On Jan. 9 and 10, Ida B. Wells women’s wrestling went to Kelso, Washington to compete in the “Braided 64” women’s invitational tournament at Kelso High School.
The whole women’s team competed against 102 other schools across the country, and placed 45th in a three way tie.
With 13 women representing IBW interspersed between weight groups, senior Zorina Johnson took an individual win in the 130 lbs bracket for the third year, and sophomore Linda James, junior Genevie Mondero and senior Gabbi Morejohn also making it to the second day. More placings and rankings can be found here.
“Generally, this is the most exciting tournament for our girls in the year,” says Johnson, a team captain for IBW wrestling. “Everyone’s excited for the overnight tournament, one of the biggest tournaments in the nation, and in turn, it’s one of the biggest folk style tournaments in the world.”
Folk style is the most common form of wrestling, emphasizing control, riding and a different point system that is only competed in the United States. There were 64 and 128-person brackets, which are massive, considering there are typically 16 to 32 girls per bracket.
Teams traveled to this tournament from all over Washington and Oregon, with one venturing all the way from New Mexico.
“We’re [IBW women’s team] one of the bigger teams…and there’s even bigger teams.” Johnson says that many don’t realize how big women’s wrestling is as a sport. Almost 1,000 girls competed at Kelso, with some teams having upwards of 30 girls on their team.
“With girls wrestling still being relatively new, I think it’s really important that they get this opportunity to grow and expand the sport and showcase that,” says Tony Petraglia, head coach of IBW wrestling. He says this tournament also shows that, “girls wrestling can be just as exciting as boys wrestling.”
Many athletes on the team had their own specific goals going into the tournament, from making it to the second round to getting a pin– when an athlete gets their opponent on their back shoulder blades to win the match.
Petraglia looked forward to seeing team building at the tournament and how each athlete responds to wins and loses. He is also interested to see IBW athletes, “take what we learn in practice and actually do that in a match. And so the more times we start to see people doing what we practice, that to me, that’s exciting, and then seeing how much they improve.”
Amber Barbour, a junior who is wrestling for her first year on the team, aimed to implement moves she learned in practice into play at Kelso. “At practice, I’m focusing on moves I know that I can do in a match, focusing on things that I would like to do and then also, just getting in the mindset that I am going to be wrestling.”
For Johnson, she had both personal and team goals, “I want to try new moves and [push] through when it really hurts.” She also wanted to be able to watch as many of her teammates’ matches as possible, and ensure all her teammates had a good time at the tournament.
While the lead up to such a big tournament can be a bit scary, the team combats it with their fun energy, excitement and support for each other.
The women’s team has been getting to know each other throughout the season, meeting at team members’ houses for team hangouts. At team bonding, they would make shirts with fun names on the back for the Kelso tournament.
“It was just really fun making up nicknames for all the girls and creating so many inside jokes when we’re team bonding and making them [shirts],” says Johnson.
Barbour has experienced the team’s accepting and enthusiastic environment, even in her first year. She thought that joining the team late in the season might be daunting, “but they just, immediately, became a community and were so welcoming and everything.”
Petraglia enjoys seeing such positive support for teammates at tournaments. Usually, a team is allowed to have two people in a corner of a match to help coach and encourage, but at tournaments they’ve had around eight people in each corner.
The women’s team is gaining more athletes every year and are always looking to grow their numbers. But with a larger team comes logistics. The IBW wrestling room is located in the mat room, adjacent to the weight room, with both the women’s and men’s team practicing in it at the same time. But the room can comfortably fit only so many athletes.
With women’s wrestling gaining more popularity, even if it is slow, their current space struggles to accommodate everyone. For some practices, they utilize the yoga room for beginners, and for wrestling live (simulating a match in practice) they are conscious of space, taking turns wrestling and watching. The current building plan is too small for their growing team. They are still hoping for a mat room two times their original size in the new building.
Barbour hopes that the IBW community knows “that we’re such a fun team to watch, and we love support, and it’s just such a great community, and wrestling is just really fun to watch”
The women’s team is looking ahead to their next competitions, with a home meet on Jan. 21, and a women only tournament hosted by Wells on Jan. 31 with matches starting at 10am. Entrance is $5 for students and $7 for adults.
