Fort Osage alum Haley Ward wins 72kg gold medal at Pan-American Championships in Chile

It was freezing cold in the unheated concrete gym where Haley Ward wrestled on July 7 in Santiago, Chile.

The Fort Osage High School alum noticed many spectators were bundled up as they watched her and other Team USA representatives compete in the 2023 U20 Pan-American Wrestling Championships. Wrestlers bounced around an undersized kerosene heater, trying to stay warm between matches.

The temperatures — chillier in the gym than the winter outside, Ward said — were the only challenge for the Iowa Hawkeyes pledge as she cruised through four matches to win gold in the U20 72-kilogram bracket.

Ward, 18, qualified for the international event by finishing second in the 72-kilogram bracket at the Women’s National Championships and World Team Trials in April in Spokane, Washington. She also won medals at the 2019 U15 Pan-Am in Panama and the U20 Pan-Am last year in Mexico.

“Last year, it was still different from the U.S., but (this year) it was better, it was nicer,” Ward said of her time in Chile. “The teammates were really good as a whole, like we got along really good, so it made it much easier.”

While some prefer to spread out their matches, Ward liked churning through all four of her matchups in one day.

Her youth wrestling tournaments in the Kansas City area were structured that way and prepared her well. She also prefers not having to try to sleep with nerves about the next day on her mind.

Ward said her first match was probably the toughest on her way to claiming gold.

“I think it was because first rounds and first matches are always more rough,” she said. “Like, you’re just getting into the groove of things. And then the nerves. And then the girl I was wrestling was really strong. I wasn’t ready for her to be as aggressive as she was, so I had to really pick it up after that.”

She picked it up, indeed, after defeating Karla Castillo Garcia (Venezuela) 5-0 via fall in the first round. She took down Nubia Lorenzana Ballesteros (Mexico) 8-1 in the second, Melanie Sanchez Morales (Chile) 4-0 via fall in the third and Paige Anne Maher (Canada) 8-4 via fall in the finals.

Two of her future Iowa teammates also won gold in Chile — rising sophomore Ella Schmit at 65 kilograms and fellow rising sophomore Kylie Welker at 76 kilograms.

As for what Ward learned in Chile that can assist her as she begins her college career, she had one main takeaway: she’ll stick to what she knows.

“I watch film the night before we wrestle, and I used to try to switch what I was doing for that wrestler, whoever I’m wrestling,” Ward said. “But I figured out that doing what you know how to do is gonna work better than trying to fix and try something new you’ve never tried before.”

The Pan-Am Championships marked the end of competition for Ward this summer, though she will still have a couple training opportunities at the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.

Currently, she’s in Fargo, North Dakota watching her brother, Isaac, wrestle in the 2023 U.S. Marine Corps and USA Wrestling 16U National Championships.

She reports to Iowa on Aug. 13 and is trying to spend as much time as possible with family and friends until then.

What’s she most excited about upon arriving in Iowa City?

“I really want to decorate my dorm room,” Ward said, “Because I got a lot of cool stuff.”

A newly acquired gold medal from Chile may be among those items.