In late October, Wayne sophomore Essynce Owens-Webb joined AAU-ISF U17 TEAM USA for an international wrestling trip.
Essynce Owens-Webb was selected with the group wrestling in Bahrain (Island Country off coast of Saudi Arabia). They traveled and competed over the period of Oct 19 – 30.
Essynce was joined by two others in her weight class of 46 kg (101.4 lbs.) from Florida along with another being represented on the east coast.
It wasn’t’ just all about wrestling.
“Where we stayed, you could see the sun setting and it rising, so that was really cool,” said Owens-Webb. “The food was amazing, especially the orange juice and the apple juice. The people there were so nice. I want to go back so bad.”
With only one day of competition on the Olympic style mats, Essynce Owens-Webb competed freestyle placing fifth internationally.
After just 15 freestyle practices, Essynce pinned a returning third place opponent from Ukraine before falling to a Brazilian. In a match for third, Essynce suffered a loss against another opponent from Brazil based on scoring to finish fifth.
Essynce added what she’ll be taking away from the international trip.
“Use what I learned from Olympic wrestlers and take that into my high school career and just keep learning off of that,” Owens-Webb added.
Bahrain is known for pearls and pearl diving, as the group Owens-Webb was with visited museums, malls and some downtown areas while also hearing the Muslim ‘Call to Prayer’.
Roughly 65 girls and boys traveled and had a few workouts in Chicago along with a couple practices at a soccer field or a UFC gym at Bahrain.
Essynce-Owens Webb was just wrapping up the first week of official NSAA winter practices and have set some high goals.
“Last we had about 10 girls and this year we have 20, so it keeps expanding,” Owens-Webb mentioned. “This year I’m just hoping to do better than I did last year. Make it to state then go on and place.”
During her freshman season, she recorded 30+ wins qualifying for the 100 lb. division and went 1-2 during the NSAA Girls State Wrestling Championships.
Essynce Owens-Webb wrestles for NWA out of Omaha during the non-school year season who have invited her to events in Spokane and Vegas. The family did have to turn down another intentional trip in March to Russia but will be automatically on the team next time around.
Jonathan Webb would like to thank all who donated to assist with travel expenses and more for this opportunity to wrestle internationally.
“We had some really good people throughout our community and the surrounding communities pull together for us,” said Jonathan Webb. “All sorts of things from personal donations to us to business donating it was really nice to see the people come together. Then after she got back and how many people wanted to hear her story and congratulated her for what she did was pretty sweet to see.”
Essynce Owens-Webb is currently preparing for the folk style NSAA winter sports season with Wayne High. The Blue Devils will open their season with a home triangular on Thursday, Dec. 5 hosting Wisner-Pilger and Summerland starting at 5 p.m.
