The North Creek girl’s wrestling team has gained an influx of players, and it’s sending them beyond the bounds of the district. In this season of girls wrestling, the roster has increased from under 5 to over 15 wrestlers. This has drastically impacted the ways in which the girls compete, and has shot them into more and more competitions beyond the limitations of the district.
Having more girls has united the team in ways they didn’t even realize, through competitions, training, and attending girls-only tournaments. On January 1, 2024, the girls attended a Sedro-Woolley invite, three of the varsity wrestlers placed top 5, with Jane Taylor in 2nd place, Isabel Loomis in 3rd, and Zoey Olson in 5th. The junior varsity wrestlers also had Nitya Anand place first.
In another district competition, sophomore Isabel Loomis had the chance to wrestle a boy from the same weight class, and put up a good fight, “He was really strong but it just felt like wrestling a strong girl,” said Loomis. She was encouraged and supported by her teammates cheering her on from the sidelines, another unexpected feature the team has gained since their development.
“Everybody is pretty close in weight classes so everybody’s running to watch each other’s matches,” said junior captain Jane Taylor, “We’re all girls, we all want to cheer each other on.”
Climbing through the rings of the district has given the team a major morale boost, which the team itself has benefited from, “Everyone wants to be there, and helps each other stay there even when we’re losing,” said senior captain Zoey Olson.
Wrestling is a very physically demanding sport, and requires hours of continuous training and practice, but it’s different for boys and girls. In the past, the girls wrestlers have trained to compete with boys, but with a full team, they’ve been able to focus solely on girls training, “We’ve started training towards women specifically instead of training towards just men because how men train wrestling and women train wrestling are like two very different subjects,” said Olson.
The changes to the girls wrestling program is something that is expected to grow and develop through the upcoming years, with further encouragement to girls to take an interest in the sport.
