WPIAL girls wrestling: Knoch’s Braylee Ireland ‘feels great’ after winning first district title
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Knoch’s Braylee Ireland defeats Mt. Lebanon's Paige Jox in the 118-pound final in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Knoch’s Braylee Ireland tries to score on Mt. Lebanon's Paige Jox in the 118-pound final in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Knoch’s Braylee Ireland tries to score on Mt. Lebanon's Paige Joe in the 118-pound final in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Knoch’s Braylee Ireland tries to score on Mt. Lebanon's Paige Joe in the 118-pound final in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Kaitlynn Plopi prepares for her match against Fox Chapel's Yuqi Zhou in the 142-pound quarterfinals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Maddie Fischer fireman carries Fort Cherry's Azlynn Dean in the 130-pound quarterfinal match in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Knoch's Braylee Ireland celebrates after defeating Canon-McMillan's Yuni Ayala in the 118-pound quarterfinals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Knoch's Braylee Ireland celebrates after defeating Canon-McMillan's Yuni Ayala in the 118-pound quarterfinals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Maddie Fischer pins Fort Cherry's Azlynn Dean in the 130-pound quarterfinal match at in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Knoch's Carma Forty pins Connellsville's Caroline Knopsider in a 142-pound consolation match in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Kaitlynn Plopi wrestles Fox Chapel's Yuqi Zhou in the 142-pound quarterfinals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Maddie Fischer fireman carries Fort Cherry's Azlynn Dean in the 130-pound quarterfinals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Knoch's Carma Forty takes down Connellsville's Caroline Knopsider in a 142-pound consolation match in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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Seneca Valley's Maddee Fischer wrestles Plum's Saphia Davis in the 130-pound semifinals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Maddee Fischer wrestles Plum's Saphia Davis in the 130-pound semifinals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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Butler's Monica Osborne pins Trinity's Daelyn Norris in a 235-pound consolation match in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler Monica Osborne pins Trinity Daelyn Norris in the 235lb consolation match in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School.(Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle)
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Seneca Valley's Adele Shih-Calabro wrestles Southmoreland's Rylee Mains in the 106-pound consolation finals in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Individual Championships held Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
WEXFORD — Last year, Braylee Ireland missed out on competing in the WPIAL Girls Wrestling Championships due to a knee injury suffered in her final match of the regular season.
In that respect, just competing at Saturday’s district championships offered a level of satisfaction.
But Knoch’s junior was capable of much more — and she proved it with a dominating effort at North Allegheny High School.
Ireland won all four of her bouts, claiming a WPIAL crown at 118 pounds with a 7-3 victory over Mt. Lebanon’s Paige Jox, the top seed in the tournament.
“I knew I had put the work in, and my goal was to get to the final, hopefully win it,” said Ireland, who was seeded No. 2. “It feels great to win.”
Ireland said she had faced Jox once before at a tournament.
“She got a late takedown against me and beat me, I believe the score was 4-1,” she said.
But with district supremacy on the line Saturday, it was Ireland who took command early with a takedown 90 seconds into the bout.
Jox closed her deficit to 3-2 with a pair of escapes but never pulled even with Ireland, who earned an escape and another takedown in the third period before holding off her opponent. Jox is now 26-2 on the season.
“The first minute and a half, we were feeling each other out,” Ireland said. “I was watching how she moved, how she stepped. Scoring first was important, but other than that, I just took it period by period.”
“I told Braylee to believe in herself and enjoy the result,” Knoch coach Logan Downes said. “She is so dedicated, practices the right way and watches film. She really is a student of the sport and never gets down on herself.”
Ireland (22-6) breezed through her first three bouts, pinning Hampton’s Neveah Patrick and Canon-McMillan’s Yuni Ayala in the first period before defeating Butler’s Brin Zehmisch, the No. 3 seed, by technical fall in the semifinal.
While Ireland was the lone Butler County wrestler to win a championship, she will have a lot of company when the PIAA Western Regional Tournament is held at North Allegheny on March 1.
Nine other county grapplers advanced by placing in the top six in their respective weight classes.
Of that group, Seneca Valley sophomore Adele Shih-Calabro had the longest odds to get through. She was a dark horse, coming in unseeded in the 106-pound bracket.
“My coaches kept telling me, ‘Rankings aren’t everything, rankings don’t matter,’” she said. “But I was terrified.”
Shih-Calabro entered the day with a modest record of 9-7, but she became a thorn in the side of several ranked opponents.
Her first bout came against Valley’s Isabella Martinez, the No. 3 seed, and Shih-Calabro dispatched her with a pin in the first round. After falling to Southmoreland’s Rylee Mains in the quarterfinals, she defeated three more foes by pin, including Burgettstown’s Chloe Speicher (No. 7) and Burrell’s Ella Campbell (No. 4).
Shih-Calabro’s final bout was a second loss to Mains in a battle for third place, but a berth into regionals had already been secured.
“I’m a pretty aggressive wrestler, but after that first touch, if I can feel that my opponent is stronger than me, I start getting stressed out,” she said. “But today, I was able to stay calm on the mat.”
Her family used to live in Cranberry Township but moved to Nevada several years ago. Shih-Calabro picked up wrestling out there but was not too involved with it. When she found out her family was moving back to Butler County last spring, she knew joining SV’s girls team was in her future.
“My goal is to earn a college scholarship through wrestling,” she said.
“We knew Adele was capable of this,” SV coach Jessica Leighty said. “Today, she believed it, too.”
Four other SV wrestlers reached regionals — Everly Harrell (third at 100 pounds), Maddee Fischer (third at 130), Kaeleigh Tuell (fourth at 155) and Hannah Hornick (fourth at 170).
“We were hoping to get four or five through, so we’re really happy with this,” Leighty said. “The girls met the goals they had for themselves, and that’s the most important thing.”
Butler’s Monica Osborne may be in her first year of wrestling, but the sophomore is eager to learn and improve. Finishing third at 235 pounds and extending her season is the latest example.
“She picks things up quickly and gets better every single day,” Butler coach Nathan Bottiger said. “She works hard and is one of those kids you are excited just to have in the room.”
Osborne capped her day with a pin of Canon-McMillan’s London Ellis.
“I’ve wrestled much better than I was earlier in the season,” Osborne said. “I’d say I’m an opportunistic wrestler. If I see a chance to take a shot at somebody, I’ll do it. But Coach (Aiden) Plopi says that at 235, it’s a marathon. Run the marathon, not the sprint.”
Also advancing for Butler were Zehmisch (fourth at 118), Kaitlynn Plopi (fifth at 142) and Olivia Hageman (sixth at 190).
