FARGO, N.D. — Even as the crown sat atop a mess of post-match hair only a fellow wrestler can fully relate to, it looked no less like a picture-perfect fit under the bright arena lights for Team Ohio’s Kaylee Vera.
While it wasn’t exactly the paper crown from Burger King she was promised with a handshake a day before, it turned out to be far more special.
Instead, it was the same crown donned a year ago by her teammate, 2025 Fargo champion Deionna Borders, now an outgoing senior who leaves behind a legacy that’ll be inspiring members of Team Ohio forever.
The crown’s history with the team actually dates back to 2022 when it was first worn by Ohio wrestling legend Savannah Isaac after she had secured her second consecutive Fargo title. Isaac then wore it again the following year when she won it all for a third time.
On top of her 16U Fargo title in 2021, the wins in 2022 and 2023 made Isaac Ohio’s first two-time Junior women’s champion, a bona fide “Fargo Queen.”
For Vera, within mere moments of herself having just become a Fargo champion, the absolute pinnacle of high school wrestling and arguably the hardest and deepest national tournament a young athlete could ever compete in, it was mostly shock at first.
Awash in a mix of emotions as she was still trying to convince herself what just happened was real, the adrenaline had still not yet completely drained.
“It literally feels like I’m in a dream right now,” she said, laughing in short, almost disbelieving breaths. “I’m still so in shock of what happened like five minutes ago.”
Not uncommon for an event with such high stakes, the path had already been very emotional. By the semifinals, that intensity was spilling over. But rather than letting the moment get too far ahead of her, Vera channeled that momentum into the championship match, treating the accumulated feelings less like a distraction and more like proof itself.
It was the kind of proof that solidified what she had long already known deep down: She belonged.
She belonged in wrestling. She belonged among the best. With all the relentless hard work and sheer devotion to the sport she had invested already, she was exactly where she had earned every right to be. She belonged in the finals and to have a shot at the very top.
“If I had this much emotion to win the semifinals match,” Vera said, “it’s just showing how much I’ve cared about wrestling and how much I’ve just been wanting to be such a champ.”
The message she wanted the moment to carry was straightforward: No matter how you start, no matter how big or small, it’s the hard work that counts. The payoff, she insisted, still arrives.
Faith, as well, ran through her explanation as much as anything else. She described praying throughout the tournament, asking for guidance and placing trust in any outcome.
“All my hard work has just paid off, and it’s literally just like, believing in yourself and just praying to God,” she said. “I thank the Lord every day for this.”
Another moment of humility arose out of a coincidence, or perhaps the sort of poetic fate that makes sports so special, the day before. It was actually before Vera had even secured her spot in the championship match.
She and some of her team had come across some boys wearing Burger King crowns, the folding paper kind the fast-food chain is famous for. She half-jokingly asked them if she could have one, just in case she reached the final.
Their response was exactly the sort you would expect from kids raised in wrestling culture, “You’ve got to make the finals first.”
Vera’s reply: “Ok, let’s shake on it.”
Wrestling kids know everything worth celebrating has to be earned.
And when the time came, Vera not only booked her ticket to the finals, she finished the job and earned an even better crown and a title, Fargo champion, that is etched in history alongside elite company and absolute legends of the sport she can now call peers.
While the paper crown promise is a fitting footnote and anecdote she’ll never forget, the crown atop her head when she got to pose with her stop sign for the first time was the same one Borders wore the year before, and Isaac before her.
From a senior in her last time at Fargo to a freshman there for her first, that crown carries a shared history for Team Ohio that showcases the genuine poetry of sport.
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