By Andy Loigu

With the same atmosphere and electricity that makes boys wrestling dual matches sizzle with excitement, Warren Hills hosted the first stand alone girls wrestling dual meet in Northwest Jersey history on Jan. 23 and Blue Streaks’ nation went home happy. Warren Hills beat Vernon in grand style, 72-12.

In the main gym, on a single mat, with a 7 p.m. start in front of a lively and boisterous student section which included the boys team, each competitor was introduced to the crowd and a trailblazing event was underway.

At 109 pounds, freshman Dalilah Deida floored her foe in 43 seconds and the rout was on. In girls wrestling there are 11 weight classes, 100, 107, 114, 121, 128, 135, 143, 151, 161, 180, and 215 pounds. Since there are few girls in the upper weights, some adjustments were made by both coaches in order for all the girls who wanted to wrestle to have a chance to get out there and be part of a history making night. NOTE: I’d like to see boys teams make similar tweaks to their lineups, so more guys can wrestle at their natural weights. Boys wrestling has the opposite problem, since most normal boys weigh more than 150 pounds.

There have been girls in the lineups of several area boys teams, here and there, for more than a decade. Sometimes a girl appearing in a line up has won a forfeit because the other team did not have a competitor in a low weight class, like 113. Some guys have felt horrible embarrassment when they have lost to a girl.

This year, girls wrestling got off to a flying start as 114-pound Warren Hills sophomore Katrina Kling (now 10-1 on the season) and Deida (now 9-2) won championships at the Queen of the East Tournament at South Jersey’s Pennsauken High School. Sophomore Blue Streak 121 pounder Courtney Hoff (10-2) took first place at the inaugural Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex girls tournament.

“I lift a lot,” said Kling, regarding her success on the mat. “My technique has a lot of room to improve, I want to be a state champion if that’s in the cards,” she added, indicating that strength alone won’t bring her the gold medal against high level competition. Her sisters, Heidi and Kelsey, are in eighth and fifth grade respectively. They also have taken up the sport and are winning their competitions. Sounds like a dynasty in the making, if that’s in the cards.

Katrina Kling started wrestling as a way to stay in shape for soccer during the winter months. “Then, I liked it so much I decided I’m quitting the other sports and I’ll just do wrestling now,” she said. She takes after her father, Christopher, a member of the 1990 Blue Streaks’ state champions (ranked number one overall in New Jersey after a dramatic win over Phillipsburg). She has that same fire and love of the sport on the mats.

Back in 1974, when the phrase “you’ve come a long way, baby” was popularized and applied to women’s sports by Billie Jean King and the Virginia Slims Tennis Tour, I covered a girls soccer game for the first time in Toms River, when I was the sports editor of the Ocean County Daily Times, which is no longer in circulation. I’d already been impressed by how well the Jaguars of Jackson High played girls basketball, winning a Shore Conference title that winter (a member of that team is now the president of Union County College), but I had my doubts as to how well girls could endure running up and down and across that big soccer field. I was amazed at the skills they displayed and how they kept at it to the final buzzer. I promise I’ll never underestimate women ever again.

About 10 years ago I covered a girls youth wrestling tournament at Hackettstown High, in their old gym. Spirited bouts went on throughout the day, on four mats, and I saw a lot of pins by headlock. Several of those girls went on to star on championship teams in soccer, field hockey, and basketball. A few of them kept wrestling.

Girls wrestling is here to stay!

AND IN GIRLS BASKETBALL…

Belvidere senior guard Brieann Opdyke scored 20 points in a 55-15 win over Warren Tech last week and 16 in a 46-36 win over Mount Olive, a Group Four school….The North Warren girls kept rolling, improving their record to 10-1…

….Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.