In its last tournament before being sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association as an emerging sport, the state's best female wrestlers will square off for the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association state tournament.
Among those best are 33 Cincinnati wrestlers and seven alternates heading to Hilliard Davidson High School on Saturday and Sunday.
At the most recent district meet, Harrison's girls finished second in Southwest Ohio, with Lebanon third, Mason fourth and Clermont Northeastern fifth. Individually, a number of girls qualified, including the area's only returning state champion Chloe Dearwester of Harrison, who is just a sophomore but already highly decorated and nationally known.
Dearwester was champion at the OHSWCA Southwest District Tournament Feb. 13 at Harrison in the 105-pound weight class, while teammates Raegan Briggs and Molly Hudler won at 115 and 170 pounds, respectively. Other district champions were Badin's Rachel Nusky at 125, CNE's Hanna Groeber at 140, Taylor's Meghan Werbrich at 145 and Erin Martin of Walnut Hills at 155.
While many of the girls have wrestled with boys since an early age, the sport for girls is up and coming and will be recognized as such by the OHSAA for 2022-23. That leaves this year for girls to pull double-duty as some have a chance to make the podium at the girls meet and possibly the boys championships in March at Ohio State's Schottenstein Center. Not all, but some of the girls compete in boys' events, with Dearwester ranked No. 13 among boys at 106 pounds.
At many schools, the boys coaches have handled everyone, but Harrison has already split their duties with Chris Baird heading up the girls program.
Harrison's sweetheart
Dearwester is the daughter of Rob Dearwester, an All-American wrestler at Harrison for Chad Dennis and Baird. Rob has four daughters, with Chloe as the oldest.
"Two of my sisters also wrestle, but the one's a princess," Chloe Dearwester said with a chuckle. "Hopefully she'll get into wrestling, too. Actually, I'm a sweetheart. I don't look like it on the mat, but I'm a sweetheart."
She's a sweetheart who likes to throw opponents. She does it so well that she's qualified for national events like USA Wrestling's event in Fargo, North Dakota, last summer. She hopes to continue her wrestling beyond Harrison and wouldn't mind suiting up for the prestigious Iowa Hawkeyes or Ohio State if the Buckeyes started a women's program.
"I've been contacted and colleges have been watching me for a couple years now," Dearwester said. "I've been going to Super 32 since eighth grade. It's really big for colleges to go to and recruit people."
As for her toughest competition, Dearwester said it comes in her own weight class (105) and from a teammate, Mia Hotchkiss of Harrison. Currently, girls wrestling allows multiple entries from a school in each weight class.
For the second year in a row, Harrison's Wildcats have qualified eight for state. Should Dearwester's opponents be thrown again, she could repeat as state champion and have two more cracks at winning more.
"My favorite move is the chin whip, but I need to be a better wrestler and not just rely on one move," she said.
Going out on top
At 110 pounds, Rachel Elizondo of Fairfield prefers the fireman's carry to the chin whip.
The senior is making her second trip to the state tournament and is trying to end her wrestling career with a title. After this weekend, she will focus on her soccer career at Indiana University-East in Richmond.
"I've been wrestling since I was in fifth grade," Elizondo said. "It's definitely taken off. At wrestling tournaments, I'd be the only girl or there would be just one other girl. Now there's girls tournaments and here I am going to state. It's been pretty great these last two years to see this grow."
Elizondo finished third at state last year, ahead of Bethel-Tate's Alexa Donahue. Other returning state placers are Badin's Rachel Nusky (second at 121); Lakota West's Kendra Hiett (fourth at 126); Taylor's Meghan Werbrich (second at 137); Lacie Reese of Western Brown (third at 137); Erin Martin of Walnut Hills (fifth at 150); Western Brown's Abi Miller (third at 170); and Jessica Edwards of Harrison (sixth at 235).
A better product
In just a year's time, Mason coach Nicholas Maffey has seen the overall quality of girls wrestling improve.
