With the winter sports season starting up, wrestlers are able to go to more and more tournaments. There are eight girls that are wrestling this year: freshmen Elia Bergquist, Alexis Ellis, Diana Hatch, Jaymie Murry, Jaye Skinner, Emily Torres, Brylee Budde and junior Maylee Edwards. So far, the girls have been to one tournament this year.
Athletes typically set goals annually based on past experience, both personal and team based. However, the team is unable to set goals based on precedent because this is their first year.
“I couldn’t really predict how the season is going to go after the first practice because none of us have wrestled before and it was pretty new for us,” Skinner said.
Not only are many of the girls new to the sport, they are also participating in dual sports. Adding this sport to their already formulated set of activities has encouraged the girls to consider wrestling a priority. They are able to do this by forming support systems to fall back on if they have too much to handle alone.
“Coaches help out a lot, and my friends support me. It’s kind of hard, especially with school and everything but it works and I want to do both basketball and wrestling,” Murry said.
Despite adding an entire new championship and class of wrestlers, the sport itself has not changed. However, the girls are all considered to be on varsity, while the boys are not. The girls compete at both tournaments specifically for female wrestlers, and co-ed tournaments. They also have the same practice schedule as the boys.
“Even if it’s a JV tournament, it’s a Girls Varsity tournament,” Murry said.
While the girls would describe wrestling as a challenging sport, it is something that they look forward to learning more about and continuing to do their best at.
“I’m excited to wrestle more, It’s so much fun. And I can’t wait for what the rest of the season holds for us,” Murry said.