Bella Shmuylovich ’26 wrestling at the 11th Annual Girls Wrestling Tournament.
Last Sunday, 121 wrestlers from 38 schools traveled to the Snyder Center to compete in the 11th Annual Girls Wrestling Tournament. Before the meet, Olympic gold medalist Erica Wiebe hosted a skills clinic for the wrestlers at the tournament. Andover won the team title with 159 points, three individual champions, and four other placers. Serra Akyali ’28, Toni Elliott ’27, and Dani Nugent ’25 all won their respective weight classes, with Nugent winning her fourth title in a row, a feat never accomplished before.
Head Coach Kassie Bateman ’06 provided history about the tournament, which commenced in 2014. She added that it began with only nine wrestlers before expanding to what it is today.
Bateman said, “When we first started, not many coaches wanted to coach back-to-back Saturday and Sunday [meets]. When we first started, it was really small, with only nine girls, so not many coaches wanted to travel to Andover for just a few matches. That was certainly a roadblock, convincing coaches that it was worth getting their female wrestlers this experience. In 2017, our fourth annual tournament, we opened it up to public school wrestlers as well. For the first three years, it was just New England prep schools, and, in 2017, we opened it up to public school wrestlers and had our first guest clinician. Since then, it’s just been growing.”
She added that girls’ wrestling has evolved over the years, with the skill of these wrestlers improving significantly at every level. She also noted that girls’ wrestling has grown, with schools now having teams of female wrestlers.
“The quality of girls wrestling in Massachusetts, in New England Prep, at National Prep, has improved drastically. It’s much harder to place at these tournaments now than when we first started it. I would say the coaches’ support and enthusiasm to see not only girls on their team but to get girls in these types of all-girl competitions has been really great. When we first started this, it was really common to have one girl from a team. In the past, our tournament had many different schools with one or two girls from each school. Now, we’ve got schools coming with six, ten, 15 wrestlers on their roster. There is growth of not just a few girls in every program but to have teams.” said Bateman.
Toni Elliott ’27 noted that the atmosphere during the tournament was much different from other tournaments she had attended, specifically tournaments such as Beast of the East on December 19.
“Compared to the St. Paul’s tournament, it was bigger. There were more mats, so there were more matches at a time. There was also a larger variety of girls from different schools. It was nice to meet people and talk to people. Compared to Beast of the East, it was nice to be in an environment where people from all weight classes talked to each other. With my weight class being small, I could have a conversation with all of them…This tournament was a better opportunity to build community and talk to wrestlers, especially public school kids you wouldn’t normally meet,” said Elliott.
Erica Wiebe, Canadian 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist, was the guest at the tournament who ran the clinic. Bateman commended her visualization skills, recalling a match she needed to win to qualify for the Olympics.
Bateman said, “One thing that stood out to me, and I keep telling everybody about it, is her mental preparation, which is so impressive. She told us how, in preparation for qualifying for her national team, she had to beat a teammate she had never beaten in five years to get her spot for the Olympics. And every night, before she went to bed, she visualized that match and the tweaks that she was going to make, the changes she was going to make, and every night, just little changes in how she would respond to her opponent. She knew what she would do and how and by the end of the six weeks, she visualized her winning that match. She said it was the easiest match she had ever won because she had done that mental preparation. I feel like a lot of our athletes may not take seriously the importance of visualization and what that can do for your performance, your physical performance as well.”
Moreover, Serra Akyali ’28 enjoyed Wiebe’s focus on body movement and ability. She recalled how she made the wrestlers do forward rolls with a partner, which was quite challenging.
“I liked her focus on physical abilities. She was focused on moving your body in ways that will help with wrestling. For example, she made us do forward rolls with a partner, which took a lot of coordination. I like how precise she is. Every move was three or four steps, and every move was very powerful.” said Akyali.
Bateman hopes to continue providing an opportunity for girls’ wrestling competitions, noting that she hopes to expand the tournament.
“We just want to keep bringing opportunities for female wrestlers to compete against other top-tier female wrestlers. We had teams from all over New England. We also had Lawrenceville come up from New Jersey. It was awesome that we had teams from up in Maine to down in New Jersey. To keep providing this opportunity, I would love to keep seeing it grow. We had 155 kids registered. Only 121 competed because of flu and injury. So, I would love to see us grow a little bit, little by little, and see how big we can get this within reason. We don’t want a ten-hour tournament, but see how big we can get within this one-day tournament, and keep providing this opportunity.”