"It just blew up this year in terms of participation," Maffey said. "Girls were fighting tooth and nail and fighting some tough matches to qualify for the state tournament this year. It's great to see. There's some really tough teams in our area. The technique from last year to this year has jumped."
Maffey said the girls who were the pioneers are seeing the sport elevated by new participants. He likens it to Ronda Rousey, who took MMA (mixed martial arts) and UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) by storm only to see others take up the sport and eventually dethrone her with superior ability.
The sport could be a pathway for many female athletes to get scholarships as Maffey said there are four Division I wrestling programs and upward of 95 junior colleges, NAIA or Division II institutions that offer the sport for women.
"And they fill 10 weight classes," Maffey said. "There's so many more opportunities for these girls now. Even with us not pushing it, we've noticed it in our youth club. It's definitely here to stay."
Building a dream
Harrison's Baird has seen the improvement within the Wildcat girls, with one of his wrestlers improving from six wins in 2021 to 22 this winter. Harrison may have been a trendsetter as the district appears to be exploding.
"Our district had the most girls in the state registered to be on high school teams," Baird said. "Quite honestly, our district is the toughest. There were state-ranked wrestlers who were getting knocked out after winning only a match."
Coaches Dennis and Baird with the help of Rob Dearwester started a girls wrestling organization called Athena Wrestling Club, which has since kick-started the sport in the region.
"Most of the people were Harrison people but we had some Southeast Indiana girls, some from Kentucky and girls from Fairfield and here and there," Baird said. "We believe we were the first all-girls wrestling club in the state. We were doing it before the high school (girls wrestling) was a real thing."
In addition to Dearwester, Harrison 115-pounder Raegan Briggs is a product of the club who is 27-0 with 26 pins and nationally ranked.
"They fell in love with the group of girls there and how they made each other feel," Baird said.
Girls state qualifiers
From the district meet, the top four placers move on to state matches with fifth-place serving as an alternate.
Here are Southwest Ohio's participants in the 2022 state championships:
100 pounds
Joy Steinmetz, West Clermont, second; Haley Williams, Mason, fourth.
105
Chloe Dearwester, Harrison, first; Brynn Clark, Mason, second; Mia Hotchkiss, Harrison, fourth; Gabrielle Fenton, Taylor, alternate.
110
Rachel Elizondo, Fairfield, second; Emilie Cameron, Lebanon, fourth; Emma Zepf, West Clermont, alternate.
115
Raegan Briggs, Harrison, first; Kendra Hiett, Lakota West, third; Bailey Brewer, Colerain, fourth; Andi Addis, Lebanon, alternate.
120
Alex Wilson, Lebanon, fourth.
125
Rachel Nusky, Badin, first; Julie Sung, Mason, fourth.
130
Alexa Donahue, Bethel-Tate, third; Morgan Cope, Lebanon, fourth.
135
Lacie Reese, Western Brown, second; Lily Kinsel, Harrison, third; Lily Braden, CNE, alternate.
140
Hanna Groeber, CNE, first; Sophie Rohrs, Lebanon, second; Aaliyah Lee, Harrison, third; Sallie Wesselman, Bethel-Tate, fourth.
145
Meghan Werbrich, Taylor, first; Lexi Fornshell, Lebanon, second; Jesse Foebar, CNE, third; Jade Hartness, Bethel-Tate, alternate.
155
Erin Martin, Walnut Hills, first; Abi Miller, Western Brown, third; Myah Natorp, Mason, fourth.
170
Molly Hudler, Harrison, first; Bella Steverson, Mason, alternate.
190
Katrina Schneider, Sycamore, second; Chloe Vining, Bethel-Tate, third; Kirara Martin, Batavia, fourth; Viktorya Emelianova, Sycamore, alternate.
235
Jessica Edwards, Harrison, second; Kate Fenton, Lakota West, third; Ryle Kirkwood, Harrison, fourth.
State championship matches will be Sunday with the consolation rounds beginning at 11 a.m. and the parade of champions to follow in the afternoon with first, third and fifth-place matches on three mats.
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