Dr. Phillips girls wrestling wins state championship -- Observer Preps

Two individual state champions, two runners-up and five additional placers helped propel the Panthers to the top of the mountain, besting 80 teams from around the state.

By Steven Ryzewski
| 5:45 p.m. February 13, 2017

Sports
High Schools

The girls wrestling program at Dr. Phillips High made history Saturday, Feb. 11, at Liberty High in Kissimmee.

The Panthers bested 79 other girls wrestling teams from around the state to earn the program's first girls wrestling state championship. Dr. Phillips was able to edge out defending state champion and host school Liberty in point, with the final outcome uncertain until near the very end of the day.

Coach Kirwyn Adderley with state champions Shedeline Ulyse and Shania Gowan.

"The final two rounds were a little bit anxious just because we knew we had some tough matchups in the finals," head coach Kirwyn Adderley said.

The Panthers earned the school's 25th state championship across all sports by riding the wave of two individual state champions — sophomore Shania Gowan at 182 pounds and sophomore Shedeline Ulysse at 195 pounds — as well as two state runner-up finishes (Jessica Corredor and Valeria Herrera) and an additional five wrester who placed in the top six of their class.

Not just that, but some of the Panthers' wrestlers who were defeated early in the tournament still did their part to help the team's cause by battling back in consolation brackets — with Trinity Rios, Jennifer Gabriel and Alexa Phillips as prime examples, among others.

"We did a really good job in the consolation rounds," Adderley said. "(They) lost early in the tournament, but they came back and scored a lot of points."

The road to the state championship required the girls from Dr. Phillips to compete in spite of some injuries.

"We were probably as healthy as we were going to be," Adderley said. "The girls wrestled through some bumps and bruises."

The season, as a whole, saw the Panthers win the Metro Conference Championship and defeat Liberty earlier in the season in a dual-meet. After the team placed third in the state in 2016, Adderley says it was motivated to come back this season and finish the job.

"They really didn't know what they accomplished last year until after it was over," Adderley said. "This year, they understood what the goal was and they achieved it."

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].