Hornets Reign Again: Azle Claims First Girls’ Texas High School Wrestling Title Since 2013

Hornets finish with 3 state champions; El Paso Bel Air's Cydney Davis secures 3rd straight crown

Azle's Noah Kovach repeated as a state champion and helped her school win the state title on Feb. 14 in Cypress. / Jose Loya

Azle won its second state championship and the first since 2013 at the UIL Class 5A girls wrestling championship held Feb. 13-14 in Cypress.

The Hornets scored 127 1/2 points, fourth most in 5A history. After day 1, Azle led with 53 1/2 points, just barely ahead of Melissa, which had 53.

Melissa, ranked No. 1 heading into state, stayed in second and finished with 87. El Paso Bel Air took third.

Azle had three state champions: Noah Kovach, Zaylyn Woods and Elly Yelle.

Woods, a freshman, finished the year with a 49-0 mark after winning the 130-pound title. Yelle won the 170-pound crown with a 4-3 tiebreaking OT win against Jasmine Vick from Amarillo Palo Duro.

The two met in regionals the weekend before and Vick won.

Kovach won the 100-pound title for the second year in a row. She was 44-1 this year.

Her .977 winning percentage is now 4th all time, beating her previous mark of .972 set last year when she went 35-1.

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3x2x2

Cydney Davis from El Paso Bel Air won the 155-pound crown, her third state championship.

The senior went 57-0 this year and finished with 3 straight titles.

She was also named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. Davis is now the 9th wrestler in UIL history, regardless of class, to have won three titles. This marks the fifth year in a row that feat was accomplished, most recently by Riley Rayome of The Woodlands.

Genevieve Bellino of Corpus Christi Mary Carroll pinned Mackenzie Harris of Azle in the 120-pound finals to win her second straight. The senior was 53-0 this year.

Melissa’s Malia Griffin won her second straight with a 14-5 major decision against Olivia Ontiveros of Bel Air in the 125-pound finals.

Griffin was 40-1 this season.

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No longer second fiddle

Five girls who were in the finals were second in 2025. During the finals on Saturday, four took home titles this time around.

Frisco Centennial’s Jordyn Parker won the crown after being runner-up twice. The senior won the 140-pound title with a pin in 1:21 against Gillian Eckert from San Antonio Pieper.

Another Frisco wrestler, Camille Harris from Frisco Memorial, won the 190-pound title with a 3-2 win over Frisco Liberty’s Dani Banks.

Harris was second at 185 last year.

Second at 107 pounds last year, Aro Ogle-Garza from Lucas Lovejoy took first this year. Ogle-Garza (28-2) beat Melissa’s Mary Griffin by a 16-0 tech fall.

She beat Griffin each of the past three weekends: districts, regionals and state.

Back in the 235-pound finals for the second year in a row, Liberty Hill’s Alyciana Rogers won with a pin against Khylee Whalen from Dumas. It was a rematch of a quarterfinal match last year that Rogers (39-2) won.

Liberty Hill's Alyciana Rogers, left, tussles with Dumas' Khylee Whalen during the 235-pound 5A finals on Feb. 14 in Cypress. / Jose Loya

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Other individual state champions

105 pounds — Ava Aragon, McAllen (41-2)

115 — Ava Millinier, Killeen Chaparral (31-1)

135 — Shelby Coyle, Henrietta (36-2)

145 — Rubie Chavez, San Elizario (36-0)