On Monday, January 15th, the Camden girls’ varsity wrestling team placed third in the team standings at the Section III Ranking Tournament held at Fulton’s G. Ray Bodley High School.
The tournament was the first of its kind, and gave 140 girls from across the section a chance to cement their place into the 2nd New York State Girls’ Wrestling Invitational to be held on Friday, January 26th at Onondaga Community College.
Camden had three wrestlers achieve runner-up status at Monday’s tournament: Eighth grader Rylie Meagher, sophomore Peyton Kelley, and eighth grader Abigail Hebble. By achieving runner-up status at the tournament, all three competitors will advance to the State Invitational.
Meagher will represent Camden in the 100 lb. classification, and makes her second trip to the New York State Invitational after appearing in 2023's inaugural edition. She placed third last year in the 94 lb. class. This season, she placed second at the recent Dames of Thrones tournament in Albany.
Kelley has claimed multiple tournament titles at 94 pounds, including the Kenneth Haines tournament at SUNY Oswego and the Dames of Thrones tournament in Albany. She will wrestle in the 94 pound class at the state invitational.
Hebble is in her second year with the program, and has demonstrated tremendous improvement from her first season. At the Section III Ranking Tournament, she fought her way to the finals in the 165 lb. class with a great run that featured a semifinal win over CNS’s Ariana Welsh. Welsh has been responsible for multiple losses on Hebble’s record this season, but the Blue Devil wrestler showed how much stronger she has gotten as the season progresses. She put a pinfall win in the books in just 2:45 to reach the final and carve out a spot in the state invitational.
Camden also had four wrestlers make the Section III Ranking Tournament's consolation finals, with Aziyah Calderon and Astro Johnson achieving third place finishes. Kamryn Gloude and Isabella Vollmer also competed in that round and placed in fourth.