Jayce Galvez is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Marcos de Niza High School for AZPreps365.com

TEMPE — Marcos de Niza High School 2026 state champion wrestler Ariana Thomas showed perseverance and strength to achieve her ultimate goal.

Thomas, a senior from Brillion, Wisconsin, started wrestling when she was in elementary school. 

After she moved to Arizona and stopped wrestling in middle school, she joined the Marcos de Niza High School wrestling team to stay in shape for rugby.

And then, on February 21, 2026, she won the 132lb weight class Division 2 AIA State Championship. Her 35-9 record and multiple tournament wins took a lot of extra hard work, separating her from the average wrestler. 

“She would show up and actually do what she'd say,” Marcos de Niza wrestling head coach Alex Torres said. “If she told you to run harder, she herself would run harder. She always led by example, but she also led vocally. And so, it really helped get the team to focus, and she’d every day say, ‘You need to hydrate, and you can handle it.”

As a teammate, Thomas was selfless, and was a role model to everyone else on the team, teammate Elian Pichardo said.

“You know, she's never slacking,” Pichardo said. “Even when she's about to be broken, she keeps going. She doesn't have quit in her. She's really jolly. She's not one of those people that brings people down. She always tries to keep the mood up, bring people up.”

Ariana Thomas focused prior to match at the state tournament. (Ariana Thomas photo)

The path to be a state champion isn’t easy. Thomas had to face many challenges, one in which even gave her the idea of quitting.

“The week before state, I had, I think, pulled something in my hips,” Thomas said. “I was very limited to things I could do, and I didn't really practice, but I still stretched, I still did the motions of things that I had to do. And mentally, at some points, I just wanted to quit. I was like, ‘I don't want to do this anymore. I'm so tired. I'm so drained,’ because wrestling is a very mentally draining sport.”

Even amidst the obstacles, it was all worth it in the end, she said, when the referee raised her arm to present the state champion.

“All I felt was happiness,” Thomas said, “Even for my semifinals match, when I won that match to be in the finals, I just started crying, 'cause I was like, ‘I've waited almost four years for this moment. Just feeling that hard work, give a great outcome, feels really great. I have worked so hard for that moment, and it just feels amazing, and just seeing my teammates and my family cheering me on, and just feeling that excitement with me is just amazing.”

Becoming a state champion isn't impossible; Thomas said that anyone can do anything with much dedication and determination.

“Some advice I'd give is, don't let things other people tell you break you down,” Thomas said. “I know sometimes it could be really hard having those thoughts in your head; being like, ‘Oh, I can't do it. This is too hard. I'm not good enough.’ You're good enough to do anything, if you put your mind to it, you'll be able to achieve it. Saying that you're gonna be a state champ like this year. I wrote on my mirror, I said to myself, ‘I'm gonna be the girls D2, 132 state champion.’ And I did it. You have to want it more, and you have to be willing to put in all that hard work because it'll eventually pay off.”

Now Thomas is focusing on her rugby career, in the hopes of making it onto the Wales' national team, along with looking at committing to a school to compete at the collegiate level.