During wrestling season, it’s incredibly difficult for a grappler to do anything but maintain the utmost focus to be in tip-top mental and physical shape.

While Wright City senior Sadie Sehnert is laser-focused on achieving her goals, she admits she harbors something of a secret.

“I have a secret stash of hidden snacks in the guest bedroom dresser,” Sehnert said. “It currently contains brownies, cookies, chips, chocolate, and more.”

While Sehnert has her vices, she’s become the vice that locks down on just about everyone she faces on the mat in the 145-pound weight class.

This season, she owns a 29-2 record to push her career mark to 139-47, according to trackwrestling.com.

Most recently, she won the St. Charles Tournament as the top seed at 145. She won all four of her championship round matches by fall in a combined 5 minutes and 49 seconds. In the final, she pinned Troy’s Sierra Bromwich in 53 seconds.

Sehnert credits those around her for helping her achieve such success.

“Being a part of such a fast-growing sport has been an extremely fulfilling part of my high school career,” Sehnert said. “The girls' wrestling team is such a close-knit group, and even though wrestling is an individual sport, you never feel alone. We support each other more than in any other sport, and it’s so fun to watch everyone improve as the year progresses.”

Sehnert, a three-sport student-athlete who plays softball in the fall and throws for the track team in the spring, has earned the utmost praise from Wildcats coach Fred Ross.

Sure, Ross could speak to the 100 career hits she has on the softball diamond, or the now more than 100 career wrestling wins, but Ross said that who Sehnert is runs much deeper than simple numbers or accomplishments.

“Sadie has been a lead-by-example athlete through hard work in all three of her varsity sports,” Ross said. “She is the first athlete that I have coached in 30 years who has been a four-year varsity athlete in three different varsity sports that has earned All-Region, All-District or All-State in every one of her sports. She has also earned Academic All-State honors in 11 seasons and counting.”  

The coach added that Sehnert can flip a switch when she hits the field of sport.

“It takes a lot of natural ability, hard work, and dedication to achieve her kind of success,” Ross said. “Sadie shows up to activities (with) a mild mannered (nature), but when it comes time to compete, she ramps it up to a high level each and every day.”

With all the athletic success Sehnert has achieved, it would hardly be surprising to learn, as Ross said, that she is just as determined a student.

She currently carries a 4.4 grade-point average and is dually enrolled in courses at Wright City and St. Charles Community College.

She will simultaneously receive her high school diploma and her associate’s degree.

Sehnert said she has a plan for life after high school and would like to continue her current athletic endeavor.

“After high school, I plan to study kinesiology and sports nutrition,” Sehnert said. “I would like to wrestle in college, provided that the school I attend has a women’s wrestling program.”

While an eye is on her future, Sehnert said she still has her sights squarely on the remainder of winter.

After all, she has a fifth-place finish from her junior year that she would like to either equal or improve upon. As long as she’s on the podium at the end of the meet, she’d be happy, she said.

“My goals for both the team and me this year are to see significant improvement across the board,” Sehnert said. “I also hope to make it to the State Championships once again and hopefully place.”