Walton-Verona’s Emma Moore surpassed her wrestling brothers in her final high school match.
Cooper freshman Aaliyah Svec showed chronological age didn’t define her.
And Highlands junior Emma Hood erased the memory of a painful 2025 loss.
The result: Moore, Svec and Hood brought home a triumvirate of girls state titles Saturday at Lexington’s Alltech Arena.
Moore won the 107-pound title, a 13-5 majority decision over Ryle’s Peyton Brinkman. Svec won at 138 by pinning North Hardin’s Payton Perry, and Hood took down Prestonsburg’s Braylyn Maynard, 3-2.
Saturday’s backstories were at least as interesting as what happened on the mats.
‘Definitely’
Moore was a two-time state champion at 100 pounds. She moved up to 107 this year, with the idea of surpassing older brothers Spencer and Ryan, who won two each.
“Part of the reason I started wrestling is because I wanted to get more state titles than them,” Emma Moore said after winning the Region 3 title on Feb. 14.
Moore had a relatively easy road to the finals – pins over North Hardin’s Iris Wells and Boyle County’s Hayley Cappelli and a 16-1 technical fall over Woodford County’s Genevieve Cox in the semifinals.
Brinkman, meanwhile, scored a 10-1 majority decision over Fern Creek’s Aaliyah Bronger, a 7-1 win over North Hardin’s Mia Green and a semifinal pin against Lafayette’s Mackenzie Medley.
When Moore scored a 17-1 technical fall over Brinkman, an eighth-grader, two weeks ago, it was largely because she caught Brinkman with multiple front headlocks. Ryle coach Tim Ruschell’s Saturday strategy seemed simple.
“Well, don’t get caught in the front headlock,” Ruschell said. “Don’t take any bad shots. Go from there.”
Saturday was pretty much a reprise of two weeks ago – Moore scored four takedowns and an escape to Brinkman’s three escapes and a reversal.
Spencer Moore gave Emma her gold medal. If you were wondering whether she would forevermore badger her brothers over what happened Saturday, there was a one-word answer: definitely.
“Actually, (Spencer) brought it up to me after the match,” Emma said. “He’s like, ‘you did something we were never able to do’.”
Moore has committed to PennWest Edinboro, an NCAA Division II school in Pennsylvania. Saturday, she taught her dad, Walton-Verona coach Jason Moore, a lesson about priorities.
“Wins and losses are important,” Jason Moore said, “but it’s not the only thing.”
A good kind of pointlessness
Svec’s journey to Saturday began years ago.
“Well, it’s just lots of hard work,” she said. “I’ve been wrestling since I was 5, and I’ve just been preparing for this moment since I was little.”
Svec is the first Jaguar to win a wrestling title.
“We could see it coming, with all the hard work that she’s done,” Cooper coach Mike Flaherty said.
Nobody scored a point against Svec over her first three wins. She pinned Greenwood’s Misoko (Ashley) Kilozo and Louisville Moore’s Amirah Macklin and added a 16-0 technical fall win over Seneca’s Ash Patton in the semifinals.
Svec started the final with her usual routine; kneel and pray away from her coaches and pace about 30 times.
“I just think about the Lord bringing me peace, and just that it’s already in his hands,” she said.
After Perry’s two-point reversal closed Svec’s lead to 3-2 with 33 seconds left in the first period, Svec countered with a near fall with 11 seconds to go in the second and the pin five ticks into the third.
Only one thought
A year ago, Maynard, then at Pike County Central, pinned Hood with three seconds left in the match – a hurt that dogged Hood every day until Saturday.
“That’s all I thought about,” Hood said. “That’s been my only goal … this season.
Hood started Saturday by pinning Louisville Central’s Alaina May and Greenwood’s Scout Brockman and taking a 13-7 win over Franklin County’s Cathlynn Smith.
Hood was ahead of Maynard, 3-0, when she received the scare of the tournament – a left knee injury a little less than a minute into the third period. She didn’t know what happened.
“(Maynard) had in a normal move, what you try to do if you’re trying to do if you’re trying to reverse someone and pull their leg out,” Hood said. “Something tweaked in it; I felt it pop.”
Hood’s knee hurt the rest of the match; she said “adrenaline kind of took over.”
“And I was, like, I’m not losing this match, no matter what,” she said. “… I tried to bail as quick as I could so (Maynard) couldn’t get me to my back. I knew I had one point, so all I had to do was pretty much stall out and not let her turn.”
When the final whistle blew, Hood’s dad, Highlands coach Joey Hood, screamed loudly enough to be heard in Nicholasville if not Fort Thomas. A few minutes later, he cried a little.
“It’s coach and dad role here, so that just adds that much more energy to the process,” he said.
Emma Hood, however, mostly keeps her emotions in reserve.
“But it was cool seeing him in the corner, having my dad,” she said. “I wouldn’t have rather won it with anyone else in my corner.”
Mariko injured
Cooper freshman Fanta Mariko reached the 235 semifinals. She trailed eventual champion Elene Niyogoshima of Lafayette, 4-2 in the second overtime when her left shoulder separated.
Lafayette won the team title over Boyle County, 120-113.5. Cooper was 13th with 38.5 points, Ryle was 16th with 32, Walton-Verona was 17th with 31.5, Campbell County was 22nd with 28.5 and Highlands was 25th with 26.