Rahzalyn Mullin is Creston’s first Peewee girls state champ

In only her second year of wrestling, Creston second-grader Rahzalyn Mullin has made herself one to watch out for.

In the first weekend of March, Rahzalyn capped off a 26-1 season by pinning her way to a state championship at the Iowa AAU Super Peewee State Championship.

Though the timing works out that Rahzalyn has been a wrestler the same amount of time it’s been sanctioned for girls in Iowa, her mom Jennifer said it didn’t have anything to do with her decision.

“Her dad (Ronnie Mullin) was a wrestler growing up,” Jennifer explained. “She watched her two brothers try it. They didn’t like it, but she wanted to give it a shot.”

Rahzalyn has been demonstrating the future of girls wrestling in Creston as she continues to reach new heights. Last season she was Creston’s first ever female state youth competitor. Now she’s the first female champion.

In her first season, Rahzalyn primarily wrestled boys. As the sport has grown, so have Rahzalyn’s opportunities to face more opponents.

“It has grown tremendously,” Jennifer said. “It gives them more of a challenge when there are more kids out there for her to wrestle.”

Creston Express Wrestling coach Matt Buck said more girls have joined their program over the past few years. This season, three other Creston girls made it to the Iowa Super Peewee State Wrestling Championship — kindergartener Caroline Miller and second graders Maelee Reed and Natalie Miller. Reed placed eighth. The Peewee program is for kindergarten through second grade. The middle school program has more than 20 girls.

“This year we wrestled all girls,” Jennifer explained. “We went to one developmental duawl with boys, but isn’t on her record.”

While the added opponents certainly helps, Rahzalyn also put in a year’s worth of practice, working hard to become a better wrestler. Like many passionate Express wrestlers, Rahzalyn practices with other programs as well. She’s a member of the Moen Wrestling Academy and the Grand View Wrestling Academy both in Des Moines.

“We have to make our schedule around hers,” Jennifer said. “We wrestle all year round. She gets to practice four days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday for two hours at Moen. Then she practices at Grand View for an hour of private on Sunday and then an hour and a half of regular practice.”

The additional practice has helped Rahzalyn become confident in her techniques and abilities, but she’s always been a coachable wrestler.

“I could tell she’d be good last year. She just listens so well,” Buck said. “As it keeps increasing and growing, as kids keep coming into the room, she’ll keep helping our group and our kids within our territory grow. You tell her once, she’ll try it. Once you hone in, correct a few things, she’s off and running. I’ve always enjoyed and loved coaching Rahzy. She’s got a great disposition. She’s super nice, but goes after it on the mat. It’s been a good year for her.”

Though she’s a 50 lbs wrestler, she’s wrestled girls up to 10 lbs heavier than her, still finding wins consistently.

At the state tournament, she made it through the bracket almost completely untouched. Pinning all four of her opponents, it wasn’t until the championship bout that a wrestler was able to score points on her.

“She was definitely aggressive. She absolutely took control of the center of the mat, was very aggressive,” Buck said. “She went after it and stayed calm the whole time. She was never in danger from what I could see. She kept calm in all positions and ended up capitalizing on every opportunity.”

Jennifer said they knew she could earn a podium spot. “Never did I think she wasn’t capable of getting first, I just knew there were other girls grinding as hard as she was,” she said. “It was very intense. Rahz worked mostly on defense.”

When she was named the victor, Jennifer said they were all cheering, but it didn’t really click for Rahzalyn right away. “The other little girl was crying,” Jennifer said. “She went over and told her it’s OK.”

Capping her Peewee career with a state championship, Rahzalyn will be moving to the AAU tournament next year where she will wrestle older students.

“The biggest thing that Rahzy will want to do is try to keep a level head coming up,” Buck said. “She’ll wrestle fourth graders. You more or less take your lumps, especially at bigger tournaments. They’re that much more developed.”

Buck said Rahzalyn has the competitive nature to be disappointed in a loss, but the confidence to say she’ll get it done next time.

“She had a pretty dominant run through the last part of the year,” Buck said. “Kids are so resilient. Like everything, you’re going to find your ups and down. As of right now, she’s absolutely taking those losses in stride.”