Her story, history
- Updated: February 15, 2025
Weaver reaps reward of embracing girls’ wrestling from the outset, dominates way to becoming AHSAA’s first 1A-5A state champion.
Editor’s note: Complete state wrestling results can be found on this link.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
HUNTSVILLE — Lena Johannson knew girls’ wrestling had a friend in Weaver High School long before the Bearcats made history Saturday.
She knew, even as she wrestled against boys. She knew, because of the support she felt from Weaver’s coaches, Andy Fulmer and Justin Brown.
“They had to stick up for me,” she said. “They had to make sure I got weighed in properly and I wasn’t in bad situations.
“They had to do a lot more to make sure that I was looked after as a girl, wrestling with the guys. This is their reward for what they did for me.”
Reward came in the form of the first-ever Alabama Class 1A-5A state championship for girls, in the first year for the Alabama High School Athletic Association to sanction a state championship for girls’ wrestling.
Weaver, which jumped into girls’ wrestling with both feet five years ago, dominated the 1A-5A field at this week’s state tournament in Huntsville’s Von Braun Center, boasted 10 individual state champions, including Johannson, the 1A-5A most valuable wrestler. All 10 Weaver wrestlers medaled.
The Bearcats amassed 203.5 points. State runner-up Alexandria had 77.
Weaver’s girls weren’t the only area coverage-area success story. Weaver’s boys finished second after three consecutive `1A-4A state titles, rolling up 153.5 points. Champion Tallassee, which reclassified down from 5A before this school year, won with 206.
Led by second-place finishes from Jeremy Lambert (106) Ryker Houston (113), Alexandria was among four teams to score more than 100 points, finishing fourth with 106.5.
Weaver’s Haiden Hise (132 pounds) and Brandon Jolliff (285) came away with individual state titles, as did Cleburne County’s Austen Mayfield (157). Weaver’s boys have won three state titles with two runner-up finishes in the past five years.
But history belonged to Weaver’s girls, with Ali Anderson (107), Jaylee Carter (114), Ashlyn Coleman (126), Mariah Johannson (132), Lena Johannson (145), Heaven Bishop (165) and Baleigh Brown (185) winning their weight classes. Kallie Mayfiield (138) and Nyla Johannson (100) finished second, with the youngest of the three Johannsons competing in Huntsville this weekend falling to Cleburne County’s Avalena Williamson.
Weaver did it a year after finishing fifth in the state, behind four Class 7A schools. The AHSAA added a 1A–5A and 6A-7A classes this year, and Weaver stood ready to take the 1A-5A title.
Lena Johannson planted the seed when she got involved in wrestling, competing against boys.
Her coaches were girl dads. Fulmer’s daughter Kinlee, who graduated in 2024, joined the girls’ team when it started. Brown’s daughter Baleigh just became a state champion, and step daughter Ariel Sargent medaled with a fourth-place finish in the 120-pound class.
Weaver girls’ wrestling built what became the first two Calhoun County champions for girls’ wrestling, in 2024 and this year. Fulmer, the long-time boys’ coach who coached both teams for four years, turned the girls’ program over to Brown this year, after the Calhoun County Board of Education approved a stipend for the girls’ position.
“We’ve had a girls’ program for a while,” said Justin Brown, whose son Dylan finished second in the 165-pound class Saturday. “This is the moment we’ve worked for.
“I told our girls from the get go, if we get enough girls, and we get them to buy in, that this moment would happen. Now that it’s here, it’s something special to win the very first ever 1A-5A state girls’ championship.”
Fulmer called the occasion “humbling.”
“It’s humbling to know that what we were able to embrace four or five years ago, this is where we’re at now,” said Fulmer, whose son Cael placed third in the 126-pound class this weekend. “It’s exciting to experience this for our girls.”
Weaver’s girls experienced history with a range of emotions. Anderson, whose brothers wrestled for Weaver, wrestled started in seventh grade and was part of the first Weaver girls’ team.
“It means a lot for it to finally be here, and to finally have it happen, and for it to be sanctioned, and for everybody to actually be in one place,” she said.
Baleigh Brown started going to state wrestling tournaments with her dad when she was 3.
“I never thought this would actually happen,” she said. “Me and Coach Fulmer’s daughter, when we were little, we wanted to wrestle so bad.
“Our dads always said, ‘When girls’ wrestling comes to Alabama, we’ll let you wrestle, but we won’t want you wrestling boys. Me and Kinlee were like, ‘That’s never going to happen.'”
It happened, and each wrestler gets something different out of it.
Bishop, and eighth-grader who started attending Weaver in sixth grade, wept as the match official raised her arm after she won her state title Saturday. A leg injury just ahead of last year’s state tournament kept her from competing.
Winning a state title Saturday brought a release of emotions.
“I felt like, whenever I got to school, that I could wrestle as a girl,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to, like, let my frustrations out and strive to win. It’s a great thing that we have it.”
Lena Johannson, whose brother Joshua wrestled for Weaver and whose sisters Mariah and Nya wrestle, made most of her chance. She plans to play soccer in college, but wrestling afforded her the chance to join Weaver’s Michael Sutton, and Jeremiah Wells and and Alexandria’s Jaden New as the only wrestlers from Calhoun County to win at least five state titles.
Sutton won six.
Lena Johannson wrestled at the earliest girls’ state tournaments, before AHSAA sanctioning. She also wrestled against boys until her sophomore year.
“When 10th grade hit, I was like, ‘Well, I can be somewhat average for a guy because there’s such as a strength gap, or I can be really good for a girl,'” she said. “I picked really good for a girl, because I was getting injured because, yes, I’m strong for a 138 girl but not for a 138 guy.
“I was like, ‘I’ll take my chances not getting injured.'”
Carter said the chance to wrestle in a sanctioned state tournament “makes me real happy.”
“Girls can do a lot, just exactly like boys,” she said. “We can do what boys can do.”
Fulmer said wrestling benefits girls as much as boys.
“Wrestling just helps you as a human being,” he said. “You get accountability, all of those types of things you need as an adult. It helped both of my kids. Kinlee was able to finish softball the last two years because she wrestled. Core strength is really big.
“The challenge is so much tougher, when you embrace a sport like this. It’s just so rigorous on the body and mentally. You learn to fight through adversity, to fight through a lot of things.”
Weaver’s girls’ state championship makes it 14 state wrestling titles overall for a school that became known for wrestling when Gene Taylor coached the Bearcats. His former wrestlers include Fulmer and Alexandria coach Frank Hartzog.
Alexandria’s girls gave Calhoun County a 1-2 punch as the top two finishers in the first-ever 1A-5A state tournament. The Valley Cubs’ haul in the girls’ championships this weekend included five placers. Emerald Hunter (165) led the way with a second-place finish.
The first school in Calhoun County to embrace girls’ wrestling, however, made history as the first 1A-5A state champion.
“Weaver has a really rich wrestling history,” Lena Johannson said. “It feels very right that we’re the first one.”
More updates are coming, including videos and an extensive photo gallery. Check back soon for additional content.
Videos by Joe Medley
Photo gallery by Joe Medley, Brad Campbell
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