:quality(70):focal(1870x1015:1880x1025)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/JG7HTNSNKNH3XHUJBO24KJXH4A.jpg)
In Kaneland’s third year competing in girls wrestling, freshman Angelina Gochis made history.
The 105-pounder won the program’s first state title and finished the year 47-5.
“It went pretty good,” Gochis said. “Got a lot of wins, so that’s a plus.”
For all her accomplishments, ability to meet challenges head on and leadership Gochis has beed named the Daily Chronicle Girls Wrestler of the Year.
Gocihs was able to get way more matches in than most of her competitors by wrestling on the boys team during the regular season. She wracked up 37 wins on the boys side this season.
“It was definitely more of a challenge because they’re stronger,” Gochis said. “The girls wrestled different. It was good to wrestle the boys because they’re like strong, so I could feel that strength before knowing what was going to happen.”
By the time the state series rolled around, Gochis was clicking on all cylinders. In its third year of sponsorship by the IHSA, the state series featured a regional round for the first time. Gochis made it through to state and notched two tech falls, a major decision and an 8-2 win over Huntley’s Janiah Slaughter for the title.
First-year Kaneland coach Josh West, who’s been an assistant at Rockford East and Huntley Middle, said it was special to coach a state champion wrestler in his first year.
“You get into coaching to help kids,” West said. “You want that state championship, the experience of coaching that big-time match. A lot of coaches don’t ever get that opportunity. To walk in and have that opportunity in Year 1 is pretty incredible. It’s not necessarily a testament to me as a coach as much as it is to her as a wrestler and an individual.”
Even though she’s a freshman, West said Gochis is respected in the room and a leader on the team. He also said she faced some tough wrestlers, boys and girls, throughout the year and never shied away from a challenge.
“She beat some quality boys along the way,” West said. “It wasn’t always like they were just throwing someone out there. She beat some really good opponents along the way. Her success has really elevated others in the room and kind of put us on the map a little bit. She’s helped us become known.”
West said her success this season was by no means a surprise.
“When we got together, we worked out a plan on how we wanted things to go,” West said. “We really wanted to use the boys matches as a stepping stone to that girls state series. But we were also really confident she could compete with the boys at 106 pounds.”
Now that Gochis is 1 for 1 in state titles, she not only has a chance to become the first girls wrestler statewide to win four titles but has her sights set beyond even that.
“I don’t want to lie and say we haven’t thought about let’s win another one, let’s win a third one, let’s win a fourth one,” West said. “But really the mentality is to get better each and every day. She’s really good at freestyle and is going to do some Greco-Roman later this year. Obviously, the goal is to win a state title, but there’s other things, too. Eventually there should be some talk of wrestling for the United States and winning a world title. There’s some big aspirations that she has and she has the work ethic and ability and support around her to accomplish really anything she wants.”