Twin Sisters Wrestling for National Championships This Summer

Teenage twins Daisy and Lizzie Padilla both placed at the Colorado Wrestling State Championships while competing for
Arapahoe High School, but the sisters have their sights set on a bigger prize for the summer: the USA Wrestling National Championships.

After a successful weekend at the state freestyle wrestling tournament in Castle Rock over Memorial Day weekend, both Daisy and Lizzie have qualified for nationals which will take place in Fargo, North Dakota, in July. Lizzie placed third in Castle Rock while Daisy had already qualified in early May after placing fourth at a tournament in Utah.

The twins hope to wrestle in college, so the freestyle competitions are incredibly important. Colorado’s high school wrestling championships are folkstyle wrestling, which is only practiced in the United States, while colleges compete in freestyle wrestling.

Plus, competing at nationals will give the Padillas the chance to showcase their skills to college recruiters before the seventeen-year-olds enter their senior years of high school.

The sisters’ wrestling journey began when they were in sixth grade after a friend of their older brother encouraged them to try out for their middle school wrestling team. Although hesitant to try a sport they didn't know much about, their mother, Korina, convinced them it was worth a shot. After one practice, the twins were sold.

“We came home and we were, like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so amazing,’” Lizzie says. “We love it. We want to keep doing it.”

Daisy says she has stayed passionate about wrestling because of how competitive the sport is and how great her coaches and teammates have been over the years. For both sisters, seeing more girls try wrestling has been rewarding, too.

When they first started wrestling in middle school there were so few girls participating that they often competed against boys. During their freshman year of high school, there were just five girls on the team. This past season, they had twelve.
They’re hoping even more girls will get into wrestling after seeing the benefits.

“It gives you a lot of mental lessons on how you should recover from things and how you should act,” Lizzie says. “Being a part of something that's becoming so big, it's amazing and inspiring. ...It makes me want to keep going more and more.”

Since taking up wrestling, the Padillas have earned results on the mat. At the 2025 Colorado High School State Wrestling Tournament in February, Lizzie placed fifth in the 145-pound girls’ 5A competition while Daisy took home third in the 155-pound category.

“It definitely feels good having all the work I put into the sport show up in the mat,” Daisy says, though she adds there is still plenty for her to work on.

Arapahoe High School doesn’t offer freestyle wrestling, so once the school season wraps up, the Padillas wrestle through Jefferson High School and practice at Englewood High School, Bear Creek High School and Eagle Crest High School.

To prepare for nationals, they are traveling to lots of tournaments outside of Colorado to rack up mat time and compete against top-tier athletes. The costs of all that travel are high, especially for two athletes, so their family has launched a GoFundMe to help raise money for the journey to Nationals, which will cost $1,000 per sister, not including qualifying and practice tournaments needed for the twins to succeed.

Friends and family have already donated almost $2,000 toward the $8,000 goal, according to the Padillas.

“We've been so grateful, because without that we wouldn't have been able to go to Oklahoma,” their mother says of one of the major tournaments the twins have already attended this spring. “We were able to get their deposits down for nationals. ...It's already made such a huge difference on being able to be there to support their dreams.”

Both twins say they are grateful for the support. They’ve always had each other to rely on, but it’s fulfilling to see other people rally behind them, too. Both say they cannot imagine their wrestling journey without each other.

“We do everything together,” they say in sync before erupting into laughter.

Korina says when they competed against each other in middle school they would spend the whole time giggling. Being in different weight classes now has helped them level up, according to the sisters.

The Padillas hope the national tournament, which starts July 10, will be the next step in their wrestling journey.

“It's something I can't live without,” Daisy says. “It's something that I enjoy so much and something that I put all of my time and effort into. It's one of my goals to compete in college and just to keep competing.”

The twins hope to wrestle in college at Western Colorado University or Colorado Mesa University, though they're open to any school that isn't too far from Denver.