ALBANY – On Thursday, the inaugural NYSPHSAA Girls Wrestling Championships was held at MVP Arena in Albany. The Championships featured girls wrestlers from all over New York State, including Section IV’s and local area athletes Lily Karn and Bella Phelps. Both wrestlers took home sixth place in their respective weight classes.

Bella Phelps:

Bella Phelps, from the unified Bainbridge-Guilford/Harpursville/Sidney/Unatego team but a Sidney student-athlete, earned the third seed in the 114 weight class and started off strong with a 1:15 pin over Minisink Valley’s Sophie Franco-Coelho before falling to sixth seeded Gabrielle Severin of Bethpage in a 4:58 pin.

Phelps won her next two matchups by tech fall and by a 10-6 decision to put her within placement.

She fell in her following match by pin, where she fought for fifth place. Phelps lost by injury forfeit to finish sixth.

Phelps is a freshman at Sidney High School, but has been wrestling on the varsity team for three years. This season, she won three tournaments, became a two-time sectional champion, placed at states in her first appearance with three more years left to go in her high school wrestling career.