Baker's Lilly Collins attempts to pin a wrestler from The Dalles on Jan. 18, 2025.

Lilly Collins became a wrestler the first time she stepped onto a mat.

She knew nothing about the sport.

But she immediately understood, from the first practice match with an opponent, that she had found her favorite sport.

“I loved the sport from the first time I tried it,” Collins said during a Jan. 14 interview in the practice room above the small gym at Baker High School.

That epiphany happened when Collins was a student at Baker Middle School.

More than five years later, Collins is a BHS senior seeking to qualify for the state tournament for the third straight season.

She advanced to the semifinals in the 135-pound division in the 2024 tournament in Portland, losing in the semifinal match by a 5-4 decision in double overtime.

Collins just missed qualifying for state as a freshman in 2022, when she placed sixth at the district meet.

Yet even as Collins prepares for the final month or so of her high school wrestling career, she is contemplating a longer future in the sport.

Collins, whose family moved from Southern California to Baker City when she was 9, has been accepted at the University of Iowa. She plans to study accounting and wants to be a CPA.

After being accepted at the university, Collins said she contacted the women’s wrestling coach at Iowa, one of the nation’s top college wrestling programs (the Hawkeyes are the second-ranked team in the nation), late in 2024.

Collins said the coach encouraged her to visit the campus and tour the wrestling facility. She plans to make the trip this spring.

Collins, 17, has never been to Iowa.

She said the coach told her she could potentially earn a scholarship.

Collins said a strong performance at the state meet would help.

Although she plans to attend Iowa regardless of wrestling, Collins said she’s excited about the potential to continue the sport that has come to mean so much to her.

Wrestling might seem, to the unfamiliar, a predominantly physical competition, one in which the combination of strength and agility are paramount.

But Collins said in her view, wrestling is “90 percent mental.”

Although wrestlers have intense and arduous practices, she said the ultimate focus is on technique — the individual moves that a wrestler can use to beat an opponent who might be physically stronger.

With the district tournament set for Feb. 14 at La Grande and the state meet Feb. 27-March 1 in Portland, Collins is savoring the rest of her high school experience.

“I’m trying to make this season memorable,” she said. “I’ll never get this back.”

The Bulldogs will wrestle in front of their home fans on Feb. 6 starting at 5 p.m. in a dual against Pendleton.

“I’m trying to make this season memorable. I’ll never get this back.”

— Lilly Collins, Baker High School senior wrestler