Hampton girls wrestling alum ramps up aggressiveness with college on horizon

By: John Grupp
Saturday, July 20, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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Hampton’s Isabella McNutt is becoming a little bit McNasty.

After graduating this year as the most decorated girls wrestler in school history, McNutt has added a new level of aggressiveness to her approach on the mat.

“I realized that I had a lot more success when I was more aggressive,” she said. “It just came recently. I’ve always been able to go out there and give a good fight. But aggression is something that definitely came later for me.”

Only three years removed from picking up the sport, McNutt continues to improve as she prepares for her freshman year at Division II Gannon.

She qualified for the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals for the third consecutive year, traveling to Fargo, N.D., with the rest of the Pennsylvania girls in mid-July following a four-day team camp in Lock Haven.

McNutt, who had lost her opening Fargo match each of the past two years, left nothing to chance this time, pinning New York’s Makayla Matson at 1:13 on July 13 in her debut.

“I was just ready to go,” said McNutt, who wrestled at 115 pounds. “The last two years at Fargo, the first match didn’t go too well. This year I was able to get a good start.”

“She was very, very dominant in that first match and looked really good,” North Allegheny girls and Pennsylvania coach Dan Heckert said.

McNutt, who placed sixth at the Northeast Regional championships in mid-May in Atlantic City, N.J. to qualify for nationals, lost her next two matches in a loaded 102-girl bracket, falling to a South Dakota state runner-up and a Massachusetts state champion to finish 1-2.

McNutt said there were no regrets after making her final 1,100-mile trip to Fargo.

“It was a good experience all around, as usual,” McNutt said. “With it being my last high school tournament, I knew I had to go out there and give it my all.”

McNutt is still a relative newcomer to the sport. Accomplished in mixed martial arts, she began wrestling as a sophomore and this past winter and pinned her way to the 112-pound title at the inaugural WPIAL girls wrestling championships. She went 0-2 at the 2024 PIAA West Regionals and failed to qualify for the state championships, but stayed busy this spring.

“She has been really good at focusing on (being aggressive),” Heckert said. “When you are wrestling in your local tournaments, it’s a little easier. When you go on to that national stage, everybody is good. You’ve got to take it to another level and learn how to be aggressive and push the issue. That takes a little bit of time to understand.”

McNutt saw improved results right away, faring well at a pair of events in April — the Viper Pit Nationals Duals in Tridelphia, W.Va., and the PAUSAW Club Duals in Downingtown.

“I’m not afraid now to go out there and try new things,” she said. “I’m not as scared to do the new techniques that I’ve learned. I don’t feel like I need to be as safe because I know what I’m doing and I have more experience now.”

McNutt will take that experience to Gannon, where she will wrestle for a well-regarded coach, Erin Vandiver, and a program that was ranked sixth in last season’s NWCA Women’s Wrestling Preseason poll.

The 5-foot-3 McNutt is expected to wrestle at 110 pounds as a freshman for the Golden Knights.

Heckert believes McNutt will thrive in college.

“I think she will do really well,” he said. “She will get to focus 100% on freestyle. She also gets to focus on wrestling girls the whole time. She hasn’t been able to do that. Hampton didn’t have a girls team, so she didn’t get to see girls until the postseason. Girls wrestle differently than guys. Their flexibility and everything, it changes. Now she gets to focus on that. She’s got a great coach at Gannon. She’s got a very tall ceiling.”

Tags: Hampton