A fifth-place finish at the Hobart girls wrestling regional made Kileigh Flynn first alternate for a spot in the Plymouth girls regional, learns Wednesday she will replace girl sidelined by injury

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

She fell just short of her desired destination, a berth in the Plymouth regional, but in the wake of that, Chesterton senior Kileigh Flynn was able to look past that and discuss what she loved about her two-year journey as a member of the girls wrestling team.
“I love the sport,” she said. “It’s helped me grow in a lot of ways. It’s helped me grow mentally, helped me to think about things more critically, differently. It’s helped me grow in my confidence, socially, in a lot of ways. It’s helped me a lot.”
Secondarily, it has helped Flynn to become a better wrestler.
And as it turns out, Flynn is not done wrestling after all.
Head Chesterton girls wrestling coach Chris Richardson let Flynn and her parents know Wednesday morning via Parentsquare that New Prairie’s Channing Foster, the girl who had knocked her out of the postseason, withdrew from the regional because of a shoulder injury. As fifth-place finisher, Flynn was first in line to take her place. Home sick, Flynn didn’t practice Wednesday, but was “excited,” to hear the news, according to Richardson.
Flynn almost didn’t need the second chance to make the regional field at 135 pounds. She was leading Foster 4-1 with just over 10 seconds remaining, time enough for Foster to tie the match and send it into overtime, known in wrestling as sudden victory, where Foster won the match to advance to the regional.
“I was just telling her yesterday ‘You never know,’” Richardson said. “I told her I’ve seen it happen plenty of times in boys wrestling, then sure enough.”
Flynn joins freshman MJ Scharp, sophomore Alice Scharp and juniors Arti Haney and Ally Williams, so the Trojans will have one wrestler from every other class and two juniors competing in Plymouth.
At the sectional, Flynn received a bye in the first round, pinned Knox’s Delilah Ferris in 1:09 in the second round, then was pinned in 1:20 by eventual sectional champion Julia Helminski, a Hobart freshman.
Next was a match with Foster with the winner heading to a third-fourth match and the loser wrestling for fifth place. Flynn won that one by technical fall, 16-0, and it took her just 1:28 to amass that many points.
“It’s better than I did last year, definitely,” Flynn said at the end of the day. “I’ve grown a lot since last year. I think I was pretty good today, not my best, but pretty good.”
As it turned out, good enough to become a regional wrestler, a badge of honor. Flynn (10-9) also gets to experience what it’s like to wrestle against an undefeated opponent ranked No. 1 in the state, NorthWood senior Naima Ghaffar (33-0), the defending state champion at 135.