National medalist

By Gene Morris, gmorris@miconews.com

Breanna Rains, a student at Cottonwood Elementary School, shows off a certificate and a third-place medal from the all-girls USA Wrestling Folkstyle National Championships in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Gene Morris)

Breanna Rains is used to success against the boys, but the Paola wrestler fared just as well against the girls, placing third in the all-girls USA Wrestling Folkstyle National Championships in Oklahoma City.

It was the first national folkstyle wrestling tournament for just girls.

Rains, a student at Cottonwood Elementary School, was 3-1 in the tournament held March 14 to 16.

She wrestled in the 55-to-58-pound weight class, competing in the first- to fifth-grade division.

“It was amazing,” a shy Rains said of the experience.

Rains is in her second year of wrestling with the Paola Kids Wrestling Club, where she faces mostly boys.

Wrestling the girls was more difficult, Rains said.

“It is harder to wrestle the girls than the guys,” she said. “Winning makes me the happiest.”

Rains got into wrestling after watching a girl competing with the Kansas Crusaders. The Crusaders are the only girls’ wrestling club in the state.

“She saw this girl wrestling for the Crusaders and that’s when she decided to wrestle,” said Shelly Douglas, her mother.

This is her first full season with the Paola Kids Wrestling Club. She won medals at seven tournaments, including a first-place finish at Louisburg and a pair of third-place performances at Burlington and Ottawa.

“She was more nervous wrestling the girls,” Douglas said. “She is so used to wrestling the boys. There are not that many girls in her bracket.”

She is in a wrestling family, going to a lot of events with her 10-year-old brother, Jaymes.

Rains is coached by her uncle, Nathan Carter.

Her father, Joe Douglas, wrestled in high school for Osawatomie and Turner.

Rains is a tough competitor whom the boys are not exactly eager to face.

“She makes the boys cry,” Shelly Douglas said.

The national tournament’s medals were presented by an Olympic gold-medalist wrestler for the United States. Douglas was not sure of the man’s name.

While on the road for the tournament, they went to see the Oklahoma City National Monument, dedicated to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing.

On the way back from Oklahoma City, the family traveled the historic Route 66.

“It is really nice, but it is very slow,” Shelly said. “We saw a pop bottle factory with the biggest pop bottle in front of the building. They had a wall full of old bottles. They have one of every bottle of pop ever made.”

Breanna Rains is the daughter of Joe and Shelly Douglas of Osawatomie. She is the granddaughter of Randy and Helen Maisch of Paola.