Tayah Beach signs National Letter of Intent

Spencer-Van Etten senior Tayah Beach took the next step in advancing her wrestling career on Wednesday, signing her National Letter of Intent to attend McDaniel College.

The Spencer-Van Etten/Candor standout, a two-time state place-winner, will study Nursing at the private, selective liberal arts college in Westminster, Maryland, which is about four hours from home.

Beach, whose 120 career victories is the most by any female wrestler in Tioga County, placed fifth at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Girls Wrestling Championships this past season and was fourth in 2025. She was also a qualifier for the NYSPHSAA Girls Wrestling Invitational in 2024. The NYSPHSAA sanctioned girls wrestling as a championship sport at the start of the 2024-25 season.

She won three Section IV championships, was a five-time placer, and also won three IAC titles for the Eagles. A 14-year veteran of the sport, Beach wrestled several matches against boys, even while competing at the varsity level.

“Wrestling’s tough, as we all know, and Tayah had an even tougher road,” former head coach Jesse Buck told Beach’s family and friends at her signing. “She started when there wasn’t even any plans for a sanctioned girls wrestling program in New York or anywhere across the country, so she came up through wrestling all guys, doing something that was already tough with an added challenge on top of it.

“And the beauty of it being so tough is there’s a lot of highs and lows—way higher highs, way lower lows than you get with a lot of other things in life—and that affords the opportunity for an athlete and a coach to really form a much tighter bond. And you get to know each other really well, which is very special to have happened with Tayah because it was incredible to watch her come up through the grind, the grit, and ultimately the triumph that she had through the years and with a really storied career here at Spencer that I know will continue into college.”

“… you really were, above all else, a pioneer for girls wrestling, and you’re leading the way and inspiring so many people already to come through this program or just any program for girls wrestling, so I hope you know that it’s bigger than just you, but you’ve made a really big impact, and I’m proud to have been a part of it, and I’m proud to be in your corner in the future too, Tayah.” 

Nick Petrie, SVEC’s assistant coach for much of Beach’s varsity career, said, “Wrestling is a very difficult sport as it is, and I would argue a lot of our young ladies, especially Tayah, went through that adversity. We didn’t have a program. It was not expected. 

“Then we had the difficulties with Pennsylvania wrestling differently, New York was wrestling differently. How we’re going to get everybody to go to the same places. Throughout it all, I knew I could show up at practice and someone here was going to have the right type of energy.

“Some might say she was a little aggressive toward some of her teammates, but I think she got them right in line where they needed to be.” 

Both Beach and Buck believe that wrestling against boys has helped her at the high school level and will continue to be a plus in college.

“I think it taught me a different level of having to be dedicated to win,” she said. “Wrestling boys, I didn’t really win a lot, so I had to get used to losing and had to get used to learning what I have to do better to win.”

“Tayah, she’s tenacious for sure, so she’s going to bring a lot of aggressiveness, which I feel like is such a key in the sport of wrestling,” Buck said. 

“Above all, she still has such a hunger and appetite to learn and get better all the time. That’s the most important thing, for sure, coming into the college setting. Some people are burnt out by that time, some people have already achieved what they want to achieve, but I know that she is still extremely hungry and ready to learn and just wants to get better. That’s the best thing you can have.

“Aside from just the obviously more experienced mat time wrestling, you talk about taking your lumps, like she had to go through and really wrestle, I would say, in a disadvantaged position a lot. “She’s going through and having to do all that, and she took some losses where maybe she was better, actually, than the other person, but maybe they were just a little bit stronger or something like that. I think she took all of that and it kind of put a little chip on her shoulder, too, so I think that’s what has helped fuel the fire for her, in a sense, and probably just a little bit more confidence knowing that she came from that era of wrestling and brought that in.”

While one might think it was easier to switch from wrestling boys to competing against girls, Beach feels it was a little more difficult because she had to change styles.

“Going from the boys to the girls, it was a little bit harder because it was freestyle, but ultimately, I think it just made me tougher both mentally and physically,” she said. 

Having an opportunity to move from folkstyle to freestyle should be a plus at the collegiate level.

“A couple of years of freestyle now, the freestyle is new to everybody, and I’ve been around it for a little bit now.”

From a successful campaign as a youth wrestler through the ranks at the high school level, the years of commitment to the sport should play in her favor as well.

“I think it’s just the dedication I have to this sport,” she said. “It’s my 14th year now, so I think it’s been a long road. Wrestling is my life. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was little: wrestle in college and see where it goes from there.”

Commitment is key to a successful college athletic experience, and S-VE athletic manager Tyler Lloyd put it into perspective.

“Now the real work starts,” he said. “If you think that it was tough here at SVEC, your travel stuff; going to college, it’s going to be like a real job, so you’re going to really need to lean on your family. From experience, I can tell you, it’s tough.” 

He added, “College sports are a job. You’ve got to have a passion for it, and you need to lean on all these people here in green (shirts) because they’ll help you through it. And you’re going to have tough times, but you’re going to have some great times too.”

Beach visited the McDaniel campus before making her decision to become a member of the Green Terror, and things just seemed to click for her.

“I went on a visit there after seeing McDaniel posting all of the things, and I followed them for a while before committing,” she said. “When I went there, I just felt like I was at home, and I felt like that was the best feeling that I could have going into a new environment, a new state, being away from home.”