All-County Wrestling: Prado, Glymph named Co-Girls Wrestlers of the Year

The Cobb County Wrestling Association named Lassiter’s May Prado and Marietta’s Lisa Glymph as the Co-Girls Wrestlers of the Year for 2021-2022 season.

Both won state championships at the Girls Wrestling Championships in Macon in February. Glymph will continue her wrestling career at Life University this fall. Prado has two more years of high school eligibility to assert her dominance in the sport.

Although both sit atop the sport’s high school zenith, the pair’s routes to victory diverge. Glymph placed fifth her freshman year, and then third in subsequent tournaments before winning as a senior. Winning the title in her last season at Marietta remained paramount, she said.

“I tried to focus more on my wrestling and my plan of what I was going to do,” said Glymph. “I also tried to recover a lot and stretch and sleep well. I did all the things I needed to do outside for a good chance to win”

Prado, more of an undergraduate prospect, placed fourth in the state tournament in 2021, her only previous attempt before her title run this year.

Prado’s sophomore success leaned on a consistent training regimen and work ethic, which involved extensive hours in the gym. She said she aimed to rectify last year’s disappointing state tournament performance with this year’s opportunity.

“She practices, you know, five, six days a week, sometimes two practices a day,” said Lassiter coach Matt Brickley. “Some people put in just the time that’s necessary to compete, whereas May puts in the additional time to excel.”

The champions attributed gaining additional training hours to not only edging the competition, but also in furthering their skills foundation built in previous seasons.

Both wrestlers competed against male and female opponents during the season. As such, both placed at the regional tournament. Prado and Glymph credit competing against boys with sharpening technique and prompting their styles to adapt to alternative competition environments.

Glymph said that wrestling boys presents an obstacle, but is a chance for improvement.

“Girls have really good flexibility and guys have really good strength,” Glymph said. “So when you’re wrestling a guy, you have to make sure that all your technique is pretty good because he’ll probably be stronger than you.”

To help supplement this deficiency, Glymph relied on skills derived from several other combat sports she participates in. Also proficient in judo, jiu jitsu and kickboxing, Glymph said her experience in those sports gave her the confidence to compete with any wrestler this season.

Marietta coach Tommy Carthers said he believes Glymph’s extracurriculars specifically aided her in developing efficient take-down maneuvers.

“The only thing that I’ve ever seen her really lose was just when her opponent was just flat-out physically stronger than her,” Carters said. “And you know, that happened a few times, but she made more than her share of boys cry.”

Prado said wrestling boys helped develop a tougher mentality. She said competing against boys in tournaments opened the path to ultimately reach her end-of-season goal of winning a state championship.

Despite failing to accomplish her freshman year dream of being a four-time state champion, Prado said she’ll use her title as fuel for her future competitions rather than a resting point.

“It’s hard with social media and rankings that are public to not read into that stuff,” Brickley said on avoiding complacency. “So you just kind of put some blinders on to polls and national rankings and state rankings, and just focus on the next achievement that you can get.”

Still with two more years of eligibility, her future high school commitments are ambivalent.

Instead of competing next winter, Prado is considering focusing solely on freestyle wrestling, the style used at the collegiate level. High school competitions use folk wrestling, conducted under a different set of rules.

“I’m not quite sure yet if I’m going to do high school next year,” Prado said. “My ultimate goal is to wrestle in college and make the Olympic team, and that is all freestyle-based.”

Glymph, already on her way to a collegiate program that placed fourth at this year’s NAIA Women’s Wrestling Championship, thinks her high school finale certifies her chances to compete in college.

Even within a different program, the newly minted state champion pledged to carry her enduring high school work ethic.

“I really saw that my mindset grew a lot this year,” Glymph said. “I was able to overcome things more quickly than I was able to last year, but I know I have to keep putting in the same amount of work.”