Mainland wrestling's Cheyenne Wigley 'takes people down' — boys and girls
DAYTONA BEACH — Cheyenne Wigley has sparred with the boys for a long time.
In middle school, she played tackle football with them. Offensive and defensive line. She tried wrestling in seventh grade — exclusively against boys at that point — because her coach suggested it would make her more explosive.
Fast forward half a decade, and Wigley is Mainland High School’s all-time leader in girls wrestling wins. Eighty-nine and counting, with the Region 1-1A Tournament coming up on Saturday.
The senior holds a 22-1 record against girls this season. She still grapples with boys for the challenge of it, too. This year, she’s 4-3 against them.
“She needs competition, and it’s kind of hard to find (among girls in her 235-pound weight class),” coach Matt Lawrence said. “I think there are only about five girls in the state that can compete with her, and three of them live in Miami.”
Cheyenne Wigley moved to Daytona Beach before high school
Wigley grew up about 30 minutes outside of Atlanta. By the time she moved to Florida the summer before her freshman year, she already possessed two years of wrestling experience at the insistence of her football coach.
“I was like, ‘why not?’ ” Wigley said. “It seemed fun. It was like a little room. It wasn’t much, but it was a mat. (The coach) was like, ‘We’re not going to go home until that window is foggy.’ I was like, ‘Alright, we’re going to do some hard work in here. I like this.’ ”
She loved the competition.
When Wigley got to Mainland, she joined the boys football team and girls flag football team. She played on the former for two years and the latter as only a freshman.
“I was too aggressive,” she said of flag football. “I kept knocking girls down, kept getting flags called on me.”
That same mentality made her a great fit for Lawrence’s wrestling program, though.
In 2020, the Florida High School Athletic Association had not yet sanctioned girls wrestling as an official sport. But Wigley still committed to the Buccaneers’ squad. She placed fourth at states.
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She was hooked on the sport.
“It’s honestly like a big family here,” Wigley said. “Every one of us collaborates with each other. We have no hatred toward each other. We help each other get better. And I think that’s like the best thing after coming from school. It can be stressful. It can be straining. And you come here, and you take it all out on the mat ...
“Sometimes, you need that outlet to just let loose, and this is my outlet.”
By her sophomore year, the FHSAA added girls wrestling to its list of sports. Wigley and Jah’Mya Hill were Mainland’s immediate stars. Wigley took seventh in the state at 235 pounds, and Hill vaulted to fourth at 155.
Again, as a junior last season, Wigley claimed seventh.
“She takes shots,” said Lawrence, who emphasizes that to all his grapplers. “When you watch heavyweights wrestle, they generally don’t do takedowns. They do a lot of throws, and they do a lot of just moving around. But she takes down people. She is well over 100 takedowns in her career.”
Cheyenne Wigley has become a program pillar for Mainland
Wigley has watched the Bucs’ team grow.
The program shut down in 2010 and sat dormant until 2018 when Lawrence revived it. Wigley came along shortly after that.
She watched boys from the football team hop on the wagon. Girls came from color guard and other places.
“From freshman year until now, it was just never something I thought we would have — a big team that’s really strong, and we could go somewhere and be like, 'This is Mainland wrestling,’ ” Wigley said.
“I have many people coming to me like, ‘You know you put wrestling on the map (at Mainland).’ I like to say I was involved with it, but I’m a very humble person. I’m never going to be like, ‘I did that.’ It’s a heartfelt thing that I feel like I’m just a part of.”
She has helped recruit girls to the club. Part of her pitch:
“‘Come out for one practice. I guarantee you I’ll teach you how to whup butt. I can teach you how to whup a boy’s butt if you want,’” she said.
That she could.
As her high school career enters its final stages, Wigley is pushing toward 100 career wins. In addition to her 89-18 record against girls, she has six wins in 17 matches against boys.
Four of those victories happened earlier this season. At the DeLand Duals last month, she pinned opponents from Apopka and Olympia in less than a minute and 20 seconds.
Her style changes slightly when taking on boys. They feature different strength, speed and height.
“When I’m wrestling a girl, I’m like, ‘OK, I think I’m going to shoot on them,’ ” Wigley said. “When I’m with a boy, I kind of have to be strong up top while maintaining my balance. If that doesn’t work because of heavyweight boys, I have to figure out a way to reverse it right quick. I have to do a switch. I have to reverse it some type of way.”
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Wigley never harbored much hesitation toward squaring off with the boys, but Lawrence doesn’t pit her against anyone who weighs more than 260 pounds.
“Just too much,” he said.
Wigley will battle only girls the rest of her senior year. Her lone loss against them this winter came against a returning state placer.
Following the regional meet this weekend, the state bracket is set for Feb. 29-March 2 in Lakeland.
Wigley has been there before. She dealt with injuries the last two years, though. Right now, she’s fully healthy.
The goal: to win a state championship, then wrestle in college. Wigley is looking at a few schools.
“Every time I get on the mat, in a way, it’s like my sanctuary, my safe place,” she said. “I know a lot of people would be like, ‘Why do you say that? It’s a lot of blood, bruises, you could possibly get hurt.’ But honestly, it’s just so much fun.
“If I could do it all over again, I would.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: High school wrestling: Cheyenne Wigley among top FHSAA heavyweights
