Wawasee’s girls wrestling program are ready to get after it in its first-ever official wrestling season. (Photos provided)

Regardless of what happens this season within the Wawasee Girls Wrestling program, it’s going to be a memorable one!

The 2024-25 campaign is the first IHSAA-sanctioned season for girls wrestling around the state, and Wawasee has answered the bell in terms of preseason numbers. Consistently with a half dozen to dozen athletes in the room this offseason, the girls showed out for the initial callout, and per head coach Miguel Rodriguez, are ready to roll.

“When I first started coaching, I wanted the girls that were here to start working down at the middle school to get the interest going there,” said Rodriguez, now in his third year as girls head coach. “They got that experience, and now we are seeing a lot of them now in the high school room. Just another day at the park. But we also have five girls who have never wrestled before, but they are picking things up pretty quickly.”

There isn’t much time to posture in the practice room as official workouts have already been going for near two weeks, and the first action of the season is on the doorstep. Wawasee will take part in Whitko’s first-ever Girls Wrestling Invite on Saturday. Invitationals served as most of the work the girls saw in the first two seasons of probationary wrestling as the IHSAA determined whether the sport had enough groundswell. Well, fast forward through those two years of determinations and the sport is healthy and ready to show it belongs.

“You could see this coming,” noted Rodriguez. “The interest was always there, it was just convincing some of the girls to come out. Once they started, you just saw more and more show up. It happened with us, it happened with bigger programs like Penn and Merrillville. But you also saw it at places like Garrett and West Noble.”

Some of Wawasee’s returners.

Wawasee will begin the 2024-25 season with 17 on the roster, eight of those as major returners. Atop the list are two seniors in Sylvia Dixon and Cyanna Leon, both with wrestling experience with various levels of success, Leon came up just short of a state bid a season ago. Cyanna’s younger sister, junior Naviya, is part of a three-woman junior class. Naviya had a tremendous sophomore campaign, as did both Alex Garcia and Kenidi Nine, the latter two reaching the IHSGW State Finals. Garcia reached the state level in each of her first two seasons, finishing eighth as a freshman.

“Half of this team returns, and that isn’t just coming out again to be on the team, but that means they have to show the younger girls what it takes,” Rodriguez said. “These older girls are leaders, and are showing what the younger kids need to do to reach that level.”

Three sophomores make up the remainder of the returners in Karlee Clevenger, Peyton Hohman and Tiana Senders. Clevenger had a noteworthy freshman campaign, reaching the regional rounds of both the girls and boys state tournaments, Clevenger getting a win at the Elkhart boys sectional to stun her way into the regional round. Rounding out the sophomores are a pair of Evalyns – Blanco and Tinkey – as well as Nayli Bautista and Makenna Makunenge.

The rookie class includes Lydia LaBarbera, Aaliyah James, Hadley Faroute, Katie Sigsbee and Isabelle Brown.

Rodriguez noted the big numbers among underclassmen is exciting, as they now form the core for the next wave.

“We are now looking at two or three weight classes where we are going two or three deep,” Rodriguez said. “So, right away for some of these girls, they are having to do wrestle offs to see who is going to compete. If not, then can you move into another weight class. I think that shows where the interest is here. We have a lot of girls out, but it’s not just people being here. We are competing and ready to show what we’ve got.”

Wawasee’s first official dual will take place Wednesday, Nov. 12, at home. For more calendar dates, see the official calendar on our website.