College Wrestling: Sisenstein Makes All-American with Broken Ankle

by Derek Levendusky, AWW Staff

As she blazed through the Motocross track in the woods during the hare scramble race near the end of her senior year of high school, she knew she was doing something she loved. For Cheyenne Sisenstein, wrestling seemed to fade to the background. It was time to ride.

She’d had a lot of success in the Motocross circuit. At one point, she was ranked #3 in the country on the bike, winning multiple championships along the way.

But she could also wrestle.

She had plenty of accolades against the boys as a member of her Maine-Endwell varsity team, winning 25 matches as a senior, placing 3rd in the Section IV Class B tournament, and winning the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award for New York State which “recognizes and celebrates the nation’s most outstanding high school seniors for excellence in wrestling, scholastic achievement, citizenship and community service.”

FLWC 2016

In the fall of 2016, she’d gone to the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club Duals at Cornell University to compete for the Tri-State Warriors. In one of her matches, she faced 2x Fargo All-American Joye Levendusky, also from NY. “I grew up wresting boys my whole life,” remembers Sisenstein. “There weren’t very many girls around me participating.”

Sisenstein warmed up and stepped on the mat.

“I’d never seen her before,” says Levendusky. “I heard that she was tough but didn’t really know anything about her.”

The match was a back and forth battle, with Levendusky holding a 6-5 lead with less than 10 seconds on the clock. Sisenstein hit her with a 4-point move to win the match 9-6 as time expired.

Levendusky reached out to her in the days following to encourage her to go to Fargo the following year. “I was like, ‘Yo, you beat me and I’ve never seen you at a national tournament. What are you doing over there? You need to go to Fargo next year.”

Eventual national champion Mia Macaluso reached out to her, too, among others. “Scott Green, Rick Gumble, and Jason Goldman, all coaches and big influences in my life, at one point or another pushed me to get to Fargo,” recalls Sisenstein. “I never trained for freestyle before, and only competed in it once [at FLWC].”

FARGO 2017
The Maine-Endwell grad took the plunge. In the summer of 2017, she went to Fargo for the first time, placing 4th and becoming an All-American. Now she knew she belonged on the mat with the best. She also met an important person.

“I jumped right into [Fargo] and found Julia Salata, my [eventual] assistant coach at King University,” tells Sisenstein. “She literally taught me how to wrestle freestyle at the Fargo training camp before we competed. It was truly a great experience. I think it was exactly what I needed to remind myself that wrestling is so much fun.”

ONTO KING UNIVERSITY

After a year a Wyoming Seminary, where she ramped up her freestyle skills, she went to King University in Tennesee to start her college career.

“Julia kept telling me that I had to wrestle in college,” said Sisenstein. “She pretty much hyped me up and told me that I should go to King. I went to check it out, met JM, and instantly knew it’s what I needed. [Head coach] Jason Moorman is one of the best people I’ve ever met. Being a freshman didn’t mean much to me, but being in that room meant everything to me. We’re all ready for war at any time. It’s just who we are at King. We work really hard, have a lot of fun, and crush goals together.”

Sisenstein was poised and ready to make a run at the podium at the 2019 WCWA Nationals, when it happened.

“We were warming up for practice when I felt it.” A twisted ankle. Sharp pain. “We thought it was just a bad sprain. I was walking and everything. But wrestling on it was a different story. I had to adjust a lot. I didn’t wrestle until Nationals in hopes to heal the sprain.”

She tried to hide her limp as she stepped on the mat in Atlanta, competing at the highest level of women’s college wrestling. After a stellar freshman regular season, going 23-3, she was seeded #4. She won her first, then her second, then fell to the #5 seed Tiana Jackson in the quarters. Eventually she landed in 7th and claimed the coveted WCWA All-American status.

Post-tournament, her ankle was in pain, with deep black & blue hues around the entire circumference of her foot. “That Monday, after nationals, I got X-rays and found out it was broken,” explains the NY alum. “It was so crazy. [Wrestling with that injury] was just as much a mental challenge as it was physical. Now looking back, it was one of the most insane things I’ve tried.”

“Chey had a great first year,” said her coach, Jason Moorman, in his 10th season at King University, who is leading a program that won four straight national titles from 2014-2017. “I that think she not only grew as a wrestler but as a person. Not many people can handle the adversity that she had to with her ankle the week of WCWA National Championships.” (Moorman has won the Coach of the Year award three times.)

Cheyenne would go on to win her team’s Rookie of the Year Award. She also received the team’s Women’s Wrestling Ironwoman Award.

“Her level of, not only physical, but mental toughness and fortitude was inspiring,” added Moorman. “I’m extremely proud of her.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Her ankle is healing well. “It’s feeling awesome,” reports Sisenstein. “Right now I’m focused on getting 100% healthy. After that, I just want to have fun and be the best wrestler and person I can be. I want to grow and continue to make improvements.”

Moorman has high hopes for his All-American, with some caution. “This year we need to keep her healthy. If we can do that, and get her back on track where she was last February, she will continue to climb the ladder. No question a run for National Championship and making Olympic Trials are reasonable goals for Chey this season.”

Sisenstein already knows her plans post-wrestling. “Once I’m done with my wrestling career, I’ll jump back on a bike for sure. For some reason I just wanted to wrestle again. I missed it so much. I grew up with it, it was just a part of my life.”

“Chey” is grateful for her days and friends in New York. “I love you guys!” she says. “Keep being awesome!”

King will begin their competition schedule in late October.