Abigail Nette has her sights set on representing her country – and she’s one strong performance from doing just that.
The Destrehan High School alum and freestyle wrestler will compete in a best of three series against Alexis Janiak at 2026 Final X on June 19. The women’s freestyle 59 kg matchup will determine the U.S. Senior World Team representative for that weight class in the 2026 Senior World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The two have faced off on the mat before. In the first meeting between the two, Nette defeated Janiak by 11-0 technical fall in the semifinals of the U.S. Open Championships in Las Vegas earlier this year.
The matchup against Janiak sees Nette bring an experience edge through her years of international competition. Janiak is a rising young star in the United States and is hungry for her first chance to be part of the Senior World Team.
The U.S. Open tournament was Nette’s path to Final X. Nette earned the U.S. Open championship at 59 kg, defeating Michaela Beck by 10-0 technical fall in the championship match.
“This past year, for me, has been non-stop working,” Nette said. “After my loss in Final X, I knew what had to be done and that was just to get back to the grindstone. I don’t think I took even a weekend off … I dove headfirst into practice every day and I work with amazing people there and I have amazing coaches.”
It was the latest accomplishment for a St. Rose native who has racked up numerous honors in her wrestling career thus far.
Nette made the Senior World Team in 2022 and has represented the U.S. on two U23 World Teams, doing so in 2018 and 2019. She won silver at the 2024 CISM Military World Championships and earned bronze medals at the first two United World Wrestling Ranking Series events this year. 2026 has been busy for Nette – she also won gold at the Pan American Championships this year.
She is also one of a special group of athletes who can lay claim to two collegiate national championships at different schools, winning those honors at Emmanuel University in 2019 and then Campbellsville University a year later in 2020.
“I just think work ethic, getting really into sports psyche … it’s kind of led me here,” Nette said. “My first year in college, 2017, I wrestled some of the greats there. Being on the senior national team … just being around these women as a 20, 21 year old (just makes you better).”
She has competed at Final X twice before, going 1-1 in those matches. She qualified for the World Team in 2022, defeating Lexie Basham 2-0. In her second Final X matchup, she fell to Olympian and former world champion Jacara Winchester.
Along the way, Nette has blended her athletic pursuits and accomplishments with her duties with the U.S. Army, which she joined in 2022 – she saw it as an opportunity for personal growth and achievement.
That gives her even a bit more confidence going into her matches – she’s got quite the support group.
“I’ve got an actual army behind me,” Nette said.
Nette found a love for wrestling early in her life, at just six years old. Her father, John, loved the sport and was a very successful wrestler in his own right, winning a state championship at Bonnabel. His passion drew Nette to wrestling.
She says she gets nervous before big matches, brought on in unison by her drive to succeed and fear of failure. But over the years, she’s learned to channel those anxious feelings into dominance. Nette earned one of the sport’s prestigious honors, the Patricia Miranda Medal, after going 20-0 in her senior year at Campbellsville.
The Miranda Medal aims to honor one outstanding athlete from women’s college wrestling who embodies the spirit of greats who came before her. In her final two college seasons of wrestling, she went 60-1, crediting much of that success to the work she puts in to refine her cardio and technique alike.
It’s work she learned to do long before she reached the collegiate level. Competing against boys, Nette won three USA Wrestling state championships as part of the Scorpion Wrestling Club in Metairie. She won a national championship in Oklahoma City in her eighth grade year.
As for her upcoming match, Nette said the plan is to keep pushing as she has.
“I don’t think much needs to change … maybe my mindset needs to get a little stronger,” she said after the U.S. Open win. “But other than that, I think we’re doing a really good job. I have a really great team behind me.”
