SHE DID IT!!! 😭😭😭 Audrey takes out returning state champ to win TN state title! pic.twitter.com/vwpDOaiyC8
— Derek Levendusky (@dereklevendusky) February 26, 2023
Avon's Audrey Levendusky moved to Tennessee in 2021 with her family, a state that has sanctioned girls' high school wrestling, and won a state title Saturday night in Franklin, Tennessee. The Montgomery Central freshman took out senior returning state champion Verena Pate of St. Andrew's Sewanee 7-0 in the finals.
Levendusky had been 1-2 previously against Pate, beating her earlier in the season, but falling 6-0 in to her early January. She flipped the script at the TSSAA State Championships, controlling the match with a first period double leg takedown, earning near fall on a 3/4 nelson in the second period, and getting a last second reversal in the third.
When the match ended, she got on her knees and raised her hands to heaven in gratitude, tears of joy in her eyes. When she got back to her corner, she lat-dropped her father-coach Derek Levendusky.
Audrey had pinned her way through the postseason up to that final match, going 3-0 with three falls at Section 4 Regionals, and 3-0 with three falls through the semis of States.
Pate was the 2022 Tennessee state champion. Audrey's teammate Genesis Gilmore also won a state title, their high school's second and third girls' state titles ever.