Fight like a girl: Girls wrestling continues to grow throughout Illinois

Officially sanctioned by the IHSA for the 2021-22 season, high school girls wrestling has exploded in recent years across Illinois. That includes right here in the Herald-News coverage area. After Alexis Janiak of Plainfield South was the only local state champion in 2022, Alicia Tucker of Plainfield Central added a gold medal in 2023.

Last year, the area saw its best results yet with three champions. Kiernan Farmer of Peotone took first place at the 170-pound spot, Morgan Turner of Lockport was a champ at 110, and Turner’s teammate Claudia Heeney brought home the gold at 130 on her way to winning the award as the 2023-24 Herald News Girls Wrestler of the Year.

And that’s just the state champs. Minooka’s Addison Cailteux finished fourth at 130 as a sophomore, while Tucker was runner-up at 170 as a junior last year. A multitude of other area girls wrestlers finished on the podium who have since graduated, while others are looking to make names for themselves this year.

They’re off to a good start.

Bolingbrook’s Alejandra Flores recently took home the gold medal at Morris’ late-December Reindeer Rumble at 115, while Heeney finished first at 135. Minooka as a team finished third at the event with four wrestlers making it to the podium, while Morris finished sixth as a team.

With more girls and teams competing than ever, expect to see even further success.

“I think everyone has been wrestling pretty good,” Morris coach Lenny Tryner said at the Reindeer Rumble. “We had about 600 matches with (27) teams so that’s really impressive. ... We’ve had a lot of bigger teams, and we’re one of the bigger tournaments in the area, so that’s really good.”

While there are still some schools that have yet to start a program and others that only have one or two girls on their roster, most programs have seen an enormous jump in their numbers. Bolingbrook entered the year with 36 girls after having just 16 last year. Seneca has gone from one girl in the program to eight in two years. Joliet Central and West – a co-op program competing simply as Joliet Township in the sport’s early sanctioned years due to lower numbers – now have separate, distinct programs thanks to the exponential growth in participants.

The growth should continue, and with it, so too should the success.

“I know what I and others are capable of,” Flores said at the Morris meet. “Having that confidence is definitely going to help moving forward.”

The season already winding down. This year’s IHSA girls wrestling sectionals are scheduled to take place Jan. 31, with sectionals set a couple weeks later, on Valentine’s Day. The IHSA State Final Tournament will be held the weekend of Feb. 28 and March 1, again at Bloomington’s Grossinger Motors Arena.

The majority of the Herald-News area’s teams – including Joliet West, Joliet Central, Joliet Catholic, Minooka, Morris, the Lincoln-Way co-op and both Plainfield Central and Plainfield South – will be put into one sectional at a site yet to be determined. Those not there – including Plainfield East and Plainfield North as well as Romeoville and Bolingbrook – will instead compete in the Hinsdale South Regional.