Kinzie Williams kept walking.
Right off the mat, past the fans in the stands, people waiting in line for concessions and fellow wrestlers relaxing in the hallways. She didn't stop until she found one of the furthest corners of the Fargo Dome. And once the American Falls senior wrestler was sure no one else was looking, she let it all out.
Williams was still crying when her club coach, Alfonso "Fons" Hernandez, head coach of Sublime Wrestling Academy, finally tracked her down.
She had just been eliminated at Junior Freestyle Nationals for the second straight year — one win away from All-American status.
So the two of them just sat there, with nothing but the sound of Williams' sniffles between them.
"I was fully devastated," Williams said. "I probably cried for like 30 minutes."
On July 18, Williams found herself in that same building, at that same tournament. Only this time, there was nothing to cry about.
Williams became the only Idaho girls wrestler — and the first in American Falls history — to reach the finals at Junior Nationals, finishing as the national runner-up in the Junior Girls 115-pound division.
"It's always kind of been a monkey on her back," Hernandez said. "She had lots of pressure this year, and she didn't just achieve it — she had a really good tournament and was able to get into the finals. It's the biggest high school tournament in the world, and for her, being from little Arbon Valley, Idaho, to crack into the finals was phenomenal."
She couldn't even fathom that a year ago.
Williams made the quarterfinals during her first trip to Fargo two years ago. But then failed to get out of the Round of 16 the following year after being pinned by eventual champion Caley Graber of Minnesota in just 1:15. She was then doubled up 12-6 by California's Kennedy Russell in the consolation round, falling one match short of placing for a second year in a row.
So after wiping away the tears, Williams asked Hernandez, in that deserted back hallway, if she'd ever break through.
He didn't sugarcoat it.
"There's really no easy answer," Hernandez said. "She's doing everything right. ... But she kind of knew from there that she didn't want to feel that way anymore. When you have that strong desire of not wanting to feel that way anymore, it's a little bit easier to do the harder things."
So Hernandez gave her something to work with.
"I remember him telling me to start writing in a journal — believing, like, 'I'm gonna be Fargo champ,'" Williams said. "Writing it down and fully believing it. I didn't believe that I could do it, so I didn't end up doing it. This year, I did believe I could do it, and that's the biggest difference."
She wasted no time.
That fall, Williams won a pair of college opens in Colorado and Oregon. Winter brought her first high school state title, at 115 pounds, going a perfect 38-0 — one of just three Idaho girls wrestlers to finish the season unbeaten. By spring, she'd taken fourth at Folkstyle Nationals in Iowa, placed sixth in the U23 division at World Team Trials, and swept both styles at Western Regionals — her last tune-up before Fargo.
"I didn't just want to win," Williams said. "I wanted to dominate."
But it came at a cost.
At the U17/U20 World Team Trials in early April, Williams was up 9-0 when she landed hard on her elbow — the same shoulder she'd first dislocated, and chipped a bone in, the year before at Junior Duels. Williams ended up getting pinned.
That wasn't the worst part, though.
She had fully dislocated the shoulder, with torn labrum − front and back. To make matters worse, a previous back injury turned into a bulging disc a month later at Western Regionals — her last tune-up before Junior Nationals.
"I was struggling with some really bad injuries, and I probably shouldn't have been wrestling," Williams said.
And for nearly two months, she didn't. The only practice she got was with her father, Trevor Williams, a state champion himself back in his day at American Falls.
"Kinzie's one of those kids I sometimes have to protect from herself," Trevor said. "We were doing 45-minute practices instead of our normal hour and a half, just trying to keep her back healthy."
It still hurt.
"I was in a lot, a lot of pain," Kinzie said. "I'd be crying after practice just because it hurt so bad."
But that still wasn't enough to deter her.
"You definitely were not going to keep her from going to Fargo," Hernandez said. "That was one of her biggest goals, to just go out and perform at Fargo and become an All-American. This is definitely an injury that would bar many athletes from going to compete at a tournament like Fargo."
So the game plan was simple: get off the mat as fast as possible in the early rounds.
It worked.
Kinzie opened with three straight technical falls — 11-0 over Pennsylvania's Payton Ocasio, 10-0 over Nevada's River Klein, 11-0 over Virginia's Sarah Congleton.
"It brought me a lot of confidence that first match," Kinzie said. "My body feels super good. ... I was just like, I got to get off the mat and not be walking around."
She still needed steroid shots just to mask the pain.
But none of that stopped her from finally getting over the hump. She beat Colorado's Jaydin Cuevas 16-10 in the quarterfinals before holding off Arizona's Daynah Gomez in the semis.
Kinzie ran out to a 5-0 lead in the first period, only for Gomez to score a four-point takedown and another takedown to take the lead. Yet, in the final seconds, Kinzie scored on a step-out. Gomez's corner challenged the call, but it was unsuccessful, and Kinzie prevailed, 9-7.
Normally, a win from Kinzie draws little more than a clap, maybe two. But this time was different. She couldn't help but unleash two years' worth of frustration, jumping up and down and hugging her normally even-keeled father, who was hooting and hollering himself.
"I usually don't celebrate after I win matches," Kinzie said. "I was really pumped. My whole corner was pumped. ... It was just so relieving. I just did it. I made it to the finals."
They were short-lived, though.
Kinzie ended up getting thrown to her back off her own two-on-one tie — a position she said even her coaches hadn't seen much of. She was pinned in 12 seconds by Florida's Abigail Gonzalez.
"It sucks to get caught," Kinzie said. "Sometimes those close matches feel better when you lose by two. She just kind of caught me in a throw."
So she once again walked with her eyes forward, searching for another quiet corner. Hernandez found her again.
"How many people would kill to be in the finals at Fargo, the biggest high school tournament in the world?" he told her. "I love that she was angry, that she was sad about it. ... It proved to be a good motivator."
Kinzie didn't even want to accept her second-place trophy on the podium. She couldn't even bring herself to look at it until the next day.
"I hated my little stop sign," she said, laughing now at the trophy's nickname. "Then I was like, ‘You know what? I'm pretty happy with this. I'm just blessed that I get to wrestle. I just made it second in the toughest girls' tournament in the country, and I made a name for myself.’"
Colleges have taken notice.
She's picked up offers from Colorado Mesa, Western Colorado, Menlo College (California), North Central College (Illinois) and Presbyterian College (South Carolina). She's already visited both Colorado Mesa and Western Colorado with Menlo scheduled for one as well.
"She's done the work," Hernandez said. "There's some good college programs talking to her, and especially after the Fargo performance, she made a mark and made a statement."
Unfortunately, her next one might not come until the college level.
Kinzie had surgery two weeks ago on that left shoulder − a procedure that could cost her senior season at American Falls. College coaches are encouraging her to skip it altogether, giving her more time to heal.
"It would suck to miss it," Kinzie said. "But I'm trying to think of it in a very mature way. I want to wrestle. I want to make Olympic teams. If I want to do these things, I need to do it now. I'd rather do it now than later."
If this is how her high school career ends, it ended on top.
Williams has a career record of 101-6, including that 38-0 season in which she didn’t surrender a single takedown. She's a five-time All-American between Folkstyle Nationals, the USA Wrestling Women's U23 Nationals and now Fargo, the first Rollie Lane champion in program history and just the second girls state champion in American Falls history, joining four-time placer Courtney Hunt.
"I'm not saying this because she's my kid. Some of my kids are more gifted athletically than others, but she works really hard,” Trevor said. “When she puts the time in on the mat, or when she's working out, she really gives it her all. She has big goals, but she also puts in the work for those big goals. I'm super proud, super happy, and she really deserves the success that she's having."