The start of the second year of girl’s wrestling has begun at both Lakeview Middle School and Lakeview High School. They are breaking barriers and challenging traditional gender roles in sports. While the team is still small and trying to recruit, those who are on the team are absolutely crushing it by showing off their strength and skill. Most recently, two high school girls, both juniors – Aurora Hall and Kayleeni Dos Santos medaled at their tournament on December 8th showing us just how much talent and dedication these girls truly bring to the mat.
Hall, who only started wrestling last year, expresses her excitement about this season, “So far my season has been going great with my first win at the girls tournament December 8th, where I brought home gold.”
Hall shares with us that she originally only started wrestling because her brother did and she wanted to give it a try. She ended up loving it and so she continued on with it. Both this year and last year she has wrestled in her weight class of 115 – which are categorized by 5’s. During practice, her favorite thing is learning new moves to use in matches, along with being able to talk with her friends. However, her least favorite part is running – both before and after practice.
Similarly to Hall, Sophomore Madi Tsai’s favorite thing about wrestling is “having practice with all the other girls and the friends she’s made along the way … [her] least favorite thing is running.”
Tsai decided to try out wrestling this year because her friend convinced her to give it a shot, even though she had never wrestled before. So far, her season has been going really well and she has learned a lot along the way. She is in the 135 weight class and continues to improve her skill as the season continues on.
Dos Santos, who recently received a medal for second place at a tournament, reveals to us what got her into wrestling, “I grew up wrestling and roughhousing with my brothers, and after a few years of boxing, I started wrestling my sophomore year. It quickly became my favorite sport I’ve ever done.”
After medaling so soon in her season, she is feeling confident this year and would like to thank her Coach Ryan for that. Her favorite thing about the sport is the individuality and how active the sport is. She loves being active and so wrestling really suits her. Her least favorite thing is that she tends to get in her head a lot – it’s both her biggest supporter and biggest hater. It made her realize everything is mental – it’s truly a mind game, and she believes that’s openly the hardest part of the sport. This year Dos Santos weighs in at the 135 weight class and is feeling confident on how far this season will go.
As all of these young women continue to practice and work hard, they are constantly there supporting one another through thick and thin, along with their coach and the boys wrestling team right by their side.
As the team continues to grow, it will be exciting to see how these trailblazing athletes inspire future girls in the upcoming years and women’s wrestling in the area. The progress so far shows that the sport is evolving, allowing more and more women into the sport. Just in the last couple of years if a girl wanted to wrestle they had to play on the boys team – and now they have their own team. Being able to witness these young women lead us in charge toward greater equality and recognition as women’s athletes is truly amazing. Good luck girls!
