Wrestlers · Career complete
Faith Cole
117-0 at Lafayette, Missouri's first undefeated 4x girls' state champion; 2019 16U Nationals and 2021 Cadet Pan American champion
Wildwood, MO · Lafayette HS · Missouri Baptist University
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 10, 2026
Faith Cole started high school at Lafayette in Wildwood, Missouri, the same year the state ran girls' wrestling as a championship sport for the first time. She won the state title at 103 pounds as a freshman in 2018-19, the first Missouri girl crowned an individual state wrestling champion, and never lost a high school match.
In July 2019, in her first trip to Fargo, she won the 16U Nationals title at 106 pounds. She beat Alexis Janiak of Illinois 8-2 in the final after a technical fall over Ava Bayless of Pennsylvania in the semifinals. She entered the Junior division the same week and reached that final too, where Emily Shilson of Minnesota ended it 10-0 in 68 seconds. Shilson's sixth Fargo title tied the record Teshya Alo of Hawaii set. Cole also spent a week at the Olympic Training Center that summer.
In June 2021 she won the Cadet Pan American Championships at 49 kg, about 108 pounds, in Mexico.
Her last high school match was a second-period pin of Haley Sampson of Mid-Buchanan in the 110-pound state final at Mizzou Arena, at 2:56. That made her the first undefeated four-time girls' state champion in Missouri history, and the fourth Missouri wrestler of any kind to go undefeated through four state titles. She was 29-0 as a senior with 20 pins and 117-0 for her career. Her coach was Kayla Walker, and Lafayette placed third in the state that year.
She wrestled at Iowa Wesleyan and was an All-American at the 2023 NAIA Championships, sixth at 109 pounds. She transferred to McKendree University for 2023-24 and joined Missouri Baptist University as a junior in 2024-25. She is now an assistant wrestling coach at Nixa Public Schools in Missouri.
She coaches wrestling at Nixa Public Schools in Missouri, on the staff for the boys' and girls' programs, and she has said her main goal is to grow the sport.
Results
| Season | Level | Event | Weight | Place | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | High school | MSHSAA State Championships | 103 lb | 1st | Her freshman year and Missouri's first season of girls' wrestling as a championship sport. She was the first Missouri girl crowned an individual state wrestling champion, and the final came to her on a forfeit. |
| 2019 | Age group | 16U Nationals, Fargo | 106 lb | 1st | July 14, 2019 at the Fargodome; she beat Alexis Janiak of Plainview, Illinois, 8-2 in the 16U final after a technical fall over returning 16U finalist Ava Bayless of Pennsylvania in the semifinals and a 10-2 win over Adrienna Turner of California. No page gives a score for the Bayless match. California won the 16U team title with 91 points and Missouri was among the top five teams. |
| 2019 | Age group | Junior Nationals, Fargo | 106 lb | 2nd | July 17, 2019; she reached the Junior final in the same week she won the 16U title, technical-falling Tatyana Ortiz of Pennsylvania 14-4, edging Emily Mendez of Washington 6-4 and technical-falling Greta Gustafson of California and Tehani Soares of Nevada, then lost to Emily Shilson of Minnesota by 10-0 technical fall in 1:08. Shilson's sixth Fargo title tied the record Teshya Alo of Hawaii set. |
| 2019-20 | High school | MSHSAA State Championships | 110 lb | 1st | Her second state title, won at 110 pounds as a sophomore. |
| 2020-21 | High school | MSHSAA State Championships | 107 lb | 1st | 36-0 on the season. Her third consecutive title, won with a 16-1 technical fall over Mia Reed of Washington at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence. She was 91-0 through three years. |
| 2021 | Age group | Junior and Cadet Pan American Championships, Mexico | 49 kg | 1st | June 2021, in the Cadet age group. |
| 2021-22 | High school | MSHSAA State Championships | 110 lb | 1st | 29-0 on the season. February 2022 at Mizzou Arena; she pinned Mid-Buchanan senior Haley Sampson at 2:56 in the final to become the first undefeated four-time girls' state champion in Missouri history. She had 20 pins and won five tournaments as a senior, and her coach was Kayla Walker. She joined three boys' wrestlers who had gone undefeated across four state titles, was team captain, and Lafayette placed third in the state. |
| 2022-23 | College | NAIA Women's Wrestling National Championships | 109 lb | 6th | March 2023, wrestling for Iowa Wesleyan University. She placed sixth at 109 pounds to earn NAIA All-American honors, and she lost the fifth-place match to Tehani Soares of Indiana Tech by fall. |
What we could not confirm
Anything not on this page, a high school record, a final score, a season, was left out because no primary source stated it when this was written. If you have a bracket, a program, or a clipping, send it and the page gets the number.
