It has been quite the year, for Elizabethton High School wrestler ShaMia Wells.
The grappler, who will be a junior next season, made her first trip to the TSSAA Girls’ State Meet in 2018 and came back with the state title in the 215-pound weight division, making Wells the only Carter County athlete to win a state championship since 2016. And it is Wells’ dominant performance at the state level that made her the inaugural Elizabethton Star Female Athlete of the Year.
“What she did is groundbreaking,” said Elizabethton head girls’ wrestling coach Eddie Morrell. “It was a new weight class in a sport where women are just now being accepted. She is setting a standard for women wanting to take this sport on in the future. You can do anything you want if you are willing to set your mind and heart to it.”
The 2017-18 TSSAA State Wrestling Championships were held in February at the Williamson County Agricultural Expo Center in Franklin where Wells competed in a bracket consisting of seven other wrestlers. Wells, however, rolled through the competition with a 3-0 record as she pinned Heritage’s Taylor Davis in the first round to win the state title. Wells’ toughest match came in the semifinals as she took on Antioch’s Jadia Fosten. Wells topped Fosten by a 4-3 decision after dislocating her knee cap and popping it back into place. Just like in the championship, Wells’ opened the state meet with a pin in the first round as she defeated NovaLee Feichko of Northwest.
“Wrestling takes a lot of heart,” said Wells. “You can’t let things get to you and you have to stay focus on your goals.”
Morrell said that as Wells’ made her way to Franklin, the then-sophomore had no other plans but to win a state title.
“We made that trip determined,” said Morrell. “We wanted to show people that she is truly the champion in her weight class. Once the brackets were drawn, she knew what she needed to do and marched right through it. That is what I expect from her. She was just so focused on winning the state championship.”
As she enters her junior year, Wells is excited to have two more seasons of high school wrestling in front of her and said she has big plans.
“Right now my goal is to get healed, and then I am walking directly back into it the way I left, (a state champion),” said Wells.