Wearing sleek mirror sunglasses was Sanyah Queen’s signature style. Her trademark. You couldn’t miss seeing the St. Thomas Aquinas wrestler sporting them before and after matches.Queen had said it was just a fun thing she started after putting them on at a tournament one day and it stuck. Now, she can dish on the backstory of the sunglasses’ true origins.More: Wrestling: Handy index of postseason links from the team tournament to All-Area honorsMore: Vote: Readers' Choice 2024-25 Girls Wrestler of the Year poll“It wasn’t necessarily to wear sunglasses and be like the Mr. Cool or whatever that you guys call it,” the senior said with a laugh. MyCentralJersey did say she looked like a movie star in an article during her sophomore year.Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.“It was actually because I was nervous at my first tournament and wearing the shades helped, like, block that out a little bit,” Queen said. “When you’re wearing shades it’s hard for people to see your eyes but it’s also hard for you to see everyone else. So that would help me block out the crowd and it would help me try to focus on my mentality because that’s when my mentality was the worst.“So I started wearing them because of that and then my brother started doing it and then it became our thing to do it. But originally it was done because I was nervous at my first tournament. So now it’s just a thing. Now, it’s not about nerves. Now, it’s about just being loose and being myself.”The shades sum up Queen’s evolution on the mat — from a freshman first-year wrestler learning everything to a confident senior who always smiled and remembered to have fun in the sometimes-not fun sport.Queen is the MyCentralJersey Girls Wrestler of the Year after capturing the 138-pound state title in a 32-2 season. She also won her third-straight Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament and third-straight North Region 2 championships.Queen earned four state medals in her career after finishing fourth as a junior, second as a sophomore and fifth as a freshman (while competing for Elizabeth).Despite her success, Queen said she would sometimes doubt and put pressure on herself before matches. She worked with mentor Gabriel Roman, a former STA coach and her club coach, about improving her mindset.Things started to click in the summer and Queen realized that having a business trip-like mentality towards wrestling wasn’t working for her. Simply, it didn’t reflect her fun-loving personality off the mat. A jokester, not a dour party pooper.Plus, all of her hard work and belief in her training gave her the confidence to start enjoying herself in the sport. So, going forward, Queen remembered to smile — even during matches — and her wrestling demeanor started to reflect her true personality.“I learned that my mentality is best when I’m having fun, so I always try to go out there and have fun,” said Queen, who has committed to Western New England University. “That’s something that I had to learn. It took a little bit longer for me to learn but I finally got it and now I feel comfortable. … If you’re not having fun, there’s no point in doing this sport. So, for me that’s what works best. I think every young wrestler needs to find what works best for them to have a good mentality but I do recommend having fun on the mat.”Along with teammate Makayla Decker, she helped start “dance parties” for the team after practice, a mix of bonding and an enjoyable way to keep weight down.She has another wrestling fashion trademark — wearing different color shoes. That came about with her brother Jasiah, a former star at St. John Vianney who qualified for this year’s NCAA Division 1 Tournament for Drexel.Sanyah explained she liked the white shoe look and her brother preferred the black shoe. One day when shopping, each thought they might try the other look.“So from that point on we just agreed that we were going to do mix-match shoes,” Queen said. “So we ended up doing that for the rest of our careers.”When it comes to putting those shoes in action, Queen took another step at last fall’s prestigious Super 32 tournament. She said competing against other top-level opponents helped her in adapting to different styles, as opposed to coming in with a specific game plan.Take her 12-6 win over Newton/Kittatinny’s Eva Barry in the state final. Queen didn’t put herself in dangerous positions and deftly countered her opponent in the methodical win.Of course, she sported her eyewear in Atlantic City — for a different purpose as she grew into a senior veteran.“I don’t wear them all day anymore,” she said. “I put them on right before my match. ... So it’s not really a necessity anymore. It’s more so just for style.”One another thing about Queen, her name was incorrectly spelled Saniyah in the media after it was entered wrong the past three years in Trackwrestling, the official site for results and rosters. Even the NJSIAA spelled it that way in the bios it sent out before the state finals.MyCentralJersey only found out after she sent a text with her right spelling to set up an interview. She was asked if the misspelling ever bothered her?“It used to but eventually I got used to it and didn’t feel the need to correct it anymore,” Sanyah said. “I knew when I won something big my name would be known.”