Sources
- https://www.westnewsmagazine.com/sports/lafayettes-cole-ends-undefeated-wrestling-career/article_6ac67476-9bff-11ec-b6d9-d75948abc0f5.html · West Newsmagazine, on the end of Cole's high school career: she became the first undefeated four-time girls' state champion in Missouri history, capping it with a second-round pin of Mid-Buchanan senior Haley Sampson in the 110-pound championship match at 2:56; she finished her senior year 29-0 with 20 pins and five tournament titles and her career 117-0; Missouri's first season of girls' wrestling as a championship sport was her freshman season of 2018-19; Lafayette coach Kayla Walker praised her mindset going into the final state meet; the page also carries 'Lafayette coach Kayla Walker'
- https://www.scoopswithdannymac.com/faith-cole-hs-athlete-of-the-week/ · Feb. 23, 2022 Scoops Sports Network: Cole became the first female high school wrestler in Missouri to complete a four-year career undefeated as she won her fourth state championship at the MSHSAA state championships, joining just three other boys' wrestlers in accomplishing this feat; she won the 110-pound weight class, was elected team captain, credits MSHSAA for sanctioning wrestling her freshman year, won the final by pin at Mizzou Arena, and helped Lafayette place third in the state; her head coach was Kayla Walker; she said she planned to wrestle in college
- https://www.westnewsmagazine.com/sports/lafayette-s-cole-wins-national-wrestling-title/article_9e2d2a2b-15de-5190-8077-d09747c356cd.html · West Newsmagazine on Cole's Fargo title: as a sophomore at Lafayette she won the 106-pound championship in the 16U division at the U.S. Marine Corps Cadet and Junior National championships at the Fargodome and placed second in the Junior division, her first year competing at Fargo; she beat California state third-place finisher Adrienna Turner 10-2, technical-falled returning U16 finalist Ava Bayless of Pennsylvania in the semifinals and beat Alexis Janiak of Plainview, Illinois 8-2 in the final; in the Junior tournament she technical-falled Tatyana Ortiz of Pennsylvania 14-4, edged Washington state finalist Emily Mendez 6-4 and technical-falled Greta Gustafson of California and Tehani Soares of Nevada to reach the final; she was listed among The Open Mat's top 25 wrestlers in the class of 2022 and spent a week at the Olympic Training Center; the page also carries 'Last winter, at 103 pounds, Cole became the first Missouri girl ever crowned an individual state wrestling champion. She did so by accepting a forfeit even before the finals began', the 10-2 preliminary over California state third-place finisher Adrienna Turner, the Bayless semifinal 'on a technical' with no score, and the four Junior-division preliminary results
- https://www.westnewsmagazine.com/sports/sports-briefs-april-7/article_e9787ac6-027a-55b8-91df-0c5b3cfb2b18.html · West Newsmagazine sports briefs on the 2021 Missouri State High School Wrestling Championships at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence: 'At 107 pounds, junior Faith Cole earned her third consecutive state title. She got a 16-1 technical fall to cap a perfect 36-0 season. She defeated Mia Reed, of Washington'; the same item reads 'Cole is 91-0 in her first three years of competition. She won the 110-pound title as a sophomore and at 103 as a freshman'
