Angelina Gochis and Stella Piazza Blaze a Freestyle Trail for Illinois Girls Wrestling
With Wisconsin’s Alexa Thomas joining them at every college open, two Illinois state finalists are building a season around the competition they want to face before World Team Trials.
By Illinois Matwomen
Ask Angelina Gochis why she’s giving up her senior season at Kaneland, and her answer starts with a tournament in April. The three-time IHSA champion is planning her winter around the U20 World Team Trials. Hampshire sophomore Stella Piazza, a state finalist as a freshman, has a world team and a Fargo title in her sights. The two have decided that the best way to prepare is to start wrestling college women now.
Gochis and Piazza are forgoing their 2026–27 IHSA wrestling season and the opportunity to represent their schools in the state series. They’re organizing a season of women’s college opens, and Wisconsin’s Alexa Thomas will travel with them to every one. Their first stop is the Pointer Open at UW–Stevens Point on Saturday, November 7. Wrestling is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Central in Skyward Fieldhouse.
“I feel that wrestling more freestyle and competing against older college athletes will better prepare me for the U20 World Team Trials in April and for my college career,” Gochis said.
Nationally ranked high school girls around the country are already wrestling freestyle year-round and entering college opens for added competition. Gochis and Piazza are blazing that trail here in Illinois. By putting together a schedule and wrestling it themselves, they can give the next Illinois girl with those ambitions something she can use. She’ll be able to look up an open, see which college women entered at her weight and ask another Illinois wrestler what it took to get there.
What Kaneland gave Gochis
Gochis won a state championship for Kaneland at 105 pounds as a freshman, at 110 as a sophomore and at 120 as a junior. When she explained why she would spend her senior season wrestling freestyle, she made a point of acknowledging the people who gave her those opportunities.
“I am forever grateful for the opportunities the IHSA and Kaneland High School gave me,” Gochis said. “Both have worked hard to support girls wrestling, and you can see that in how much participation has grown. I’d also like to thank my high school coach, Josh West, for the amazing support he’s always given me. I’m looking forward to the challenges I’ll face at the college opens.”
Gochis has already taken what she learned at Kaneland into national freestyle competition. In May she won the Northern Plains Regional at 125 pounds in the USAW Juniors women’s division. In July she earned All-American honors at 120 at Fargo. Those results came in the months after her third IHSA championship. This season she wants a full winter to build on them. A match in November gives her time to bring what she learns back to practice and try it again against another college opponent before April.
Why Piazza is making the move as a sophomore
Piazza knows what a state title means to a school. As a freshman, she won the Wonder Women tournament at 115 pounds in Missouri, then helped Hampshire win the Illinois team championship with her run to the state final. An individual IHSA title was one of the things she wanted for herself. She was candid about what it means to set that goal aside.
“I understand I’m giving up one of my goals, which was winning an IHSA state title,” Piazza said. “But I have bigger goals of making a World Team and winning a Fargo title. Those events and women’s college wrestling are all freestyle, so I have to decide what will help me grow and make the most progress.”
Piazza reached the Northern Plains 16U freestyle final at 120 pounds in May. She could spend her sophomore year pursuing another state finals appearance and return to freestyle in the spring. She’s choosing to spend those months in freestyle now, and the chance to do it with Gochis and Thomas matters to her.
“Wrestling alongside Angelina and Alexa at college opens is the best path for my personal growth in freestyle wrestling,” Piazza said.
Thomas brings national experience of her own. The Badger High School junior from Wisconsin placed third at 107 pounds in each of her first two Wisconsin state tournaments. She also won Wisconsin’s 16U freestyle championship at 110 and placed fifth at 46 kilograms in the U15 division at the 2025 USA Wrestling Women’s Nationals. Stevens Point gives Thomas a chance to begin this season in her home state before the three take their schedule on the road.
Should Illinois girls just wrestle folkstyle?
There’s a good case for a school folkstyle season, and some of the best evidence comes from these wrestlers themselves. Gochis credits the coach who supported her through three state championships. At Hampshire, the points Piazza earned at 115 counted toward the same team trophy as the points her teammates earned at other weights. A school program also puts a coach, practice partners and a season of competition within reach of a girl whose family can’t travel on weekends.
Women who have reached the world podium see room for debate. When American Women’s Wrestling asked what style high school girls should wrestle, two-time world silver medalist Tina George answered, “I think they should wrestle both styles.” World bronze medalist Alyssa Lampe saw an advantage in wrestling the international style earlier. “I think everyone should wrestle freestyle because that’s what other countries do,” she said.
For Gochis and Piazza, the deciding factor is what they’re preparing for. Folkstyle develops control on the mat and rewards a wrestler who can ride an opponent or earn an escape. Freestyle puts more emphasis on exposing an opponent’s back and moving quickly from one scoring opportunity to the next. Both styles reward a good takedown. The difference for these girls is which skills they get to practice in live competition, week after week. Fargo, the women’s age-group World Team Trials and NCAA women’s wrestling all use freestyle.
New York has already shown how those goals can fit within a school season. Its public high school association held its first girls individual state championship under freestyle rules in Albany in 2025. A girl there could represent her school and wrestle her future college style in the same match. Gochis and Piazza are pursuing that continuity independently in Illinois, with the added challenge of facing women who have already made college lineups.
What the next Illinois wrestler can take from this season
A school wrestler receives a schedule. Gochis and Piazza have to build one. A tournament can have “open” in its name and still have entry requirements. A family has to find out which events accept high school wrestlers, which colleges are bringing women at her weight, who can be in her corner and what it will take to get there. That work is part of what makes this season worth following. The next family will have somewhere to start.
The decision also carries an eligibility consequence in Illinois. Illustration 188 in the 2026–27 IHSA Handbook cites By-law 3.105 in barring high school students from collegiate contests and organized college practices at any time. An Illinois family considering a particular event can take the entry information to its school athletic director and ask for an IHSA determination. Gochis and Piazza have made their choice for this season.
Gochis has one high school season left before college. Piazza has three, counting this one. Both want to spend this Saturday wrestling women who are already there, and Thomas is making the trip with them. When the next Illinois girl asks where she can find that kind of competition before she graduates, she’ll have three wrestlers who can tell her what to expect at the Pointer Open.
