Eila Schultz grew up with wrestling. She’s been on mats for most of her 15 years, and yet in the high school ranks Schultz is a newbie.
Girls high school wrestling has been fully sanctioned in Colorado for a little under five years by the Colorado High School Activities Association, the governing body of high school activities. The sport began during the 2020-21 school year.
Schultz, a freshman at Severance High School, became part of the early history of girls high school wrestling in Colorado when she won a state title earlier this month.
Schultz beat Fort Lupton freshman Alyssa Solis-Ornelas 1-0 for the Class 4A 130-pound title Feb. 15 at Ball Arena in Denver. Schultz is Severance’s first girls state wrestling champion and one of 28 girls statewide to win a title this winter.
Girls wrestling expanded in Colorado this year with the addition of a second classification. Girls competed at 14 weights in Class 4A and 5A.
“I hope girls wrestling takes off even more than it already has,” Schultz said. “I know with the group of girls we have here, just at Severance, we can go somewhere with it.”
Severance senior Faith Vondy was second at 135 pounds. Junior Alisa Gonzales was fifth at 170. The Severance girls finished fourth in the 4A team standings.
Schuttz was one of two Severance athletes who came home with titles from the state meet. Sophomore Drake VomBaur repeated as a state champion on the boys side. He won the 4A 113-pound title. VomBaur was a state champ at 106 pounds as a freshman.
Freshman Jaxon Felker was sixth at 120 pounds for the Severance boys.
Like VomBaur, Schultz followed family members into the sport. Ryan Schultz, Eila’s father, wrestled at the University of Nebraska. He switched into mixed martial arts and currently owns Trials MMA, a training academy in Fort Collins. Ryan runs practices for the Severance girls.
Severance High School freshman wrestler Eila Schultz sits inside the schools wrestling room on Tuesday. Schultz won her first state title this season for the Silver Knights. (Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)Eila’s brother, Kilian, is a 165-pound sophomore wrestling at the University of Northern Colorado. Kilian wrestled at Eaton High where he was part of team championships, and he finished second at 144 pounds his senior year in 2023.
Eila — pronounced eye-la — said Kilian has always been her No. 1 support system for her and a bit of a coach. He’ll often ask Eila if she wants to get in extra work.
“He’s always there with my mental game too,” she said.
Sam Dare has coached wrestling at Severance since the school opened in 2019. VomBaur and Eila Schultz are Severance High’s second and third individual state champions, respectively. Colby Runner won back-to-back titles for the Silver Knights in 2022 and 2023.
Dare said the difference between boys and girls wrestling in Colorado lies only in years of experience. The girls simply have not been in the sport as long.
“Girls are still young,” Dare said, adding that they’re “pioneers” in the sport.
“Realistically, that’s what they are,” the coach said. “They’re paving the path for little girls because little girls are now looking up to these bigger girls winning state titles.”
Dare said he knew Schultz would one day become a state champion, given who she is as an athlete and her family background. There are benefits to having other wrestlers in the family. Schultz said she’s been on mats probably since she was about 4 years old. She wrestled her first match when she was about seven.
“I think it is an advantage,” Dare said.
Schultz said she was somewhat surprised by her state title this year. She added, though, the championship had been on her mind all season. With this focus, Schultz said she would’ve also been surprised if she had not won.
“I was going for it, so you might as well believe in it fully,” she said.
Schultz said good coaches and good teammates helped her reach this level of confidence. She had a 34-3 record this season.
“I think that is the main thing, hard work and confidence,” she said.
Schultz called the state final match “kind of crazy.” She won off a staling point assessed to Solis-Ornelas. Schultz defeated Solis-Ornelas 8-4 during a regional match the weekend before the state tournament.
“It definitely was not the match I wanted to go out there and have,” Schultz said of the state final. “It wasn’t like I was nervous. I just didn’t want to make a stupid mistake. I wish the match was more exciting, but I still won and I’m proud of myself for it.”
Severance High School freshman Eila Schultz stands inside the wrestling room at the local school on Tuesday. Schultz took home her first state tile this season. (Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)Schultz likes the individualistic side of the sport. Wrestlers are trying to score points for the team total. But, once on the mat, the wrestlers are very much on their own. In wrestling, the athletes are not tied to a teammates’ bad pass or ill-placed shot, she said, as in sports with more of a team focus.
Wrestlers take the mat one at a time for their turn to perform.
“It’s all on you,” said Schultz, who will spend the spring playing soccer for the Silver Knights. “It can also be the downfall of it too. You can lose, and there’s no one to blame but yourself. That encourages me to work harder and wrestle better.”
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