State Champs: Lake Stevens Girls Wrestling Flying with the Valkyries
Kylee Wicklund claims 2nd straight title (145); Jillian Hradec champ at 155. Halle Boyland (seventh in 115), Madison Vincent (eighth in 115), Lily Ganal (sixth in 135), Afebia Aemere (sixth in 170).
“I got stabbed in my right eye with her thumb….That kind of set me off and I was like, ‘Okay, I got to win this.’ I took my shot…and I went and pinned her.”
- Kylee Wicklund, 4A State Champion at 145.
TACOMA — Going into the Mat Classic, the goal was top three.
At least if you’re buying what Lake Stevens Girls Wrestling coach Krys DuPree was selling the week before the 4A state championships in Tacoma.
“The goal is still the same: to be a top three team,” DuPree said on Feb. 6.
“Obviously you want to be number one. But in a perfect world, you get a perfect seeding and see how the brackets align. I would love to have the same result as last year, or better really.”
But if Coach DuPree was happy with simply matching the heights the Viks attained last year?
His girls showed they were meant to reach rarer air:
The Lake Stevens Vikings Girls Wrestlers are the 2026 4A State Champions!!!
Building on a third place finish in 2025 and led by returning state champion Kylee Wicklund and transfer Jillian Hradec, the Viks shot past favored Sumner and runner up Union to nab the school’s initial girls wrestling title.
Lake Stevens captured the Girls 4A State Championship with 166 points — besting Union by just 5.5 points (160.5).
The aforementioned junior Kylee Wicklund claimed her second straight state championship, moving up from 140 to claim the title at 145.
And after a hectic senior campaign complicated by multiple moves and a period of forced ineligibility, senior Jillian Hradec, claimed the 155 individual title — helping the Vikings to the team championship.
Wicklund had to beat two familiar Wesco opponents in the final two matches, dispatching Jackson’s — before getting past Glacier Peak’s Marissa Denke in the finale.
“I knew I had to hammer down and go for it,” Wicklund told the Daily Herald.
“And (Denke) came and she gave me a good fight. She knows how I wrestle. We've wrestled many times before. She came out, gave me a great fight. I got stabbed in my right eye with her thumb….That kind of set me off and I was like, 'Okay, I got to win this.' I took my shot…and I went and pinned her.”
Multiple placers piled in behind the two champs filling out the state winning team effort: Halle Boyland (seventh in 115), Madison Vincent (eighth in 115), Lily Ganal (sixth in 135), Afebia Aemere (sixth in 170) and many other girls who picked up points on Day 1 contributed to a team win.
And while the Viks lose Hradec, all of the other state placers (including the two-time champ Wicklund) return next season, under a 26-year old — now State Champion coach — who will gladly settle for reaching the same heights again next year.