Upper Weight Female Wrestler of the Year... Congrats to Jabea Ewane!

What’s in a name?

Just ask top-ranked senior Jabea Ewane of Watkins Mills, whose moniker has an origin which essentially characterizes the 235-pounder as a gifted athlete who is a curse to opponents.

“Bakossi is a Cameroonian tribe where my family comes from. Jabea means ‘gift’ in the Douala language of Cameroon,” said Ewane, 18. “According to my parents, Ewane means fighter. Ewane is from the Bakossi word ‘Wan’ which equals fight. Ewane, therefore, means fighter or warrior.”

Ewane has epitomized just that along with the “Wolverines” mascot and namesake on the way to becoming a three-time titlist in Montgomery County who has earned four regional crowns and become a three-time state champion in a school-record four title-match appearances.

Named Legacy Wrestling’s Upper Weight Wrestler Of The Year, Ewane’s success follows that of the Tsarni sisters, Seda and Nebi. Seda became the Wolverines’ first state champion before graduating in 2018. Nebi earned a then-milestone three straight crowns before graduating in 2024, a feat which earned honors as Legacy Wrestling’s Middleweight Wrestler Of The Year.

“Jabea is a great leader and a great captain,” said coach Aron Dorsey, a 1999 Graduate of Quince Orchard High where he was a Montgomery County, region and Class 4A-3A state champion. “She’s hardworking, strong-minded, coachable, determined, focused and she makes everyone around better on and off the mat.”

Ewane’s season-ending state title run was an example of that, where she pinned three of the top four wrestlers in her division.

The then-third-ranked Ewane began by finishing then-12th-ranked freshman Laylah Jefferson (now ranked No. 5) in 15 seconds, followed by a 33-second fall over then-top-ranked junior Shayla Watson (now No. 2) of Queen Anne’s, whose record on the year ended at 26-3.

Next up was a pin in 2:12 over fourth-ranked junior Destiny Dupree of The Academy for College and Career Exploration (ACCE), who was decked in 3:56 of her third-place bout with Watson and finished fourth at states.

Ewane won her championship match by fall in 2:22 in a clash of defending state champions with Northern’s then-second-ranked Emily Boling (now No. 3), whose record slipped to 13-2.

“The fact that she [Emily Boling] was a defending state champion didn’t intimidate me at all,” Ewane said. “When it crossed my mind, I would tell myself that anyone can be beat. I mean Afterall I lost last year as a defending state champ.”

Ewane was upended in overtime of last year’s 190-pound title match by Stephen Decatur’s top-ranked Azariyah Johnson, who finished the year with a record of 19-0.

“Before my match last year, I was in my head too much and I was scared,” Ewane said. “I lost by sudden victory in overtime. I was devastated.”

Before winning last year’s finals, Ewane had earned a 5-4 quarterfinal victory over then-junior Kaylynn Bryant of Queen Anne’s, who would end up finishing third at states.

Currently this year’s second-ranked 190-pounder, Bryant dethroned the top-ranked Johnson by fall in 2:38 of their state title bout this year.

“I kept rewatching my videos from last year over and over,” Ewane said. “I was watching to see what I could’ve done that would’ve changed the outcome and just dreading the takedown that made me lose.”

That anguish fueled Ewane for her senior year.

“The feeling after losing the title you’ve been defending is hard, but the feeling you get when you’re out to gain or even reclaim your title is unmatched. Really after that, I just learned to go into the match with an ‘I’m going to win this’ mindset,’” Ewane said. “It just makes you wrestle better and harder. That was on my mind and in my head the entire season. It was all about getting my get-back and knowing that it’s also my last year of high school, I hoped to end it with a bang.”

Ewane did that and more, raising her career record to 60-36, including 25-1 with 18 pins over the course of four seasons during counties, regions and states.

“This year, I wanted, if not, needed my title back,” Ewane said. “So just going out to win was on my mind the entire tournament, and I didn’t care who my opponent was.”

