Championship Wednesday closed with three local medalists returning to The Wayne Herald coverage area following back-to-back days on the mat for the 2026 NSAA Girls State Wrestling Tournament.
From the CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha, Wayne's Sr. Nyla Bolles (B140) ends her senior season at 55-1 after taking control from the start and finished with a win by tech-fall 1.5 right at the end of the second period (18-2, 4:00) in a rematch from the B4 District final in which Bolles suffered her lone loss of the season while Tri County Northeast's Sr. Kiya Tornez (B155) (35-3) suffered a loss by fall (1:45) during their championship matches televised on Nebraska Public Media.
Bolles finished runner-up in A135 last year and finished third in 2024 in the G130 division.
Tornez took home sixth place last year in B145.
Earlier in the afternoon, Wayne's Fr. Alexandria Ziska (B170) concluded her freshman season with a sixth place medal after starting day two with back-to-back wins to get into medal contention. She finished 3-3 at state and went 49-14 on the season.
Area wrestlers falling in the heartbreak round (consolation round three) were TCNE's Jenni Olson (B100) going 2-2 at state finishing her senior season at 35-15 as Wayne's So. Ivette Ozuna won back-to-back in the elimination round but fell one win shy of vying for a medal ending her year at 40-16.
Local wrestlers returning with a 1-2 state record were Wayne's Edmy Balux (B105) wrapping up her junior year at 32-18 while Wakefield's Jr. Natalee Nelson (B190) finished her season at 38-11.
Other state qualifiers who went 0-2 were Wayne's Lupita Alba (B110) finishing her sophomore season at 27-19 as her fellow teammate Fr. Ayvree Abler (B125) ended the year at 28-26.
NSAA Boys State Wrestling will take over the CHI Health Center Arena from Feb. 17-19.
Wayne Herald coverage area wrestlers will be Grady Maas (106), Emmanuel Gonzalez (113), Grant Maas (157) and Maddox Ziska (285) from Wayne during Class B; Stratton Sellin (165) from Winside during Class D; Baldwin Garcia (106) and Ruben Vega (157) from Wakefield during Class C as well as Landon Newton (126) and Nate Franzluebbers (285) from Tri County Northeast during Class D.
Class B/C will open the morning at 9:30 a.m. with Class A/D wrestling beginning first round action at 3 p.m.
Keep an eye out for the Feb. 26 issue of The Wayne Herald which will feature the 'State Wrestling' section.
