Winner is Miss Gorilla

Mallory Winner’s mantle has no shortage of trophies and awards to display.

She recently received one of the highest honors an Indiana wrestler can get.

Indianamat.com released its 2025 award winners, with the Jay County High School senior being named as a Co-Miss Gorilla alongside Juliana Ocampo of New Haven and Heather Crull of Northeastern.

According to the website, “The IndianaMat Mr. and Miss Gorilla awards are given to seniors only. They are voted on by a group of coaches, past winners, media members, school admins, and others with deep ties to the wrestling community.”

Above the list of awards for the girls, an asterisk notes that the IndianaMat staff felt that there were multiple athletes that were deserving of Miss Gorilla award and therefore would include all three wrestlers.

“It means a lot because it’s the best seniors,” Winner said. “They take their best seniors from the girls and that’s who’s their gorillas. It just means a lot that they look at me as one of the best of the best in Indiana.”

Winner put together a third perfect season, going 41-0 and secured her fourth state title, the first one sanctioned by the IHSAA.

While only Winner’s senior season mattered for consideration for the award, she recognized that her success was not an isolated event, but rather the culmination of years of work.

“It’s not about what you do during the season, it’s about what you do during the offseason,” Winner said. “The offseason is what pushed me to the next level to get to where I was this year. I think that’s the key component of becoming a good wrestler is what you do in the offseason and I’ve just trained super, super hard to get to that next level.”

That dedication in the offseason is exemplified by the past month she has had.

While preparing for the softball season — the JCHS senior has been the Patriots’ starting pitcher the past three seasons — she has continued to work on her craft. She had done that by both watching as much wrestling as she can, whether it be the IHSAA boys wrestling tournament that happened in February or the NCAA championships that are currently going on, as well as representing Indiana in the 170-pound weight class for the Indiana vs. Illinois Classic Duals. Winner beat Alicia Tucker (40-2) of Plainfield (IL), who was the state champion in the 170-pound bracket across the border, by fall in 3 minutes, 31 seconds.

Jon Winner, Mallory’s father and an assistant coach for the JCHS girls wrestling team, accredited those two aspects to her success.

“She’s smart,” he said. “She’s smart academically, but she’s grown up around the wrestling scene all her life. It’s not something you kind of learn overnight, but it’s living it day-in-day-out. It takes several years to get that wrestling IQ. … It’s the difference between playing checkers and chess and she understands the complexity of the sport. … I’d say just her knowing the technicalities of the whole sport makes her pretty special.”

That wrestling IQ has led to Winner building a career record of 105-2, with both losses coming during her sophomore season following a broken leg.

Jon Winner cited a handful of one-point victories Mallory had throughout the season that she secured due to her knowledge of the sport and how it translated into keeping herself out of a position of vulnerability. A specific example was Mallory’s matches with Lydia Kwaleh of Perry Meridian, who was ranked 11th in the state. The two first wrestled in the regional, where she eked out a 1-0 victory after getting an escape with 56 seconds remaining. She learned from that contest and in a rematch for the state championship, she put Kwaleh on her back in 2:50.

The growth Winner showed in her fourth state championship match and later going 2-0 at the team state to complete her third perfect season was more than enough to earn her the title of Miss Gorilla 2025.

“She did deserve it,” Jon Winner said. “And super proud of her and super honored for the coaches, IndianaMat and all them to recognize her.”

“I just think it’s really, really cool that I’ve been able to put together such a successful career for not only myself, but also my community and my school,” Mallory Winner said. “I mean, we really made a name for Jay County in the girls wrestling portion and I just think it’s super cool that we did such an awesome accomplishment.”