That opponent was Boling, who, as a 235-pound junior, scored a 29-second pin to win her state title to end her season with a record of 12-0 after having been a runner-up as a sophomore.

“I had never wrestled [Boling] before, and that match was my longest match of the entire tournament,” said Ewane, who wrestled at 170 pounds as freshman and 190 as a sophomore and junior. “I pinned her in the second period after getting an escape from starting on bottom, then a single-leg takedown to a half-nelson.”

Ewane ran her record on the year to 22-5 with 16 pins, including 9-5 with five pins against 285-pound boys.

“I wrestled 285 against boys. I did not wrestle a single girl before the counties. I only participated in co-ed tournaments, which was a definite help to me a lot in the long run. Being named Wrestler Of The Year is an honor for me, for my community and for my school,” Ewane said. “It’s kind of a bittersweet feeling, being that it’s my last year and I ended it off with a win. Overall, I am happy with the way I ended my season, and I know I will never get this experience again. I feel as if I can inspire other girls as Nebi inspired me.”

Seda became the Wolverines 'first state champion, winning the crown during the inaugural all-girls’ state tournament in 2018.

Nebi became the Wolverine’s second state champion as a sophomore and the program's first-ever three-time state champion as a senior last year. Nebi was also a runner-up at 165 pounds in the senior division of last year’s National High School Coaches Association Tournament (NHSCA) held in Virginia Beach.

At the NHSCA's, Tsarni used technical falls of 19-3 and 21-5 to reach the semifinals, where she overcame an early 6-1 deficit for an overtime, 12-8, semifinal victory over Randallstown's three-time state champion Ugochi Anunobi, Legacy's Upper Weight Wrestler Of The Year.

Seda is in her fourth year at the Air Force, and Nebi, her first there.

“I am incredibly proud of Jabea for what she has accomplished, and my heart is so full seeing that she put her all out there on the mat, especially in her last year of high school,” Nebi Tsarni said. “She has always been a hard worker and it’s great to see her get her flowers; She deserves it. I miss her and the coaches a lot, and I hope that she continues to inspire girls and contributes to the legacy of strong women coming out of Maryland.”

Ewane’s primary workout partner is 18th-ranked, 175-pound junior Ziya Khozhugov, a regional champion who placed fifth at counties and states ending with a record of 28-7.

A junior varsity county champion in his first season a year ago, Khozhugov lost twice at states, by 2-1, in overtime to the fourth-place finisher, and 4-3, to 18th-ranked senior Josh Danso of Mount Hebron, whom he later defeated, 8-2, in their fifth-place bout.

“Ziya was pretty much my only wrestling partner the whole season, and I'm glad. There was no one else near my weight, but he was the closest and the most experienced one on the team,” Ewane said. “We would constantly just drill with each other and practice together and I think that really sharpened up my wrestling by working with someone as strong as he is the entire year, learning new things together and helping each other improve.”

Nebi Tsarni “set the example for Jabea and her cousin Ziya Khozghouv,” said Dorsey, whose assistant is Alejandro Aguilar.

Ewane represented Maryland in the Border Wars Tri-Meet against Virginia and West Virginia on March 22 at Washington High School in Charleson, West Virginia, where she won both matches by fall in 1:20 over Virginia state champion, Lilliane Peters and 18 seconds in the West Virginia match with Katelyn Woodford.

Team Maryland won both of the duals, 34-27 over Virginia, and 39-23 over West Virginia.

“Jabea plans on studying accounting in college,” Dorsey said. “She has a half-day schedule and already works at an accounting firm. She also is a recipient of the scholar athlete award this season.”

Ewane wasn’t originally sold on wrestling in college, but that has changed.

“I originally didn’t want to wrestle in college. I would tell myself I couldn’t take another four years of wrestling. But as the end of the season approached, I knew I couldn’t really let it go,” said Ewane, who has “exceptional” grades with a 3.75 grade point average. “I started reconsidering the thought of wrestling in college. Now here I am searching for a college to wrestle for. I plan on majoring in accounting and becoming a CPA. I want to also minor in film and potentially direct small, short film projects.”