LAWRENCE, Kan. — Madyson Gray's wrestling career began in the seventh grade.
"I thought it'd be fun to make friends and thought it'd be something I'd enjoy," Gray, a Lawrence Free State High School girl's wrestler, said.
However, when Gray began to wrestle she was in for a bit of surprise.
"Turns out, it wasn't that widely accepted for girls to wrestle at that point, but I was a little too stubborn to stop at that point," she said.
So Gray's dad, who is her coach at Free State, turned their living room into a home gym.
"We have a squat rack and a couple cable machines," Gray said.
But it was hard to even set goals because at the time, girls wrestling wasn't an official sport in Kansas.
"I didn't know there was going to be a girl's state and then there was," Gray said.
Sure enough, Gray's freshman state title wasn't sanctioned by Kansas.
But her last three — sophomore, junior and senior years — were official.
"I keep getting asked a lot, do you count the first one as state? And I'm like 'Obviously, yeah,'" she said.
Her wrestling career continued last week when Gray became the first four-time, undefeated state champ in Kansas girls' history.
"I've got 13 guys that I've coached wrestling in DI right now," Travis Phippen, Gray's club coach said. "And as far as work ethic goes, she's pretty dang close, right up there with the top."
Gray finished her Free State career with a 95-0 record.
"Don't let my guys know, but I enjoy coaching the girls more than the guys," Phippen said. "I wouldn't say she necessarily wrestles like a boy. I'd say she demanded respect from boys."
And in the sport of wrestling, a reversal of sorts.
Gray will now turn her attention to the U.S. open and other national competitions.
"Mady's pretty consistently been around the top 10 for the past two years," said Phippen of her national rankings.
Gray will wrestle collegiality at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.