Bemidji Girls’ Wrestler Kylie Donat Overcomes Injury, Returns to State

The Minnesota girls’ individual state wrestling meet will begin on Saturday, and there is one local wrestler who will be making her return to the mats at the Xcel Energy Center after an untimely injury left her sidelined during last year’s section and state competitions.

In her sophomore year, Kylie Donat qualified for the first-ever state sanctioned girls’ wrestling tournament. She fell short of an individual title, but helped her team win a state title and gained valuable experience in the process.

“I learned that there’s a lot of people in that arena,” said Donat with a laugh. “I learned that it was really big and that there’s a lot of good wrestlers out there. And even though it was a new sport, there was girls out there that have been wrestling for a couple of years. I realize that I’m going to have to, you know, be disciplined to practice after wrestling season was over and in the summer and then to keep pushing in the fall.”

Donat did just that, and in her junior year had climbed all the way to a top ranking in her weight class. But then, just before the section meet, disaster struck at practice.

“My partner threw me and unfortunately, when I went to go catch myself, you know, just by the way the cards are dealt, popped my ACL,” Donat explained.

She would need surgery to fix it, which meant her season was over.

“I was devastated. I cried a lot,” she admitted. “The day of sections, I cried. I cried when state happened. I mean like, basically, for the six months of recovery, I cried quite a bit.”

But once the crying stopped, Donat was back at it.

“I was ready to get the surgery done with, heal, recover and then pound, working out … to not only get physically better and get physically ready as well, but also mentally.”

“She’s been a champion all the way through it from day one with the surgery and then the rehab and just moving forward on and on,” said Bemidji girls’ wrestling coach Rance Bahr. “She’s had a great attitude. She’s allowed it to motivate her and she’s very determined to get back to the finals of the state tournament.”

This season, she is once again at the top of the rankings in her weight class, and after winning a section title is headed back to the X as a senior with the hopes of taking home the top prize. But if she doesn’t?

“As much as I would love to be a state champion, if God doesn’t want me to be a state champion … I’ll be sad in the moment, I’ll probably cry a couple of times, but I’ll be happy with knowing that I put in as much work as I could this year and that I believed in myself,” Donat said.

Kylie Donat and all the other girl wrestlers will be their individual tournament on Saturday, Mar. 2 at 9 a.m. with the quarterfinals, and they’ll finish up with the championship matches at 4.