Page 8/The Sun and News, Saturday, March 9, 2024Scots’ Hayden pins her way to second state title
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
It took 48 seconds.
Maddie Hayden is a two-
time MHSAA Girls’ 155-
pound state champion. The
Caledonia sophomore pinned
Holt senior Brynn Campbell
less than a minute into their
championship match at the
MHSAA Individual State
Finals Saturday afternoon at
Ford Field in downtown
Detroit.
No one scored a point on
Hayden this season in what
was a shortened season due
to injury. She was 11-0 this
winter. She pinned all seven
of her postseason foes in the
first period. Hayden said this
second championship was a
little less nerve-wracking
than her first, mostly due to
her own state of mind.
“I feel like I was a little
more confident this year,”
Hayden said, “and since I
was out injured for a little
while I was more excited to
wrestle than I was nervous to
wrestle. I was just really
excited to go out and see how
good I would be again,
because I have been off for a
couple months.”
Her only real meaningful
action for the CHS varsity
this season prior to the state
postseason was a run to the
championship in the girls’
155-pound weight class at
the Kent County Classic in
Kentwood back in December.
Hayden broke a finger on her
right hand in early January
and then her first week back
on the mat in February she
inured her right elbow in a
practice in the lead-up to
regionals.
“I felt like going into state,
pretty much with one arm,
gave me another thing to
prove I guess, just to prove I
could get past that too,”
Hayden said.
A regulation wrestling
match is six minutes long.
Hayden had wrestled onlyfive minutes and 29 seconds
through her first six postsea-
son bouts to get to the Girls’
155-pound championship
final. Campbell was just able
to push her over the six-min-
ute mark of action for the
postseason. None of that was
a fluke.
“That was absolute the
plan,” Hayden said. “In and
out as fast as I could was the
plan.”
An inside trip took down
more than one foe for Hayden
this postseason, and she
pulled off the move again in
the championship match
with Campbell – who had an
outstanding season of her
own wrestling to a record of
30-7.
Caledonia varsity wres-
tling coach Shawn Veitch
said Hayden and the coach-
ing staff came up with sec-
ond and third plans should
Campbell come to the mat
prepared to thwart what had
become Hayden’s go-tomove of the tournament.
Campbell retreated a couple
times as they grappled on
their feet for some control,
and Veitch said he was really
pleased to see Hayden not
back off her best move too
soon.
“I was so happy when I
saw her elbow hanging up,
and I was like ‘oh, my,’
Hayden said. “ I feel like that
[inside trip] is just about the
only thing I’ve been hitting
lately, which is nice becauseI don’t need my arms for it.”
“My bread and butter is
the under hook, and every-
thing works off that,” Hayden
added.
“A lot of girls in high
school in the state, a lot of
the girls tend to back up I
feel like. They just get really
uncomfortable in that posi-
tion. They tend to back up
and then when they do back
up it’s one foot and then the
next. It is usually the same
with every person. They kindof step back the same way.
All I have to do is peek out
and see the timing of their
feet. As soon as I see the
timing line up, it’s right
there.”
Hayden doesn’t only
watch for opportunities, she
creates them. She continues
to work to hopefully be a
four-time state champion and
has bigger goals beyond that
in wrestling. She’s looking
forward to the chance to
compete for a spot on the
USA World Team at the 2024
U.S. Marine Corps Women’s
National Championship in
Spokane, Wash. next month.
She’s not flawless.
Traveling around the country
to wrestle much of the year
she does take the occasional
defeat. Hayden said one of
her biggest areas of growth
in the past year has been her
mentality after a loss. She’s
getting better at putting the
defeats behind her, or at least
off to the side, to process
once a tournament is through.
The kind of girls who have
been able to best Hayden
recently are ones like
Tennessee wrestler Piper
Fowler who got the best of
her while she was competing
for the Michigan Blue team
at the 2023 Junior National
Duals in Tulsa, Okla., last
June. Hayden helped
Michigan Blue to a runner-up
finish at the 32-team event.
Fowler capped her summer
by winning the 73 kg divi-
sion at the U17 World
Championships in Istanbul,
Turkey, in August.
World Champion is a title
Hayden would love to earn
some day.
Hayden also won her way
to the finals of the 2023 US
Marine Corps 16U Nationals
at 152 pounds last July,
knocking off the defending
champion Sarah Henckel
from Connecticut in the
quarterfinals on her way to aCaledonia sophomore Maddie Hayden calmly pins East Lansing’s Mya Terranova during the first period of
their 155-pound girls’ division opener at the MHSAA Individual Wrestling Finals at Ford Field in Detroit Friday,
March 1. Hayden went on to pin all four of her state finals foes in the first period to win her second state
championship. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Caledonia sophomore Halle Stout (left) works for
control early on in her match with Iron Mountain’s
Shayna Hruska to open action in the Girls’ 105-pound
weight class at the MHSAA Individual Wrestling
Finals at Ford Field in Detroit Friday, March 1. Stout
was bested in her two matches in her first appear-
ance in the state finals. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Caledonia sophomore Maddie Hayden has her
arm raised after pinning Manton’s Makayla Gowell in
her semifinal match at the MHSAA Individual Wrestling
Finals Friday, March 1. Hayden followed up that
match by pinning Holt’s Brynn Campbell in the Girls’
155-pound championship final Saturday back at Ford
Field in Detroit for her second straight state champi-
onship. (Photo by Brett Bremer)See CHAMP, next page