Female wrestlers join state qualifiers

Published 11:13 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Evie Wilson, a sophomore from Knappa High School took 4th place in her weight class, 130 pounds, at the Special District 1, 1-4A meet at Molalla High School. She qualified to go to the state meet. (Photo by Kathleen Morgan)

A week after the boys booked their tickets to state, wrestlers from Knappa and Warrenton followed suit.

Sophomore Evelyn Wilson of Knappa and Warrenton freshman Sarah Gildner both punched their tickets to Portland with fourth place finishes this past weekend. The fourth place finishes were enough to get both local girls into the state meet.

For Wilson, this also marked her 50th high school career victory in just two seasons on the mat. Wilson won her fourth place match over Olivia Christie of Scio to cap off the busy day. In order to qualify, Wilson had to endure eight tough matches before winning the ninth by a no contest ruling.

Gildner had to survive seven matches in her bid for state. Gildner went 5-2 on the weekend, only losing to Kaylin Boser of St. Helens in the quarterfinals and Aubrey Mortimore of Yamhill-Carlton in the 3rd place match. She would get revenge on Boser in the fourth place match as she won 5-4 due to a fall.

The best place finisher for Astoria was Yeleni Gres in the 110-pound weight class. Gres finished 6th place after going 3-3 in her six matches.

Warrenton girls did the best overall in the girls 4A/3A/2A/1A Special District 1 tournament with a 23rd place finish out of 30 teams with a score of 23.0 points. Knappa girls came home 25th with a total of 22.0 points and Astoria were 27th with 20 points. Cowapa league teams dominated the meet as they finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd. St. Helens took the victory with 225.0 points, Scappoose was second with 152.0 points and Tillamook finished third with 133.5.

Wilson and Gildner will join boys from Warrenton, Astoria, Seaside and Knappa at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland this weekend for the state wrestling tournament.