On March 2, 2018 Marion Girls Basketball won the class 4A state championship at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The girls were rated the top seed in the state and went undefeated 26-0, winning the final game against Grinnell, with the final score being 69-48. Practice started November 9, and the total season lasted 117 days.

The Marion Girls Basketball team has made it to state the previous two years in 2016 and 2017, but didn’t win the championship. Riley Wright, ‘21, played varsity for the first time and despite the pressure, didn’t feel the tensions during the championship. “I wasn’t really nervous because I knew I was playing with good people who would pick me up if I made a mistake. I didn’t let anything get to my head.” Even though the team was confident they were going to win the championship, they didn’t start slacking before the game was over. “I would practice for at least one hour, five days a week,” Wright said.

Even though Marion was rated the top seed in the state, the team still had some tough matches. “The Center Point Urbana game was the hardest match of the season because they knew us so well and it’s hard to beat a team three times,” Wright said. Marion won the match against CPU with a final score of 56-46 on March 1, 2018. After the celebrations for winning the championship, the team was able to return to school, but haven’t been treated any different than before. “People haven’t been treating me differently, but more people know me than before,” Wright said. Being a freshman and playing varsity basketball isn’t easy, and even though the team is losing some good players this year, Wright and the rest of the team are confident they are going to be just as good next year.