Girls Wrestling takes off in Missouri sports

By Brad Ziegler

The 2023-24 girls high school wrestling season recently kicked off with the first events of the season, and the sport, which started in Missouri high schools just five years ago, has become an established part of most of the athletic programs in area schools.

The level of competition in girls wrestling has increased steadily over the last few years as more girls have trained and competed in wrestling not only through their schools but on a year-round basis through programs such as the MoWest Championship Wrestling Club.  Grandview High School girls wrestling coach Greg Linhart says “Competing year-round is critical in any sport so I attribute a lot of these girls’ success so far to that.  However, I support our girls to do cross country, track, band, theatre, so they still have fun while they’re teenagers.” 

The Belton,  Grandview and Center high school athletic departments offer high school girls wrestling, and Belton’s team enters the season with high expectations.  They are currently ranked fifth in the state in the Class 2A division of the state’s largest schools, and they hope to build on the success of last year’s team, which finished tenth at the state championship meet. The Lady Pirates are led by Savanna Franklin, a runner up at last year’s state meet who recently won her 100th career match, and Louise Juitt, a two-time state medalist.  Senior state meet qualifiers Rylee Meredith and Lauren Patrick are also leading the way for the team this season.  Coach Linhart said that “having these upperclassmen for the young freshmen to look up to and be role models is critical and all four girls are definitely good role models both on the mat and in the classroom.”

Belton has doubled the size of their team compared to last year with 35 girls participating this season.  They successfully kicked off the season at the Versailles Invitational, with Franklin, Marcella Mauk, and Sydney Stifter taking home individual championships, and won the team championship at St. Joseph Central in early December. The team finished first at the 29 team Lady Pirates Invitational meet on December 8 and 9 and they have more than a dozen additional meets scheduled leading up to the 2024 Missouri State Championships meet in February.

Grandview’s Lady Bulldogs wrestling team recently kicked off their season with a home match against Blue Springs and Truman and they also face a full schedule over the next few months. Coach Dennis Charbonneau is in his third season with the team and has seen it grow in participation each season.  Coach Charbonneau is also pleased with how well the girls wrestling program has been embraced by the student body during his time as coach there.

Charbonneau’s expectation for this year’s group is for “continuous improvement throughout the season” and said that he is “pleased with the progress that he has seen thus far.” He is looking to senior Ivone Lucho to provide leadership to his young squad that also features one junior, four sophomores and two freshmen. Lucho is a four-year starter for the Lady Bulldogs and Charbonneau says that she leads by example very well.  The Lady Bulldogs are 3-1 so far this season and competed well in the recent seven team Raytown South Holiday Tournament.

All three teams feature graduates who have gone on to wrestle collegiately, including Belton graduate Jada Meredith, a sophomore wrestler at Avila University.  Avila is in its third year of women’s wrestling, the first as a stand-alone program and the first under head coach Zach Revier and has three nationally ranked wrestlers leading the way this season.  The Eagles went 3-1 last weekend in the eight team Eagle Duals tournament at the Mabee Fieldhouse and boasts five duals wins so far this season as they head into the holiday break.