Washington County's Girl Wrestlers Make their Mark

Southwestern Pennsylvania has always been a hotbed for high school wrestling, and we are currently in what every Washington County wrestling fan considers the best time of the year: tournament season!

Right now, the wrestlers are in the midst of the girls’ WPIAL individual section tournaments, which were held in five locations this past weekend, one of which was North Allegheny High School in Wexford. The girls who qualified here will advance to the next level, which is the PIAA tournament.

It's nice to see that girls have finally taken their rightful spot on the mat. Their presence has had such an impact that the national Federation of High School Sports, the governing body of all high school sports, proclaimed that the fastest growing high school sport in America now is wrestling. Why? Because girls have discovered the sport.

In Pennsylvania, girls’ wrestling has really taken off and now numerous high schools in the commonwealth have girls’ wrestling teams. At the collegiate level, a lot of universities and colleges have started women’s wrestling teams and are heavily recruiting in our area. For example, Washington & Jefferson College and West Liberty University now have girls' wrestling teams.

As a longtime wrestling official, it’s good to be part of the area’s rich wrestling tradition, which has produced numerous legendary and outstanding boy wrestlers who rose from the ranks to compete at the highest level of collegiate sports and even in the Olympics.

Now, let’s see what the girls can do. Here’s how our local Washington County girls placed at the individual championships at North Allegheny High School this past weekend:

100 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 4^th place Canon-McMillan’s Natalia Clem.

106 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 1^st place Fort Cherry’s Ella Trahan; 2^nd place Canon-McMillan’s Malia Ramos.

112 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 1^st place Canon-McMillan’s Marlee Solomon; 4^th place Ringgold’s Rhiana Tolliver.

118 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 3^rd place Canon-McMillan’s Yuni Ayala

136 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 4^th place Canon-McMillan’s Ava Williams

142 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 1^st place Avella’s Abigail Dolance; 4^th place Trinity’s Alexia Ashby

148 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 2^nd place Canon-Millan’s Evangeline Gray; 3^rd place Trinity’s Elaina Ashby

155 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 6^th place Canon-McMillan’s Alaya Henderson.

 170 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 3^rd place Canon-McMillan’s Audrey Calgaro; 2^nd place Avella’s Virginia Smith.

190 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 3^rd place Canon-McMillan’s Natalie Rush; 4^th place Peters Township’s Liliana Giulianelli.

235 LB. WEIGHT CLASS: 4^th place Canon-McMillan London Ellis; 6^th place Trinity’s Daelyn Norris.

These girls are to be commended for their hard work and dedication to the sport. But let’s not forget the boys, who will also wrestling in the WPIAL AA wrestling tournament which begins at 5 p.m. February 21 and continues at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Chartiers Valley High School. The state tournament for the boys will be held March 6-8 in Hershey.

Check out my blog next week for more wrestling updates.

 

Larry Maggi

maggil@co.washington.pa.us