St. Thomas Aquinas' Sanyah Queen Girls Wrestler of Year

Wearing sleek mirror sunglasses was Sanyah Queen’s signature style. Her trademark. You couldn’t miss seeing the St. Thomas Aquinas wrestler sporting them before and after matches.Queen had said it was just a fun thing she started after putting them on at a tournament one day and it stuck. Now, she can dish on the backstory […]

Wearing sleek mirror sunglasses was Sanyah Queen’s signature style. Her trademark. You couldn’t miss seeing the St. Thomas Aquinas wrestler sporting them before and after matches.Queen had said it was just a fun thing she started after putting them on at a tournament one day and it stuck. Now, she can dish on the backstory of the sunglasses’ true origins.More: Wrestling: Handy index of postseason links from the team tournament to All-Area honors

Plus, all of her hard work and belief in her training gave her the confidence to start enjoying herself in the sport. So, going forward, Queen remembered to smile — even during matches — and her wrestling demeanor started to reflect her true personality.

“It was actually because I was nervous at my first tournament and wearing the shades helped, like, block that out a little bit,” Queen said. “When you’re wearing shades it’s hard for people to see your eyes but it’s also hard for you to see everyone else. So that would help me block out the crowd and it would help me try to focus on my mentality because that’s when my mentality was the worst.“So I started wearing them because of that and then my brother started doing it and then it became our thing to do it. But originally it was done because I was nervous at my first tournament. So now it’s just a thing. Now, it’s not about nerves. Now, it’s about just being loose and being myself.”The shades sum up Queen’s evolution on the mat — from a freshman first-year wrestler learning everything to a confident senior who always smiled and remembered to have fun in the sometimes-not fun sport.Queen is the MyCentralJersey Girls Wrestler of the Year after capturing the 138-pound state title in a 32-2 season. She also won her third-straight Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament and third-straight North Region 2 championships.

Queen earned four state medals in her career after finishing fourth as a junior, second as a sophomore and fifth as a freshman (while competing for Elizabeth).“It wasn’t necessarily to wear sunglasses and be like the Mr. Cool or whatever that you guys call it,” the senior said with a laugh. MyCentralJersey did say she looked like a movie star in an article during her sophomore year.

“I don’t wear them all day anymore,” she said. “I put them on right before my match. … So it’s not really a necessity anymore. It’s more so just for style.”Things started to click in the summer and Queen realized that having a business trip-like mentality towards wrestling wasn’t working for her. Simply, it didn’t reflect her fun-loving personality off the mat. A jokester, not a dour party pooper.“I learned that my mentality is best when I’m having fun, so I always try to go out there and have fun,” said Queen, who has committed to Western New England University. “That’s something that I had to learn. It took a little bit longer for me to learn but I finally got it and now I feel comfortable. … If you’re not having fun, there’s no point in doing this sport. So, for me that’s what works best. I think every young wrestler needs to find what works best for them to have a good mentality but I do recommend having fun on the mat.”

St. Thomas Aquinas Saniyah Queen defeats Newton’s Eva Barry in their 138 lbs final at NJSIAA Girls State Westling Championships in Atlantic City on March 8, 2025.

Take her 12-6 win over Newton/Kittatinny’s Eva Barry in the state final. Queen didn’t put herself in dangerous positions and deftly countered her opponent in the methodical win.Sanyah explained she liked the white shoe look and her brother preferred the black shoe. One day when shopping, each thought they might try the other look.

Of course, she sported her eyewear in Atlantic City — for a different purpose as she grew into a senior veteran.One another thing about Queen, her name was incorrectly spelled Saniyah in the media after it was entered wrong the past three years in Trackwrestling, the official site for results and rosters. Even the NJSIAA spelled it that way in the bios it sent out before the state finals.MyCentralJersey only found out after she sent a text with her right spelling to set up an interview. She was asked if the misspelling ever bothered her?When it comes to putting those shoes in action, Queen took another step at last fall’s prestigious Super 32 tournament. She said competing against other top-level opponents helped her in adapting to different styles, as opposed to coming in with a specific game plan.Along with teammate Makayla Decker, she helped start “dance parties” for the team after practice, a mix of bonding and an enjoyable way to keep weight down.

She has another wrestling fashion trademark — wearing different color shoes. That came about with her brother Jasiah, a former star at St. John Vianney who qualified for this year’s NCAA Division 1 Tournament for Drexel.Despite her success, Queen said she would sometimes doubt and put pressure on herself before matches. She worked with mentor Gabriel Roman, a former STA coach and her club coach, about improving her mindset.“So from that point on we just agreed that we were going to do mix-match shoes,” Queen said. “So we ended up doing that for the rest of our careers.”“It used to but eventually I got used to it and didn’t feel the need to correct it anymore,” Sanyah said. “I knew when I won something big my name would be known.”