Just about every time Brianna Thomas steps onto a wrestling mat these days, she makes history.

She’ll do it again this week when she becomes the first Denair High School wrestler to compete at the CIF State Wrestling Championships in 30 years.

The 155-pound junior, who finished fourth in last week’s Sac-Joaquin Section Masters meet, will open state competition Thursday against eighth-seeded Emmyjane Bragg of Poway (San Diego).

Not bad for somebody who got into wrestling just three years ago solely to learn self-defense techniques.

“I really enjoy the physical aspect of the sport,” said Thomas, who helped deliver the girls’ first Southern League wrestling title in school history, and the first league title in the sport — boys or girls — in more than 40 years. “I think I realized when I made Masters last year as a sophomore that maybe I could go all the way and make it to state.”

In addition to dominating on the mat with an impressive 30-9 record, Thomas has helped outside of the wrestling room, too. She recruited friends to join the squad and has helped mentor young wrestlers in the Denair Den youth program. It’s all helping to revive a program that just a few years ago was at an all-time low.

“Brianna and Makenzie (Miguel) were the only girl wrestlers last year,” said coach Bryan Herrington. “This year, we had 10 girls on the team and won the league title. I’m not sure any of this would’ve been possible without Brianna and Makenzie.”

Miguel also qualified for the Masters meet but did not advance to state competition.

“My realistic goal this year is to place in the top 20 and, hopefully, make my ranking go up,” said Thomas. “But everything is pointing toward my senior season and getting on the podium.”

No matter how things turn out at the state tourney this week, Thomas is happy to have played a role in getting the girls program off the ground.

“Winning the league title was a grand achievement for sure,” Thomas said. “It was a dream to get a whole bunch of girls together and hang out and do overnight tournaments and stuff that bigger schools get to do.”