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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – For decades, the high school sport of wrestling was not widely open to middle and high school girls.
However, as girls have been increasingly allowed to enter the ranks of competitive wrestlers over the last several years in Lake County, they have quickly made up for lost time.
This year, a record number of young women in local high schools are headed to the 2016 CIF State Girls Wrestling Championships, which takes place Feb. 26 and 27 in Visalia.
At the Girls North Coast Section Tournament held last weekend at Albany High School, Lake County had seven state qualifiers and 11 total medalists, according to Clear Lake High School Assistant Coach Rick Pyorre.
The top three finishers in each weight class advance to the state finals.
The California Interscholastic Federation began offering regional wrestling finals – for Northern and Southern California – for girls in 2006. A combined state championship began in 2011, according to the organization's Web site.
The seven who now advance to state include Emily Psalmonds of Clear Lake High and Adriana Lopez of Upper Lake High, who finished second and third, respectively, in the 106-pound weight class; Christina Wilson of Upper Lake, first in the 121-pound class; Kailei Foltmer, Middletown, who was first in the 131-pound class; Alixe Olson of Middletown, second in the 143-pound class; Isabella Quintana-Ocken of Middletown, third in the 150-pound class; and Jasmin Clarke of Kelseyville, who placed third in the 189-pound class.
Psalmonds, seeded third in the tournament, battled through with two decision and one major decision matches to finish 3-1 and take second place in the 106-pound division.
Her performance makes her the first Clear Lake High School girl wrestler to advance to state, her coaches reported.
“She wrestled excellent! We are extremely proud of her,” said Head Coach Aden Pierson.
Medaling but not qualifying for state were Krystal Lockwood of Lower Lake, fourth place, 101 pounds; Alicia Ledesma, fourth place, 111 pounds; Abebreanna Gonzalez, Lower Lake, sixth place, 116 pounds; Mikelynn Rowe, Lower Lake, seventh place, 131 pounds.
Alicia Ledesma is a first-year wrestler who came out to wrestle as her senior project, Pyorre said. She went 3-2 to take fourth place in the 111-pound division, with three pins, just missing advancing to the state championships in a close battle with the second seed, losing 2-0. Her only other loss was to the first seeded wrestler.
Pyorre said all of her coaches believe she deserves an A+ on her senior project.
Pyorre said there also were three additional state qualifiers and one more medalist from the local League Coastal Mountain Conference, bringing the total to 10 state qualifiers and 15 medalists. He said those wrestlers included Dillynn Perry, Fort Bragg, third place, 126 pounds; Nicole Karkar, Willits, third place, 131 pounds; Gabby Agenbroad, Willits, first place, 189 pounds; and Selena Verbera, Saint Helena, fifth place, 189 pounds.
Pyorre and Kelseyville High wrestling coach Rob Brown had high praise for all seven of Lake County's state-bound wrestlers.
“They're so athletic and they fight so hard, people are amazed at the drive the have and the desire,” Brown said.
Brown singled out Upper Lake's Christina Wilson, a sophomore who also went to state last year, for special praise.
He called Wilson “extraordinary.”
She has mostly wrestled boys and hasn't participated in a lot of girls' tournaments. But when she does, “she dominates,” he said.
“I don't think I've had a boy ever beat her. They fear her,” Brown said.
Advancing girls wrestling opportunities
“We've always had girls wrestling,” said Brown.
The difference, however, is that up until several years ago, the girls had to wrestle boys, and had no specific competition structure just for them.
While wrestling may still be thought of by many as a male sport, it was added to the Olympic roster in 2004 and offers the opportunity for female athletes to receive scholarships at the college level.
It's also a fast-growing sport for girls in high schools, although it continues to be dominated by male competitors, and isn't yet amongst the top 10 sports for girls ranked by participation level, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations.
The association tracks annual participation by students in dozens of different sports.
Small numbers of female wrestlers – sometimes only a handful a year, and usually participating as part of an established male team – began showing up in the statistics in the early 1980s, and over the last 10 years have started to show steady growth.
In the 2014-15 school year – the latest year for which numbers were available – the association reported that 1,806 schools nationwide had programs for girls wrestlers, who numbered 11,496. That's compared to the 10,597 school programs for 258,208 male wrestlers across the country.
Several years ago, Brown and other coaches around Lake County began to build their girls' teams, but up until last year girls couldn't wrestle in middle school, an important time for building skills before entering high school competition.
Brown went to local schools and asked for support to let the middle school girls wrestle, suggesting, “I think we should do it until someone complains.”
He added, “I just wouldn't give up on it.”
Pyorre credits Brown for stepping up to settle the matter about letting middle school girls wrestle, a decision that's benefiting programs countywide.
In 2015, the girls middle school wrestling began, and Brown said it has resulted in stronger girls high school wrestlers.
“To me, it's so important for the entire sport,” he said.
Added Pyorre – who was himself a high school wrestler and has coached since 1987 when he was still a high school student – “It's come a long way.”
He said that Terrace Middle School recently had more girl wrestlers come out than boys.
Pyorre's own daughter, Mavis, is an eighth grader wrestler. He said the middle school experience gives both girls and boys the benefit of more exposure to the sport, and a chance to get the basics down before arriving at high school.
Asked what makes a good wrestler, Pyorre said heart, dedication, balance, pressure and speed, and perseverance and determination are all key characteristics.
He said the sport, in turn, helps build young athletes' self-esteem, teaching them great life lessons about overcoming difficulties and the challenges set before them.
Pyorre said there still remain key differences in the boys' and girls' wrestling competition structures.
This coming weekend, boys are going to league finals in order to qualify for sections, a step not needed for female wrestlers due to their fewer numbers, he said. As the numbers grow, he said the pools will need to be narrowed for championships.
When the girls are at the state competition in Visalia, the boys will go to their sections finals. For a comparison of participation numbers, he said that there are at least eight mats running at the boys' sections, and three at the girls' sections.
The boys' state competition will take place in Bakersfield March 4 and 5 in Bakersfield.
In the days ahead, the wrestlers will be doing more practice and conditioning to get ready for the state finals, Pyorre said.
He said it's key to be in good shape, as they will need to be in the best shape possible for those three, two-minute rounds on the mat.
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