Rachel Bridges never ceases to amaze with her wrestling. She has dominated this season with a perfect score of 33-0. What’s more — no points have been scored against her all season.
Bridges won her second state championship for girls wrestling on Feb. 20 in Houston.
“It still hasn’t really hit me yet that I went an entire season without losing or getting scored on. So I still can’t quite comprehend that.” Bridges said.
During the competition, she wrestled one girl that she has already competed against. She told me that by wrestling this familiar face it helped Bridges keep control. She said that through this encounter she was able to focus on the match and wrestle as best as she could.
Bridges won first place in district that was held on Carroll High School on Feb. 3 and 4, and was named District Champion in her weight class. Bridges also won Regional Champion which was held on Feb. 20 in El Paso, by being the most dominant wrestler during that competition.
Bridges has been wrestling since her freshman year. It all started over Thanksgiving Break and she has been practicing since then. Bridges said that the training was no picnic, but it helped her to do her job correctly.
Bridges has gotten close with the girls that she wrestles with while training was going on. She tells me that they are like a family to her.
“I love each and every one of those ladies like they’re my own sisters. We try to support each other as best as we can because we are all family.” Bridges said.
Bridges plans on wrestling in college, but she has no clear plans beyond that.
“Wrestling has overall made me into a completely different athlete,” Bridges said. “Because of wrestling I am a more mobile, agile, flexible and mentally tougher version of myself.”