East's Kaelyn Ronnau bounced back from loss to earn All-American honors

Apr. 20—CHEYENNE — Kaelyn Ronnau wanted to wrestle at the National High School Coaches Association's national tournament after her freshman year at Cheyenne East.

Her father, Benjamin Ronnau, vetoed the trip to Virginia Beach and put a stipulation on future entries to the tournament.

"He told me I couldn't go there if I couldn't get better at getting off bottom," Kaelyn Ronnau said. "I wanted to go to nationals, so I focused on getting off bottom all offseason and the entire season. Joci (Davis) is really tough on top, and I knew if I could get off bottom against her during practice that I could get off bottom against most people.

"The girls in other states and the ones I'd see in Virginia were going to be hard on top, so I had to get better at getting off bottom."

That focus on clearing bottom paid off for Ronnau during the medal round of the NHSCA tournament April 7. She scored a takedown early in her fifth-place bout with Lauren Garcia of White Plains, New York. Garcia pulled ahead 5-2 when she scored a two-point reverse and coupled it with a three-point near-fall.

Ronnau started the second period on bottom. Midway through the frame, she cut Garcia's advantage to 5-4 with a reversal of her own. Ronnau turned Garcia to her back and scored the pin in 3 minutes, 8 seconds to finish fifth in the 152-pound bracket and earn All-American honors.

"I've had a lot of practice fighting off my back because I've been put in those positions in a lot of matches," Ronnau said. "It was a scary moment. I was trying to keep myself calm and focused on what I needed to do."

Ronnau placed fourth at Wyoming's inaugural girls state wrestling tournament during her freshman season at East. She was state runner-up in the 155-pound weight class this past winter. Ronnau has a 61-20 career record after going 41-9 during her sophomore campaign.

Ronnau's NHSCA debut started inauspiciously. She was pinned by Bianca Connell of Mauldin, South Carolina, in 4:20. Ronnau admits that nerves hampered her in that bout, but added that she also felt tired heading into the third period. East coach Riley Stringer said there was a good reason Ronnau was fading as the second period ended.

"She didn't have many matches that went to the third period this season," Stringer said. "That match going so long — combined with her nerves — probably got to her and got her pinned."

Ronnau's teammates gave her the space she needed to collect her thoughts and cool off from the loss.

"She wasn't being a jerk or anything, but you could see she was pretty upset and needed some time to herself," Stringer said. "She wasn't feeling sorry for herself. It was more of an 'I know I can do better than that' kind of upset.

"Watching her walk around the boardwalk, watching her at dinner and watching her at the hotel, you could see her mindset shifting. She figured out she could compete there and knew she still had things she could get done."

Ronnau has grown up wrestling and has been accustomed to turning to her father for counsel after tough losses. She hasn't been able to do that since December because Benjamin moved to Germany for his job. The rest of the Ronnau family will join him in Germany once the school year ends.

"I needed my own space to decompress a little bit, so I went off on my own and watched some of the other matches," Kaelyn said. "I watched some of my possible opponents and was thinking about what I needed to improve and what was going to help me.

"I figured out what I needed to do to get to the podium. I figured out what I needed to change within myself, and I also saw some things that could work against some of the other girls I watched wrestle."

Ronnau rebounded in a big way, winning her next five bouts by pin. Only one of those matches went longer than 59 seconds.

"You could tell she was having a lot of fun that second day when she won all those matches," Stringer said. "She looked really motivated to place and be an All-American. She opened up and tried some things she typically wouldn't.

"There was a really tough, back-and-forth match, and she was up a point or two with less than a minute left, and she threw the girl in a head-and-arm and pinned her. That's something, in my two years of working with her, that I had never seen her try. She was having fun, being relaxed and saying, 'Forget it, I'm going to do what I do and see what happens.'"

Ronnau had a shot at the third-place match, but was pinned by Ayana Fletcher of Columbus, Georgia, in 1:28 during the consolation semifinals. Ronnau closed the NHSCA tournament by pinning Garcia for fifth place.

Although she would have preferred to finish higher up the podium, Ronnau is happy about rebounding from her opening-round loss to finish 6-2 at the tournament. It's a satisfying end to her East career.

"This is a good way to leave things, especially with me only being a sophomore," she said. "I can go wrestle in Germany and show them what I can do. That's exciting."

Being able to compete in the Wyoming High School Activities Association's first two sanctioned girls wrestling seasons was especially gratifying for Ronnau. Her older sister, Alleynah, graduated from East months before the inaugural season started. Alleynah Ronnau was a four-year letterwinner for the Thunderbirds' boys team. She won a Southeast Regional championship against the boys during her junior season.

Alleynah also was an NHSCA All-American that year, taking eighth at 120 pounds as the lone Wyoming girl at the tournament. She would have been a state championship favorite if she had ever been able to wrestle against girls.

Kaelyn was happy to take the torch from Alleynah.

"I can carry myself with pride in what I accomplished because I know what Alleynah had to go through wrestling against boys and helping lead the way for girls," Kaelyn said. "This was a good way to carry on what she did."

In all, East took six girls to NHSCA nationals. Stringer also welcomed Cheyenne South junior Trinity Warner as part of the T-Birds contingent. Six of the seven Cheyenne girls won at least one bout. Warner (100 pounds) and East freshman Halley House (132) both nabbed two wins apiece.

Stringer said he was nervous about taking the Capital City crew to a national event because of how little experience Wyoming girls have compared to their peers around the country. The group made an impression by the time it left Virginia Beach, the coach said.

"We wrestled really hard, and there were some matches we 'shouldn't have won' that we did," Stringer said. "There's something about the Wyoming mentality and attitude of being an underdog, but not being denied and working for what you get. Our girls did a good job of facing some adversity and coming back to find ways to pull out wins.

"... They all wrestled really hard. It doesn't matter where the other girl was from, we were going to wrestle her hard and wrestle her tough."

Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on X at @jjohnke.