Plum girls wrestlers continue growth in 1st year as PIAA sanctioned sport

By: Michael Love
Sunday, December 17, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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When the Plum school board voted to sponsor a girls wrestling program in June 2022, it got the ball rolling for new opportunities in a district rich with wrestling tradition.

Eighteen months on, 12 girls represent the Mustangs in the newly sanctioned PIAA sport.

Coach Dave Miller said progress was made right from the start last year and continues with goals and expectations for the WPIAL and PIAA championships in February and March.

“My friend has been coaching a boys team in New Jersey for a while, and he helped start a girls team about four or five years ago,“ Miller said.

“Pennsylvania didn’t have it yet. But there’s been such a groundswell of interest and support the past couple of years. It’s just taken off. Last year, they doubled the number of schools from the year before. It’s growing like wild fire.”

The PIAA officially sanctioned girls wrestling May 17, putting it in the same grouping as others such as swimming, basketball, baseball and football.

It made good on its promise that if schools in the state came through and 100 or more would sponsor girls wrestling, it would do the same.

Pennsylvania became the 38th state to sanction girls wrestling, and now more than 30 teams in the WPIAL, including Plum, Kiski Area, Burrell and Fox Chapel, are building momentum.

Plum wrestlers will be present at matches and tournaments leading up to an open WPIAL individual championship tournament Feb. 17 at North Allegheny.

A West Regional tournament March 2 at Canon-McMillan leads to the PIAA championships March 7-9 at the Giant Center in Hershey.

“Last year felt real for the girls even though it wasn’t sanctioned yet,” Miller said.

“The state tournament was really nice. It was real wrestling. I was shocked at the quality of talent at the state level, and even at our regional level. It is a pretty high level.”

Plum has a mix of experienced competitors and those newer to the sport.

Sophomore Saphia Davis is still relatively young in terms of her high school class status, but she has three years of wrestling experience under her belt. She was 8-9 in high school matches last year.

She used that experience Dec. 9 at the season-opening Butler tournament.

Davis went 3-1 at 124 pounds, and all three wins were by fall. She was set to wrestle for third place against Brashear’s Tamara Humphries, but the match would have occurred too late in the day and tournament officials ended the event.

Davis did face Humphries earlier in the tournament and won 6-0.

“It is a great feeling to have this with the support of (the PIAA) when before it was just us pushing to them,” Davis said.

“It really hit me as to how far we’ve come and what we have in front of us. It is even more real this year. We have a team. We have a group of strong girls all hoping to get better every day. We’re here, and we’re going to stay.”

Fellow sophomore Madison Killmeyer went 4-1 at 130 pounds. She lost her first tournament match but came back to win four in a row in the consolation bracket before the tournament ended with her waiting to compete in the consolation finals.

Killmeyer was 4-4 in high school matches last year.

Freshman Addison Claassen was able to wrestle high school matches last year despite being in eighth grade. The unsanctioned nature of high school girls wrestling at the time allowed for that.

She got off to a strong start at Butler with a 3-1 overall record. Like Davis, all three of her victories were by fall. She wrestled for the title at 160 but was pinned in 3:10 by Mt. Lebanon’s Paige Jox.

Junior Emma Leindecker, 5-6 last year, picked up a win in the 136-pound bracket at Butler.

Freshman Haley Leiendecker, another wrestler with experience in the Plum lineup, also scored a victory at 124 at Butler.

“We wrestled well at Butler,” Miller said. “To have three place winners out of (seven) who competed, that is a good showing.”

Sophomore Liana Yusko and freshman Amora Sorzano-Lee both went 0-2 at Butler.

Also on this year’s team are seniors Madison Pickett and Emma Scatena and sophomores Alaina Claassen, Olivia Bigger and Jossalyn Conley.

Sophomore Alaina Claassen placed at last year’s state high school tournament despite competing with a brace on an injured knee that required surgery after the season.

“She was that strong and athletic to place third at heavyweight,” Miller said. “She didn’t let the injury stop her.”

Claassen last week was still waiting to be cleared. She said she hopes it won’t be much longer, and she is anxious to get on the mat this season.

“There’s little patience right now,” she said.

“I want to be out there. Not being able to wrestle for nine months, there is a lot of motivation for me when I get cleared. I have to work extra hard to catch up.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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