This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

A female wrestler has made history by winning a state high school wrestling championship in North Carolina.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association said on its website that Heaven Fitch became the first girl to win one of the association’s individual state wrestling championships. She won the 106lb (48 kg) weight class on Saturday.

espnW (@espnW) While competing against boys, Heaven Fitch became the first female wrestler to win an individual wrestling state championship in North Carolina.



That flex after her win! 💪



(via @NCHSAA) pic.twitter.com/xvHYsI09fQ

She had a 54-4 record for the season and won most outstanding wrestler in her division. “I’m just really overwhelmed ... It’s like insane what I’ve done, it’s not fully sunken in yet,” she told WRAL-TV.

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Fitch won an eight-person competition that included seven male wrestlers, said James Alverson, assistant commissioner for the high school association. Last year she became the first female wrestler to place, coming in fourth in her division.

Fitch became interested in wrestling after watching her older brothers competing, and fought against them when she was younger. She said at first she had to convince her parents to let her wrestle. “I nagged my parents, basically, because I wanted to do what [my brothers] did,” Fitch told the Independent Tribune in 2018. “They didn’t want me to wrestle. I’m pretty sure it was because they didn’t want me to get hurt. But I would just be like, ‘Well, if they can do it, then I should be able to do it.’”

On Saturday, her perseverance paid off. “I just wrestled my best, and I kind of dominated the match, if I’m being honest,” Fitch told WTVD.