Mariah Mills reaches top, wants to accomplish more
BY BRANT PARSONS — Growing up, Matanzas’ Mariah Mills thought wrestling was a “boys sport.”
Her brothers all wrestled but Mills spent her time in sports like gymnastics, running, and dance.
Then in seventh grade, Mills saw something she didn’t expect.
“I was at one of my brother’s tournaments and I saw girls wrestling there too,” Mills said.
At first, Mills still wondered if she could compete in wrestling, but her brother’s coach invited her to come check the sport out and see if she’d like it.
“I thought he was joking,” Mills admitted. “I thought there’s no way but maybe I’d try it out.”
She was hooked immediately and when girls wrestling was going to be officially sanctioned the next season, Mills skipped eighth grade to compete in the first season.
In the first two years of sanctioned girls wrestling, Mills finished third in the state, but this year, she climbed to the top of the mountain, winning her first FHSAA state title in March.
“It’s so awesome to get to tell people that I’m a state champ,” Mills said. “It’s great to wake up knowing that I finally got what I want, I finally won this title.”
Along with winning her own title, Mills was part of history as her brother Jordan won his first state title that same night, the first brother-sister duo to accomplish the feat in Florida history.
“The only thing better than winning a state title was getting to do it with my brother,” Mills said. “Because I really wanted it for him and it was his senior year and he’s been trying to get it for so long.”
While finishing third the first two seasons, Mills said the reason was not her technique, but that her opponents were stronger than her, so she worked to change that.
Part of her focus on strength was doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 50 pull-ups every day in addition to her training.
When she needed an extra push, her coaches would remind her of what she was fighting for.
“They’d say ‘Do you want to get third again?’ over and over,” Mills said.
Now she’ll focus on getting a second state title before she graduates and the prep for that includes traveling across the country to compete in national tournaments.
She’s already shown success there, winning a national title at the NHSCA Nationals in Virginia Beach (and being named Kabra Wrestling’s Reader’s Choice Wrestler of the Week for the performance), and has plans to travel to Washington and Fargo included on her schedule.
“I’m trying to change my mindset to a new goal, which is being an All-American and placing in the top spots in the nation,” Mills said. “I feel like that will help me keep the same goal of winning to state titles while also having the new goal of winning national tournaments.”
