Falcon Pride Top Ten #2: Girls Wrestling Finishes Dominant Season as District Runner-Up; Koch Takes Second at State

As the unofficial start to the 2026 fall sports season quickly approaches, AustintownAthletics.com will close the month of June by taking a look back at the top ten sports moments from the 2025-2026 school year. The list will feature the most memorable and notable individual and team performances, achievements, and milestones as selected by members of the Austintown Fitch Athletic Department.

The Falcon Pride Top Ten Countdown will begin on June 20 with #10 and continue through the end of the month with the #1 sports moment of the year. As always, thank you to all of Falcon Country for your continued support of our student-athletes both on the field and, most importantly, in the classroom. Keep celebrating your Falcon Pride!

The Fitch girls wrestling team was absolutely dominant throughout the 2025-26 season which was made even more historic as the team hosted its first ever dual meet on the home mats at Greenwood Chevrolet Falcon Court on January 9. The home team welcomed East Liverpool, Hubbard, Rootstown, United and West Branch to Falcon Country with each team competing against each other. Fitch went 5-0 on the evening, winning each match in convincing fashion in the inaugural event.

The team, which was named Academic All-Ohio as a whole by the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association and led all schools in Division 1 with five wrestlers receiving EOWL All-League honors (Mary Averell, Yelieishka Peréz Navedo, Mya Quarles, Madison Galchick, Reghan Koch), was close to unbeatable in tournament action as the girls won team titles in seven different tournaments and also finished as runners-up twice. Their seventh win happened to be the OHSAA Sectional Championship held at Fitch.

At sectionals, the team had eight wrestlers qualify for the District Tournament in which the Falcons finished as the District Runner-Up in a field of 99 teams. Sophomore Reghan Koch was crowned District Champion for the second year in a row, qualifying for the State Championships along with seniors Yelieishka Peréz-Navedo and Mya Quarles. Fellow senior Mary Averell and junior Maddie Galchick each made the trip to state as alternates.

Koch would go on to a runner-up finish in her weight class while Quarles made the podium by placing eighth in her weight class. A podium finish at state was fitting for Quarles as she was the last of the "Original Five" to wrestle in a competition as a Falcon.

Quarles and fellow senior Kirsten Richard each wrestled for the Fitch girls program in its very first season when the team was made up of just five wrestlers, earning them the moniker of the "Original Five." They are also the first members in the history of the team to have competed in all four years of their high school careers which makes them the only two Fitch girls wrestlers to hold that honor. The duo helped lay the groundwork for the program and each will be wrestling in the college ranks next year, Richard at Baldwin-Wallace and Quarles at Upper Iowa University. The success the program has experienced in four short years is thanks in large part to the hard work and leadership exhibited by Quarles and Richard from the very start. They've already left their mark on the program and their collective legacy will likely to continue for many years to come as the Fitch girls wrestling team has grown exponentially just four years removed from its debut season.