Jayci Shelton proved she has a good head on her shoulders on Thursday.

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Shelton became the Centralia girls wrestling program’s first ever state champion, finishing off an undefeated 42-0 season with an 11-1 major decision over Cameron’s Justice Brewer in the Class 1 155-pound title match. 

“It’s super exciting to put my name out there and showcase who I am and what people are going to have to do to be able to beat me,” Shelton said. “It’s great having that record and being the first state champion whether there’s one more or twenty more. I’m always going to be the first one.”

The freshman has competed in various tournaments across the country and won championships in standout state tournaments such as the Battle at the Katy Trail and the Wonder Woman but hadn’t experienced a state wrestling meet before. 

The state meet has ceremonial march-outs of wrestlers on the first day with all the state qualifiers and then again on the second day with all of the state finalists. Shelton admitted she started feeling some nerves during the finals march before she took on an opponent she defeated at the Katy Trail tournament but was facing the returning state champion on a different stage.

“I knew I had beat her before so she was beatable, and I knew I could do it again,” Shelton said. “(The first time), I didn’t really know what she did so I went for my stuff a little bit more. I threw her too, but in the state finals, I was trying to stay away from those throws because anything can end a match. You can’t go back when that match is over. I was wrestling smarter than I did in the match before.”

Shelton said Brewer, obviously, was going out there to win so her effort was stronger than the pair’s previous meeting.

“She went out there to rip my head off,” Shelton said. 

Head coach Tyler Forsee said it is fortunate that Shelton uses her head well when performing on the mat, making coaching her easier. Prior to Thursday’s full-length state finals match, Forsee said Shelton had only gone the full six minutes in a match one previous time in what was a “dominant” freshman season for her. Still, it didn’t take much of those six minutes for Forsee to know the outcome.

“When the whistle blew, Jayci went straight for her and it wasn’t a deer in the headlights of ‘Oh, I’m in the state finals,’” Forsee said. “After the first 15 seconds, I felt pretty confident we were going to end up on top. It was all her. She went out there and got the job done.”

Forsee said Shelton has had such a positive effect on the program after Centralia has only sent two previous girls to state that were eliminated early. It can now create a “stepping stone” for others to follow. 

The only concern Forsee had was the chance of Shelton being caught by one move prior to a pinfall loss, but the smart Shelton took measures to prevent that by wrestling more carefully in the finals. Even if a wrestler is ahead by many points, one move out of nowhere can decide the result in wrestling, unlike Forsee’s other sport football.

“She did a great job of controlling her emotions of not letting state be too big or be overconfident,” Forsee said. “She took it one match at a time, exactly how you want to do it.”

Shelton is the latest member of the family to be a state champion since her older brother, and current Northern Illinois grappler, Brayden Shelton won two state titles as a Panther. She said “always looked up” to him and started wrestling at five years old because of him.

Her role model always put in the extra work to accomplish what he did in his career so Shelton took the same approach. Ever since she was eight, she said she worked over the summer at Purler Wrestling Academy — which she said has one of the best girls academies in the world — with Tanner Irwin, at Purler camps and in her wrestling room at her house. Irwin has helped Shelton keep her “emotions intact” and not overthink.

“He’s helped me a lot throughout my journey of wrestling,” Shelton said. “He’s been one of my biggest supporters. It’s good to go there and get different competition out of those girls, be able to feel the different styles of wrestling and all of the different perspectives that they have.”

After experiencing an ultimate high of an undefeated freshman season, Shelton said she definitely can’t dial back her routine over the summer now she is firmly in place as the target for others.

“I might be the best in the state right now, but I’m not the best in the world,” Shelton said. “I just have to be prepared for everything and every situation. There are people out there that want to beat me in that circle, so I have to make it my goal to go out there and beat them.”