Shaely Kunz had a terrific season for the Star Valley Braves during the winter season taking home a bronze medal for the Braves at the Wyoming State tournament and then had the honor to be invited to the All-American women’s championship tournament in Iowa. Growing up Shaely always watched her brothers every year during wrestling season and watched them go to Casper to compete on behalf of the Braves at state and she says it was an incredible opportunity to get a chance to compete in the same venue in front of so many fans for her school this year.

Originally Kunz says she was not planning on going to Iowa for the tournament until her Dad asked her one final time if she was sure if she did or didn’t want to go and she decided that she wanted to use the chance to get some additional mat time, and now she has ‘All-American’ to add to her resume. Kunz was the only female Braves wrestler to attend the invite though she was joined on the trip by 3 of the male wrestlers from Star Valley and once she got there she recorded the 3rd fastest pin in the entire tournament and went undefeated on route to winning 1st place in her weight class.

Shaely did all of this despite it being only her first season of wrestling, stating during the interview she was dismayed from joining the sport in previous seasons as she didn’t want to compete head to head against guys on the mat but once the female division came to be she jumped right into it and seems to have hit the ground running. Kunz will spend her summer competing in tournaments she says to keep herself sharp for next season and during the spring she is also a thrower on the Star Valley track and field team where they recently competed over in Utah as the spring season is starting to get going.

Hard work and dedication are Kunz’s secrets to athletic and All-American level success at least in her own words and Shaely hopes to return next year even better than before. After high school finishes up, Shaely says she does hope to be able to continue her wrestling career onto the next level and compete collegiately in the sport but hasn’t began those discussions with any college recruiters just yet.

You can catch the full interview below: