PLEASANT GROVE, Utah — Pleasant Grove has its first ever female state and national champion wrestler! Brooklyn Sariah Hays recently won the Fargo 164-pound Junior National Freestyle title, less than two years after starting wrestling. She beat out 128 other state champions and their runners-up to win the title. Her story is amazing!

Brooklyn grew up playing Jr. Jazz basketball until her junior year, when wrestling coaches saw her lifting weights and asked her to join wrestling. She accepted and instantly found success – she was a natural! She is super strong and began winning immediately by just overpowering her opponents with her strength. She explained to me that in one of her first year matches she picked up her opponent and held her on her shoulders and looked over at the coach and yelled, “What do I do?” Her opponent was at her mercy!

She won that match and has continued to win ever since. As a junior in high school she took 2nd at the Farmington Covid Crush with nearly zero experience, and eventually won the state title. She also won the state power lifting meet that year and set a power lifting state record for her weight class. She won state again as a senior, and then of course the national title. She was so new to wrestling that the Fargo officials only seeded her #15 in the tournament – and then she won the whole thing! She owes her strength improvement to Coach Borgerding, and her improved wrestling skills to Coach Emmer. Both coaches worked tirelessly to help turn her into an eventual national champion.

She has since been invited to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado to train with the US National Team. She had excitement and emotion in her eyes when she explained to me that she got to wrestle with Tamara Mensah-Stock, who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She also worked with Olympic coach and US national coach Terry Steiner, along with other US Team members and coaches. What an AMAZING experience for our home grown Pleasant Grove High School student athlete. Brooklyn wants to eventually compete in the Olympics for the United States. She is well on her way!

I absolutely LOVED this interview. Brooklyn is an amazing person with an extremely kind heart!! She has an amazing career ahead of her. Brooklyn is now at Augsburg University in Minnesota to continue her wrestling career. They have outlined a path for her to help her reach her Olympic goals.

Brooklyn, thank you so much for representing Pleasant Grove so well! You truly are an amazing asset to our community. Please visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/PleasantGroveUtah, which is the Pleasant Grove Utah People and Places Facebook page to watch her video to the community and to let Brooklyn know how much you appreciate her. Follow Brooklyn’s wrestling career by following her Instagram page, Buildstrong.Brooklyn

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