FIGHTLIKE

AGIRL

COVER PHOTO BY ANDREA MELENDEZSTORY BY SEAN KEELER

When Megan Black got word five years ago that Alaskan Michaela Hutchison became the first girl to win a state high-school wrestling title against boys, she wept.

Not with joy. Rather, out of frustration. Frustra-tion and the disappointment that history would not wait up for her, that someone else had beaten her to it.

“I was like, ‘Dang it, I wanted to be the first girl to win,’” the sophomore wrestler at Ottumwa recalls. “I just wanted to do it. But that’s all right — I can still be the first girl in Iowa.”

With that, she laughs. For a high-school wrestler in Iowa, February is the stuff of dreams — the big-ger the better. The final preamble to the 2011 State Wrestling Tournament begins today at the district level, where hundreds of hopes will be realized while hundreds more wind up cruelly dashed.

In Class 3-A alone, there are at least two girls in the same weight class — 112 —who’ve been turn-ing heads on the mat: The Bulldogs’ Black and Cassy Herkelman at Cedar Falls High School. Not because they’re female — because they’re tall, tough, savvy wrestlers who also just happen to be girls.

“The biggest thing about her is she’s a gamer. When she gets out on that mat, she’s going to do everything that she can to win,” Cedar Falls assistant wrestling coach Ethan Wiechmann says of Herkel-man, a freshman sensation who, according to the

National Wrestling Coaches’ Association (NWCA) database, takes a 17-12 record into districts.

“Certain kids have got the killer instinct, and cer-tain kids don’t — regardless of whether they’re male or female.”

By all accounts, Herkelman’s got it. Ditto for Black, a sophomore who sports a 22-12 mark with eight recorded pins, according to the NWCA.

“I don’t think it adds any pressure on me,” Black says. “I don’t think of myself as a girl wrestler — just another wrestler. I want to make state just as badly as any boy out there.”

Officials at the IHSAA say that 39 girls partici-pated in varsity wrestling programs this season. That’s

COVER: CASSY HERKELMAN WALKS OFF THE MAT WITH HER COACHES AFTER HER LOSS.

CASSY HERKELMAN TALKS TO THE PRESS AFTER HER LOSSES FRIDAY MORNING IN THE CLASS 3A QUARTERFINAL AND CONSO-LATION ROUNDS. Rodney White/The Des Moines Register

LEFT: EARLY MORNING ROPE CLIMBING INSIDE A BARN ON HER FAMILY’S RURAL BATAVIA FARM IS A DAILY RITUAL FOR MEGAN BLACK. Christopher Gannon/The Register MIDDLE: OTTUMWA 112-POUNDER MEGAN BLACK IS LACES UP HER SHOES BEFORE THE CLASS 3-A FIRST ROUND AT THE STATE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT IN DES MOINES.Christopher Gan-non/The Register RIGHT: REFEREE ERIC ECKERMAN, RAISES CASSY HERKELMAN’S ARM AS THE WINNER OF HER MATCH AFTER HER MALE OPPONENT, WALKED OFF THE MAT AND WOULD NOT WRESTLE HER. Andrea Melendez/The Register

Officials at the IHSAA say that 39 girls partic-ipated in varsity wrestling programs this season. That’s nearly double the 20 that were on record three years ago.

Instead of a grass-roots movement that start-ed in communities and worked its way up, wom-en’s wrestling has started at the top and trickled down. The big breakthrough came in 2004, when it became a medal event at the Summer Olym-pics.

“Every wrestling coach out there will tell you that wrestling is a sport for everyone,” says Terry Steiner, the former University of Iowa wrestler who now coaches the U.S. women’s freestyle wrestling team. “But will they really back that up? When they’re saying that this is ‘a sport for everyone,’ if you’re saying that, then OK, let’s put girls on the team, too. We all believe that this is a great teaching tool; Why wouldn’t we want to educate half the population when we can edu-cate more?”

Steiner makes a heck of a point, but that point can also be a hard sell to many wrestling purists. Texas, California and Hawaii have sanc-tioned gender-specific girls’ wrestling, but the idea hasn’t caught on in Iowa. Here, if a female wants to compete, she has to tussle with — and beat out — boys.

While Herkelman and Black have never met, the parallels run deep. Black trains regularly with her little brother, Tucker, a teammate on the Ot-tumwa varsity. Both Megan and Cassy are daugh-ters of former Iowa prep wrestlers who qualified for state themselves.

Some individuals won’t wrestle Cassy or Me-gan — although “dodging” has been rare, their coaches say. Fortunately, so has heckling from rival crowds, not that it bothers the girls all that much.

And they’re as physically strong as they are mentally tough: As part of her workout routine, Black climbs a special 18-foot rope — using arms

only, no legs — that her father set up on the family farm near Batavia four times daily.

Matt Black, Megan’s dad, remembers one day last week in which his daughter came home with this wide, knowing smile across her face.

“Dad?” she asked.

“What, hon?” Matt replied.

“Dad, I dreamed I won districts, and I got to run over and jump in your arms.”

“That’s pretty powerful,” he says, softly.

The voice quivers and suddenly, Matt stops. This time, it’s Dad who’s tearing up.

1926 20112000s 2005

The Iowa High School Athletic Association begins sanctioning the wrestling. Since then, no girl has ever qualified for the state wrestling tourney.

Only a handful of girls have come close to making it to the state wrestling tournament in the last decade, including Tiffany Sluik and Chandra Peterson.

Heather Morley of Urbandale became the first female to get her armed raised in the dual meet state tourney-after scoring a pin, but was never able to reach the more prestigious, individual state wrestling

In Class 3-A alone, there are at least two girls in the same weight class — 112 —who've been turning heads on the mat: The Bulldogs' Black and Cassy Herkelman at Cedar Falls High School.

A History of Female Wrestling

Megan Black wrestles during the state wrestling tournament. Christopher Gannon/The Des Moines Register