling. That’s what made Thursday’s accomplishment so satisfying and also so emotional.

“I’m just so stoked to have finished this way,” Gray said in a phone call with the Journal-World on her way back home to Lawrence. “It’s a really awesome feeling and it just makes all of the hard work and dedication seem worth it.”

Added her father: “It’s a strange place to be — being a first-year head coach and seeing my daughter wrestle her final match of high school. It’s a lot of emotions.”

Most of them were good. The biggest of all was that of gratitude. Gray made sure to thank all of her coaches who, she said, meant the world to her and helped her get to where she is today — standing atop the podium as a proud, confident, unbeaten champion.

Travis Phippen, Rodger Fincher, Kenny St. Pierre and, of course, her father all got a mention. She also said she always appreciated the support of Free State boys coach Randy Streeter, who drove a van full of Firebirds out to Park City early to be there for her final match.

And then there was the feeling of something bigger.

When Gray first started wrestling she was one of the only girls competing in an official capacity with the boys teams. As a freshman, she won an unofficial state title — which makes her four-for-four in her Free State career — but she was still a member of the boys team.

In the years that followed, the girls team was formed, girls across Kansas began following in Gray’s footsteps and, today, the sport, at the girls’ level, is bigger than it has ever been. Gray, who is headed to Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, to wrestle in college, loves knowing that she was there when it all began.

“I’m very glad that I can say I’ve been a pioneer in this sport,” she said. “And it’s awesome to see that the sport’s growing and to think that there’s going to be a whole new generation of girls who find wrestling who would whip our butts.”

Whether that last part is true or not will never be known. But at Free State, it will forever be Gray’s name that is linked to the start of the girls wrestling era and the word champion.

Asked Thursday what it meant to her to think that she could still be remembered at her school decades down the road, Gray sighed.

“Oh my gosh,” she said. “It’s crazy. I think it’s all still sinking in. I have no words. When I started doing this, I could not have possibly seen myself being here. I’m just so proud.”

photo by: Contributed photo

Free State High senior Madyson Gray poses with her latest state championship bracket and first-place medal on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 in Park City. Gray took first in the 138-pound weight class, giving her three consecutive girls wrestling state titles and a 100-0 career record.