Cody Thorn
With high school wrestling in the background now, wrestlers are preparing for the 2024-25 season in Texas.
While there are many state qualifiers putting in the work to get back to state, there will also be a group of freshmen trying to make their mark.
One to keep an eye on will be El Paso’s Hailey Delgado, who will attend Eastwood High School next year.
The current eighth grader is not only one of the best youth wrestlers in the state, she’s one of the best in the country.
In November, she took first place at the U15 Pan American Wrestling Champions in Panama, winning the 42 KG division’s gold medal.
“It was really cool because it was a different culture,” Delgado said. “I got to see how different styles from different countries wrestled. It was a lot of fun.”
Her 16-wrestler bracket featured wrestlers from 12 different countries.
She has wrestled both freestyle and folk style and wrestling keeps her busy throughout the year — but she also plays soccer for the middle school team.
Delgado trains at Next Level Wrestling Academy in El Paso, where her father Anthony is a coach.
Since the calendar changed over to 2024, she’s has busy traveling to tournaments throughout the state. Most of the time, she would wrestle both the boys and girls brackets.
“Her being an eighth grader now and wrestling other eighth graders, obviously there’s already a little more mature as you know,” her dad said. “That’ll be good challenges but this is probably the last year she competes in the boys divisions. My wife and I have already had those conversations. We got to start focusing on the girls.”
At the Texas Nationals, she won the girls 98-pound bracket and finished second in the boys 92-pound bracket….
