TOLONO -- Something changed in Phoenix Molina's mindset after she signed with the Lehigh women's wrestling team last November.
From the moment she picked up the sport in eighth grade, Molina had dreams of winning a state title.
She made it to the state tournament as a freshman at Unity and got a better understanding of what it took to accomplish that goal.
She advanced all the way to the 235-pound championship match as a sophomore, settling for runner-up honors after losing by a 2-1 ultimate tiebreaker to Prairie Central's Chloe Hoselton. As a junior, she lost in the quarterfinals and wrestled her way back to a third-place finish.
She had been so close so many times that it almost became an obsession. Then, right before starting her senior season, her last shot to make it happen, "I didn't care" about it anymore.
"Once I committed to Lehigh, I wasn't really worried about it," Molina continued. "Obviously, I wanted to wrestle well, but the focus became less of what accolades I needed in high school and more of getting better for college because I had already made it. I didn't need the extra accolade. It was cool, but I just needed to get better for college. That's the goal now. What's my next big title that's going to matter? That's something in college."
Wrestling freely, without the weight of a championship on her shoulders, Molina finally earned her long-awaited state title on Feb. 28, defeating Ottawa's Juliana Thrush by a 2-0 decision in the 235-pound final.
As the referee lifted Molina's hand to the crowd at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington as the state champion, she had the biggest smile of her high school career on her face, as if that weight had finally been lifted.
"It was really cool," said Juan Molina, Phoenix's dad. "To see what she has done in the last five years has been incredible. I know what kind of work it takes to do that, and she busted her (butt) constantly. It was never a question of, 'Did she put the work in?' It was, 'Is it her time?' It doesn't always turn out that way, but it was pretty amazing to see that."
This wasn't just a state championship. Molina put together one of the most dominant seasons in IHSA history, finishing with a perfect 38-0 record and not allowing a single offensive point all year. The kind of dominance that also earned her the runaway title of The News-Gazette's All-Area Girls' Wrestler of the Year.
"The wrestling gods are going to give you what you've earned. You just have to go out there and do your job and put in the time and effort," Phoenix said. "You can't be putting extra barriers in front of yourself because that's how everything goes south. If you focus on what not to do, it's going to happen. If you focus on winning state, you're not going to win state. If you focus on going undefeated, you're not going to go undefeated. If you just focus on going out there and doing your job, it'll take care of itself as long as you've already put the work in. You just have to let it fly, and things will fall into place as it should."
Juan has been in his daughter's shoes. He went undefeated to win the 189-pound Class A state title for Unity in 1991, and even he was blown away by what his daughter accomplished this season.
"It was pretty incredible," Juan said. "Winning state is one thing, but doing it undefeated is damn-near impossible. I think there are only three of us from Unity who have ever done it. It was well-deserved. She put the work in for it, and you never really saw doubt on Phoenix's face. You have to have a giant belief in yourself, and when I see that in her, it's pretty big. Wrestling is a mental sport more than it is physical, and once you can break into that all-or-nothing mental state, there's no limit to what you can do."
And that's not even where the championships stop within this bloodline. Molina's younger sister, Brielle, won an IKWF novice state title at 185 pounds just a year ago.
"There must be something in the Molina water," Phoenix said with a smirk.
It was the perfect ending to a remarkable high school career, and the Wrestler of the Year honor was the cherry on top. The News-Gazette previously combined boys and girls in its All-Area Wrestling package, but after seeing the exponential growth of the girls' sport the last few years, it was time to give them their own spotlight, and you couldn't ask for a better face of the inaugural All-Area Girls' Wrestling team than Phoenix Molina.
"I've been in this building for three years now," Phoenix said while at The News-Gazette's All-Area photo shoot. "The more coverage girls' wrestling can get away from boys' wrestling and be its own independent thing, I think it's going to help the sport a lot and pull a lot more girls out as they realize it's not as stigmatized as people make it out to be."
Now, Molina sets her sights on her next goal as she prepares to start her collegiate career at Lehigh, and she'll have a pretty talented team surrounding her.
Lehigh women's wrestling started as a club in 2020 before becoming just the sixth Division I program in the country for the 2025-26 season. The Mountain Hawks ended their inaugural season of varsity competition with a 15-2 record and went on to win the NCAA Super Region 2 and place sixth at the NCAA Championships.
"Hopefully, NCAAs," Phoenix said of what's next for her. "That's the next goal. I'm going to Lehigh to get better, and I'll go wherever the wind takes me."