Annabelle Soell has had quite a freshman wrestling season.. She has an overall record of 30-9 heading into the state tournament, where she will be wrestling in the 140 pound weight class. One thing she did consistently all season was pray. Annabelle prayed before every match and let the outcome be in the hands of God. She doesn’t necessarily have any superstitions or lucky clothing pieces because she believes whatever is going to happen is already planned. She said, “I don’t believe in luck, I believe in God’s faith.” There have been several times where she has been nervous before matches, but giving it to God has helped her the most.
Annabelle’s wrestling journey started last year when she was an eighth grader. She only began wrestling because Mr. Krehbiel wanted to have more girl wrestlers on the team. She feels that Mr. Krehbiel is the one who gave her the passion for the sport. The other person that convinced her to give wrestling a try was her uncle because she wanted a closer relationship with him. She said that her uncle believed in her more than anyone else had throughout her wrestling career. Throughout the season she has worked with her uncle frequently and credits him to a lot of her improvements. Some teammates that she listed that helped her were Landon Albrecht and Killian Vaughan. Annabelle said, “They take the time to break down moves if you don’t understand them. They are willing to put in extra work to help you and are good at calming you down before a match.” Annabelle is no stranger to hard work and challenges. She has done a lot of work outside of practice, mainly on Sundays. If she couldn’t get on the mat on a Sunday, she would at least try to get some kind of workout in. This was all on top of going to every normal practice. Annabelle’s advice to anyone that is just starting to wrestle is, “Put your all into it. Don’t take it as just another sport but take it as something you want to succeed in. Don’t be lazy because that isn’t an option in wrestling, but also have fun while doing it.” One of her favorite parts of wrestling is the challenge of it. She finds it encouraging pushing herself past limits she didn’t think she could pass.
Her favorite wrestling memory is after the match deciding if she was going to get to go to State or not. When she figured out she was going, her uncle, friends, and family were stoked. She felt a lot of relief and weight lifted off her shoulders when she qualified for the State tournament. Annabelle is the first girl wrestler from Southeast to qualify for State. “It feels good, and it is really exciting. It gets a lot of recognition for girls wrestling, and I’m excited to see what other girls go to state next,” said Annabelle. Although she said it is not a big deal, it is just one step closer to having more girls on the wrestling team, and she feels accomplished to lead that. While she already reached both of her goals for the beginning of the year; having a winning record and making it to State, her goal now is to not go 0-2 at State. It is an exciting time for her, and she hopes to live in the moment and enjoy the next week leading up to the state tournament.
