It was nearly midnight when Heaven Fitch took the mat for the final match of a state high school wrestling championship — but the night was far from over.
Heaven, a junior on the Uwharrie Charter Academy wrestling team in Asheboro, placed first in the NCHSAA Wrestling Individual State Championship on Saturday, beating out all the boys in the 106-pound weight class, according to theNorth Carolina High School Athletic Association. She is the first girl to win a North Carolina High School championship.
The teen wrapped up her season with a 54-4 record and additionally took home the division’s most outstanding wrestler award.
North Carolina High School Athletic Association/Twitter
“It was not really a close match, she dominated,” Heaven’s mother, Stacey Fitch, tells PEOPLE. “By the pictures, you can tell she’s so proud of herself. She was just so excited, just like any of the boys would be.”
Since winning the tournament, Stacey says the “aftermath has been crazy.”
“The outpouring of support and the stories that you hear, people commenting from all over the United States, we didn’t expect this at all,” she adds.
The teen, who started wrestling at age six after watching her brothers, keeps calling her winning title “surreal,” says her mother.
“Even [Heaven] said ‘I expected to get a “Hey, congratulations!” ’ and to move on.'”
Helen Maroulis, an Olympic wrestler and trailblazer for women in the sport, even saw the news and congratulated Heaven on her big win.
“Congrats Heaven!!!!! So awesome,” the athletetweetedSunday, adding muscle emojis.
“When Helen Maroulis tweeted to her she said ‘Wow, this is crazy. Little girls look up to me just like I look up to Helen,’” Stacey recalls her daughter’s reaction.
Still, Stacey says, Heaven has been “pretty grounded” throughout the experience.
She laughs, “We took pictures on the podium, she had a couple of interviews and when we walked off down the hall she said, ‘I still have so much homework.’ “
source: people.com