- https://www.themat.com/news/2019/july/14/four-repeat-as-16u-national-women-champions · July 14, 2019 USA Wrestling: at the U.S. Marine Corps 16U Nationals in Fargo, N.D., Faith Cole of Missouri won the 106-pound title, stopping Alexis Janiak of Illinois 8-2 in the final; Julianne Moccia of Maryland was third and Genesis Cejudo of Arizona fifth; California won the team title with Missouri among the top five; on teams it says only 'The team title went to California with 91 points, a full 44 points ahead of runner-up Illinois with 41 points. Missouri, Washington and Oregon rounded out the top five teams', with no number for Missouri
- https://www.themat.com/news/2019/july/17/womens-junior-nationals-wrap · July 17, 2019 USA Wrestling: Emily Shilson of Minnesota scored a first-period 10-0 technical fall in 1:08 over 2019 16U Nationals champion Faith Cole of Missouri in the Junior Nationals 106-pound final, Shilson's sixth career Fargo title and fourth at Junior; Emily Mendez of Washington placed third; the headline reads 'Shilson ties record with sixth Fargo title' and the story says 'She has matched the record set by the great Teshya Alo of Hawaii, who also had four Junior and two 16U golds'
- https://uww.org/athletes/cole-faith-courtney · United World Wrestling athlete record for Faith Courtney Cole: first place at the 2021 Junior and Cadet Pan-American Championships in Mexico, June 2021, women's wrestling, Cadets age group, 49 kg, opening with a 5-0 win by fall over Danna Martinez Ordonez of Mexico; the 2021 Pan-Americans is the only competition the record lists, with nothing at any age group or level after it
- https://www.flowrestling.org/people/9661509-faith-cole · FloWrestling results page for Faith Cole: at the 2023 NAIA Women's National Championships she wrestled for Iowa Wesleyan at 109 pounds, beating Kaycie Tanimoto of Texas Wesleyan 10-0 and Macie Stewart of Southern Oregon 10-0, losing to Peyton Prussin of Life 9-4, Natalie Reyna-Rodriguez of Southern Oregon 4-2 and Tehani Soares of Indiana Tech by fall in the fifth-place match, and losing an 8-8 decision to Stefana Jelacic of Lourdes; the video titles on the same page name Prussin's school as Life and the bout against Soares as the 109-pound fifth-place match
- https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/11427112-powerful-mckendree-squad-notches-first-dual-win-of-season · FloWrestling report on a McKendree dual lists Faith Cole as a sophomore transfer who placed sixth at the 2023 NAIA Championships and did not compete in that dual
- https://mckbearcats.com/sports/womens-wrestling/roster/faith-cole/16984 · McKendree University's 2023-24 women's wrestling roster page for Faith Cole lists her at 109 pounds, class sophomore, hometown St. Louis, Missouri, high school Lafayette, with no biography text
- https://mbuspartans.com/sports/womens-wrestling/roster/faith-cole/11278 · Missouri Baptist University's 2024-25 women's wrestling roster page for Faith Cole lists her as a junior from Wildwood, Mo., high school Lafayette HS, previous school Iowa Wesleyan, with no biography text
- https://mbuspartans.com/sports/womens-wrestling/roster · Missouri Baptist University's roster page, headed '2025-26 Women's Wrestling Roster', does not list Faith Cole
- https://www.naia.org/migration-files/sports-files/wwrest/2022-23/Files/2023_Women-s_Wrestling_AA.pdf · NAIA's own 2023 NAIA Women's Wrestling All-Americans list, at 109 pounds: '4th Place - Natalie Reyna-Rodriguez of Southern Oregon', '5th Place - Tehani Soares of Indiana Tech', '6th Place - Faith Cole of Iowa Wesleyan', which settles both the placement and the All-American honor
- https://nixaathletics.net/staff-directory · Nixa Public Schools athletics staff directory, under the Boys & Girls Wrestling heading, lists Faith Cole as Assistant Wrestling Coach alongside head coach Dustin Martin; scraped 2026-09-09, this is the only page found that says where she is now
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