Submitted photo McKenzie Hodak poses with one of her biggest women’s wrestling heroes, 2024 Olympic gold medalist Amit Elor.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Youngsville’s McKenzie Hodak put in another podium-worthy performance over the weekend at the USA Wrestling Central Regional Championship.

Hodak, competing for Bad Karma Wrestling Club, made the long trek down to Louisville in search of yet more competition. As it turns out, she wasn’t the only one who made the journey to Louisville.

The Senior World Team Trials Challenge Tournament ran concurrently with the Central Regional Championship. This meant that Hodak would be able to wrestle alongside some of the best senior level wrestlers the country has to offer.

Hodak began her tournament with a bye. After the bye, she would square off with Peyton Brinkman, a fellow seventh-grader who placed fourth at Kentucky’s Girls High School State Championships this year. Brinkman came in hot on the heels of knocking off Indiana girls state place winner Alyssa Livingston by decision 5-2.

Hodak opened the scoring with a takedown. Brinkman struck back, however, and scored three consecutive 2-point exposures to take the lead 6-2 as the action ended in the first period. Hodak made sure she wouldn’t go away quietly as she converted on a takedown and 2-point exposure to knot the score at 6-6. The score remained 6-6 at the final buzzer, but because Hodak scored the last points and all the other points were equal, she held the winning criteria and moved on.

In the finals, Hodak faced another state place winner, Kaori Karas of Decatur, Illinois. Karas held a 2-0 lead for the majority of the first period before notching an additional 2-point exposure to take a 4-0 lead into the second period. Karas opened the second period with another 2-point exposure to go up 6-0. Hodak turned up the intensity as she continued to look for opportunities to score, but was only able to score 2 points on pushouts as she fell by a score of 6-2.

Afterwards, Hodak was able to stick around and take in the finals of the World Team Trials. She was also able to meet several of her women’s wrestling heroes. The biggest among them being Amit Elor, who won a gold medal at 72kg for the US in the 2024 Olympic Games.

“There were some missed opportunities to score in my second match and I know what I need to work on in the offseason.” said Hodak, “I also look up to Amit a lot so getting to meet and talk to her really helped remind me to keep working.”