Winter West: Fargo National Champion, Three Weight Classes Later

The Insider
1 day ago
4 min read

Fargo isn't just another summer tournament. Held every July in Fargo, North Dakota, USA Wrestling's Junior and 16U Nationals draw thousands of the top high school-age wrestlers in the country, and for many in the sport, it's considered the biggest, most prestigious event of the year, a rite of passage that's been part of the wrestling calendar for generations. Winning a title there isn't a nice summer result. It's a career-defining one.

A year ago, Winter West left Fargo with a fourth-place finish at 110 pounds. This July, she went back to the same tournament, three weight classes up at 125 pounds, and came home a national champion.

West went 7-0 through the bracket, picking up two pins and five technical falls along the way, and surrendered just four points across the entire tournament. In the final, she scored a technical fall over Presley Beard of Kansas, winning 11-0 in 3:42.

A Season Built for This

West's Fargo title didn't come out of nowhere. It capped a year of national-level competition that took her across the country and up in weight, one tournament at a time.

“It’s been an eventful past year for me after last year’s Fargo,” West said. “In October 2025, I went to Defense Soap Super 32 Challenge in North Carolina, which had an even tougher bracket than Fargo, in my opinion, as it has tough qualification requirements and is all high school age groups combined. I wrestled at 118 pounds and came away with 5th place. This was my first tournament at a heavier weight, and I was very pleased with my performance.”

From there, the season kept building. In March, after Bonney Lake's folkstyle season wrapped up, West traveled to the U17 Pan-Am trials in Iowa chasing a spot on Team USA. She placed second at 125 pounds, matching her result from the year before, but this time at the U17 level instead of U15. Weeks later, at the NHSCA folkstyle national championships in Virginia Beach, she wrestled at 120 pounds and placed second, an improvement on her third-place finish there the year before. Then came the US Open High School Girls Showcase in Las Vegas, where all grade levels compete in the same bracket. West took seventh. The year before, she'd missed the podium entirely.

“All this national competition really prepared me for this year’s Fargo, and I felt much more confident heading into the competition at 125 pounds, up three weight classes from the previous year,” West said. “I’ve been putting in a lot of work in the weight room, including waking up at 5am to lift and/or run before school. I’ve also been getting in lots of mat time, going to 6-7 practices a week.”

A Two-Time State Champion

West's climb up the national circuit has run alongside a dominant run at home. She won the WIAA 4A state title at 110 pounds in 2025, then moved up to 120 pounds this past February and repeated as state champion, closing out her season undefeated at 49-0.

Inside the Final

West said the nerves were there heading into the Fargo final, but so was the preparation to match them.

“During the finals, I had some nerves leading up to the match, as to be expected. However, I had confidence in my preparation leading up to this tournament,” West said. “My coaches, from Mat Demon Wrestling Club, and I put together a game plan and I came out looking to score and be aggressive on offense for the first period. I felt confident as I was able to set up my shots and get to her legs to score, while also not allowing her to get to my legs.”

Up 7-0 at the break, her coaches called for a change in approach.

“During the break, my coaches told me to not shoot anymore because I was up 7-0 and to focus on scoring from defense,” West said. “So, the second half I waited for her to shoot and I would counter it with a go behind or a reshot. I felt in control during this period, and I felt more patient letting the match progress without putting myself in bad positions. I’ve matured a lot as a wrestler through learning how to manage the match better than I used to.”

What's Next

West said winning a Fargo title had been a goal since she started wrestling, and the reaction back home made it even sweeter.

“It was an amazing feeling accomplishing such a big goal that I’ve had since I started wrestling by becoming a Fargo Champion,” West said. “I love how much the wrestling fans in Washington have supported me and celebrated the victory with me. It still feels surreal, but I am so happy and proud of how all my teammates wrestled so hard and represented Washington so well. Nobody gets to this point alone, and I have some of the best training partners I could hope for.”

West isn't slowing down. She's set her sights on the Defense Soap Super 32 Challenge this fall, looking to improve on last year's fifth-place finish, and on a bigger goal beyond that.

“I’m specifically chasing the goal of becoming a USA World Team Member by winning either the U17 or U20 Women’s Nationals Tournament,” West said. “Right now, that’s probably the biggest goal for me and one of the toughest to achieve.”