Krickett Jones is a 16 year old junior at Karns High School, and she is the first girl at Karns to ever go to the state wrestling tournament. Jones has been wrestling for 3 years, but also has been doing multiple martial arts since she was 8 years old.

 “I plan on wrestling next year and it’s a sport that you really have to keep doing consistently to get better with no breaks,” she said.

      During the summer Jones does MMA, Jujitsu, and wrestling, she also states that she doesn’t plan on wrestling after high school because of the different styles.

“I will do MMA which does go with wrestling but wrestling by itself probably not,” she added.

      When asked how her season has been so far she says it’s actually going amazing. She emphasized that she worked really hard this summer and conditioned to ensure she doesn’t get behind on technique. During preseason early bird rankings, Jones was ranked 4th in the state, and so far, out of ten matches this season (including preseason), she’s 8-2 overall. Not including preseason, she’s 2-0 overall. Jones first official match was nearly two weeks ago in Greenville at the all girls tournament ‘Battle for The Cure,’ and she placed first receiving a gold medal and pink singlet.

               The previous year at this tournament, she dislocated her elbow, causing her to place first. 

 “Coming back to this tournament was hard, but I won all my matches and was named champion of Greenville 2022 Battle for the Cure,” she said.

             Jones says that her favorite thing about wrestling is the competition and the adrenaline rush.

 “The realization of how strong and how much perseverance you have is a major confidence builder but it’s also the downfall…” she explained.

         She says you learn to respect hitting rock bottom and working until you can feel anything anymore until you reach the top. Kricket is a talented young lady that has a bright future ahead of her, and nothing is going to get in her way.