Siblings have been friends, enemies, and everything in between to one another.
For brother and sister duo Jack and Kate Doughty, however, they shared the unique experience of both placing second at the 2024 Colorado State Wrestling on Feb. 17 in their respective weight classes.
Though neither has yet to reach their 18th birthday, the duo have a combined 22 years of experience between them and each began wrestling at the tender age of 8.
Jack, a junior who took home second place in the 175 weight bracket, always knew he wanted to be a wrestler but was pleasantly surprised when his baby sister followed in his footsteps shortly afterward.
"[I started] Mainly because of Jack," Kate said with a grin. "I'd always wanted to get into wrestling but it wasn't a girls' thing. But I wanted to and they let me and I liked it."
Before entering middle school, the duo wrestled with a club called Lockdown in Cañon City and, in middle school, wrestled in Custer County. Not long after, the two transferred to Cañon City, where, even though they are home-schooled, they easily melded with the rest of their respective teams.
During the 2023 Colorado State Wrestling Tournament, ironically, they both placed third in their respective weight classes and divisions, but it wasn't an easy trip to make one more step up the podium.
Whereas other wrestlers may enjoy the off-season, Jack and Kate's offseason consisted of about two weeks to rest before hitting the grindstone harder than the year before.
"We pretty much started right at the end of the season last year, we did extra practices all summer last year probably twice a week," Jack said.
Together, they traveled to a variety of club teams in both Pueblo and Colorado Springs and continued to attend tournaments in Virginia, Iowa, and other places around the country. Practices and workouts were also high on the agenda -- even when motivation was waning.
"We were working out on Christmas morning even though we didn't want to," Kate said.
However, the hard work paid off as the siblings wrestled not only in a competitive season but incredibly well at state.
Kate and the girls' team experienced a lot of success and managed to send three wrestlers to the state level to compete.
"It was so special, there were tears of happiness [to see my teammates get there]," she commented.
Jack fondly recalls that the boys' team managed an impressive 6-1 dual record this year beat last year's two-time state champion, Pueblo East, and broke a seven-year losing streak.
By the time they arrived at the state tournament, they were ready to take on whatever came their way.
Jack faced stiff competition in the 175 weight bracket (as he decided to wrestle up a weight class) and wrestled four tough matches. He won the first match with a pin in the first round, won the second match with a pin in the third period, and won the semi-final match with a 7-2 score.
The championship match was a tough one for Jack -- as he'd both wrestled and beaten his opponent, Lester Bowling from Mead, before -- and it came down a result of 5-1.
Likewise, Kate faced a stacked field in her 130-pound girls' division and also wrestled four matches.
Her first three matches were all won by pinning her opponents but she faced a three-time state champion in the championship round. Although she barely missed the top of the podium, the plucky sophomore has nothing but hope for the next two years.
"I'm so excited about the next two years because I'm just going to keep practicing and getting stronger," she said.
Jack has one more year left in his high school career and, along with Kate, plans to shoot for the first-place podium in 2025.
"We train with each other every day so it's really cool to see her get so good," he said about his little sister.
"I'm very blessed to have someone who will spend time with me, wrestle with me, and train with me. Someone that will be there when it's 5:30 in the morning and I don't want to get up," Kate added with a smile. "I was probably more pumped about him winning his semi-final match than I was about mine."
Although the duo have approximately 350 days until the next state tournament, you can see they're already hitting the mats hard, together.
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