North Allegheny set to host 2nd annual Western Pa. girls wrestling championship

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, February 11, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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About 35 athletes visited North Alle­gheny last winter for the first Western Pa. girls wrestling championship, a number that should more than double this time around.

That’s how quickly the sport has grown.

“I would imagine we’re probably going to be close to 80 to 100 girls,” said North Allegheny coach Dan Heckert, who’ll have 12 girls in the competition.

The Western Pa. championship is Feb. 19 at North Allegheny and includes wrestlers from WPIAL and City League schools. The girls are divided into 13 weight classes in an open tournament, with the top wrestlers moving to a regional meet and eventually the state championships.

The sport isn’t yet sanctioned by the WPIAL and PIAA, but advocates expect that to happen soon.

The WPIAL has increased to 15 school-sponsored teams this winter, Heckert said, and has probably another dozen or two schools with girls competing independently.

“If you look, Canon-Mac has the largest team with a little over 20 wrestlers,” he said, “and then we have 12, I think Plum has 12, Connellsville is around 13 or 14, Seneca Valley has more than 10.

“Some programs didn’t exist last year and they’re already in double digits.”

That’ll make for a tougher Western Pa. tournament. A year ago, North Allegheny had three girls finish second and two others place third. The Tigers anticipate similar success at this winter’s championship, with the possibility of winning one or more gold medals as well.

Three contenders to watch are NA juniors Leyna Rumpler and Audrey Morrison and freshman Sophia Folks. Rumpler was a state finalist last season, and Folks is a ninth-grader who joined the varsity program having already wrestled for years.

However, Morrison’s rise best shows how the sport is attracting new athletes. She was a first-time wrestler last winter, embraced her new sport and emerged now as a contender, Heckert said. She has won two tournaments this season, including the Mid-Winter Mayhem on Jan. 14 at IUP.

“It’s her commitment,” Heckert said. “She dialed into the sport, she trained in the offseason and really honed in. This has become her sport. … It’s just a lot of hard work and determination from her. At this stage in girls wrestling, it comes down to who’s putting the time in.”

The trio helped North Allegheny win a team title at an out-of-state tournament Jan. 28 near Cleveland. Senior Callie Rautenbach won the 145-pound title in Columbia Station, Ohio, and four teammates finished as runners-up: Rumpler, Morrison, Folks and sophomore Kayle Dean.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth,” Heckert said. “We look at the girls who were first-year girls last year, they’ve flipped from having losing records to having winning records and placing at all of these tournaments. It’s encouraging to see.”

Ohio is ahead of Pennsylvania in terms of girls wrestling, which is one reason Heckert took his team over the border. The Ohio High School Athletic Association already has sanctioned the sport and will hold its first state championships in March, so teams there are further along.

“I wanted to get out there and see what Ohio had to offer,” Heckert said. “With the smaller number in Western Pa., we’re seeing the same girls all of the time. So I wanted to see something different, and we also wanted a challenge.”

The PIAA in December 2021 officially recognized girls wrestling as an emerging sport. That designation put it on track to be PIAA sanctioned once 100 schools statewide sponsor a team, a milestone that is quickly approaching.

Heckert said there are 96.

Once they add four more schools, advocates are hopeful to complete the process and ask the PIAA to officially sanction the sport next winter. The PIAA leadership has indicated it may wait to start until the 2024-25 school year, but the sport’s advocates are ready to go.

They’re expanding the state tournament format this winter by increasing the number of regionals from three to four. Kiski Area will host a regional March 5 for wrestlers from Districts 7 (WPIAL), 8 (City League), 9 and 10.

The top five wrestlers in each weight class from every region advance to the state championship March 12 at Central Dauphin.

“We’re trying to do everything possible that’s just like the boys,” Heckert said. “We’re four away. All indications are we should be a PIAA sport next year.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: North Allegheny