Kaufmann Continues Her Family’s Wrestling Legacy

These days, Elle Kaufmann is admittedly “a little bored.” Coming off her third straight state wrestling title last month to eclipse her father, Rocky, a two-time Lovett state champion, Kaufmann is sorely missing the adrenaline rush she gets from leaving it all on the mat. The Lovett junior, who two years ago became the school’s first-ever state champ, is staying busy with track & field, but the grueling and punishing nature of high school wrestling, of which she hopes to become Georgia’s first-ever four-time female state champ next year, remains at the forefront of her mind.

“I will say coming off a third straight championship and just completely dropping wrestling for the first time in a couple months, it was a little bit of a shock,” Kaufmann explained during a recent interview with the AJT.  “I miss the challenge of it. It makes you feel greater than life in a way. And being surrounded by so many like-minded people, it really pushes you toward that direction. There’s something about the wrestling community. It’s so tight and they’re all about helping each other out and putting you through it.”

Kaufmann, whose older brother, Aidan, used to wrestle at Lovett and is now studying aeronautical engineering at Embry-Riddle Prescott, went through a lot this winter. For nearly two months during the heart of this past season, she battled one illness after another, including a nasty stomach virus, while also suffering a relatively minor dog bite. Miraculously, she stayed in top-notch condition, not missing a single meet throughout her dominant run to the Georgia High School Association traditional wrestling state championships in Macon where she pulled off the state title trifecta in the all-classification girls’ competition by winning the 145-pound girls’ weight class with a 10-4 decision over Cherokee’s Savannah Chao.

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I miss the challenge of it. It makes you feel greater than life in a way.

“Winning it this time was definitely pretty fun,” shared Kaufmann, whose uncle also wrestled at Lovett. “It was also cool to build upon our family’s legacy. Legacy is a huge thing at Lovett. We have generations of people who come to that school and go out as champs as well.”

A multi-talented athlete who, in addition to excelling in shot put and discus in the spring plays first base for the school’s softball team in the fall, Kaufmann has her eye on continuing her wrestling career as she starts weighing her college options. Unfortunately, though women’s amateur wrestling is becoming more popular, quite a few colleges, including her dream school, Army, have been slow to incorporate the program at the varsity level into their respective athletic departments.

Nevertheless, Kaufmann, who may go down as the greatest female high school wrestler in Georgia history, remains undeterred in her goal of wrestling as long as she possibly can. (Aidan originally had hoped to wrestle in college and actually walked onto Embry-Riddle Prescott’s team as a freshman but an excruciating shoulder injury from a state tournament during his senior year at Lovett eventually necessitated surgery and he could not proceed.) There’s always a new technique, cardio exercise, or conditioning cycle — to master that requires tapping into every ounce of strength, which delivers the ultimate rush.

“The thing about wrestling is that it always surprises you with new challenges,” added Kaufmann. “And it also depends on the coaches you have and whom you’re surrounding yourself with. Wrestling is always going to be the toughest sport in the world, no matter what I do.”

Though the next high school wrestling season doesn’t start until November, this off-season still presents opportunities for Kaufmann to partake in a couple premier wrestling tournaments, including the marquee event of the summer, the 2025 USA Wrestling Junior and 16U National Championships in Fargo, N.D., in which wrestlers from all corners of America, as well as Puerto Rico, will compete.

The thing about wrestling is that it always surprises you with new challenges.

This time of year, quite possibly, the only thing Kaufmann hates more than counting down the days until her next wrestling competition is talking about herself. Ask her about the highlights from this past season, and she will quickly cite the boys team’s smashing success at States. As it turns out, two of the boys’ standouts, Chris Mance and Cael Kusky, are state champs themselves, in the 190-pound class and 126-pound class, respectively, and regularly trained with Kaufmann during this past winter. Ask her about what she credits for her now yearslong string of triumphs on the mat, and she answers as follows: “I’m thankful for all my coaches. They’re the only reason why I’ve been so successful.

“I would never be in this position if it weren’t for my family. My father and my mother have always told me that I could do anything I wanted. I guess I did them right so far. And my brother, who’s the reason that I got into wrestling in the first place, has always been my idol.”

This winter, a scheduling conflict hindered Aidan from traveling cross-country from Prescott, Ariz., to watch his sister take home a third state title. Much to his dismay, he had to resort to watching the match online from his school dorm. However, should Elle be gunning for her fourth state crown next year, there is little doubt that he will be in attendance for the next chapter of his family’s brilliant wrestling legacy to unfold.