Kansas girls wrestling doubles in participants as new flag-bearers gain national fame
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At this time last year, McPherson and its senior star Mya Kretzer won their third straight unofficial team state championship. It rang a little hollow.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) board of directors heard the case to introduce girls wrestling as a 23rd sanctioned sport in April. The vote passed 63-2. Friday, the girls hosted their first regional tournaments, and for the wrestlers, it was everything they dreamed of.
“I remember when I started competing for Team Kansas back in eighth grade, and we’d go compete, but we just didn’t have the numbers,” Nickerson senior Nichole Moore said. “These past couple of years, we’ve been a couple of points away from a trophy, competing against teams like Texas, California. We’re in those matches. We’re competing against those girls, and we’re coming out on top of some of them.
“It’s crazy how fast it has grown and how high the level of competition has risen to over the past couple of years.”
The growth of girls wrestling has been nothing short of astonishing. McPherson wrestling coach Doug Kretzer and his daughter were the catalysts behind Kansas’ adoption of the sport, and in 2017, McPherson hosted the first unofficial state tournament.
Kretzer, who serves on the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association, wanted to give girls the same opportunities as the boys — even if KSHSAA didn’t recognize the state champions. Kretzer’s case to KSHSAA in April focused on numbers. He showed how girls wrestling has grown in other states, especially after the governing body accepted it.
Friday was his vindication.
- 2017: 37 schools, 53 wrestlers
- 2018: 55 schools, 120 wrestlers
- 2019: 80 schools, 227 wrestlers
- 2020: 143 schools, 498 wrestlers across two regional tournaments
Kretzer said close to 1,000 girls competed in wrestling this year.
“Honestly, I think this is nothing new to me,” Kretzer said. “I’ve been watching girls wrestling for quite a while, so this is exactly what I knew it would be once we could get the state to recognize that it’s a worthy endeavor.
“I knew the numbers would be here, and it’s only going to go up from here.”
Kretzer’s daughter was a pioneer last year. She served as the figurehead to Kansas’ effort to give girls wrestlers a chance to compete. Before the sport’s adoption, girls were forced to wrestle against the boys. Many girls went through grueling practices throughout the week but lost to a boy at the weekend tournament.
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Moore wrestled boys all her childhood, so when she got to high school, it was nothing new. She ground out one-point wins and felt the thrill of late-match takedowns. Through her first four matches of the regional tournament, she pinned three opponents and won by technical fall in the semifinal.
“Her 30-9 record before today was against the boys,” Nickerson coach Nick Flowers said. “She’s got 143 wins, and almost 110 of those were against boys. For our other wrestlers, this tournament is what they need. For Nikki, this is what she deserves.”
Moore is the No. 2 high school female wrestler in the country at 112 pounds, according to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s preseason rankings. Last year, Mya Kretzer was No. 14 at 127 pounds and now wrestles at Baker University in Baldwin City.
Moore is pledged to the same college program, and Friday, a CBS national TV crew followed her to tell her story of how she has grabbed the flag for Kansas. She is set to go to Estonia to represent the U.S. in the United World Wrestling Championships.
“(CBS) wanted to talk to Mya, and we said, ‘No, she’s not the right girl now,’” Doug Kretzer said. “In the end, Nichole Moore, what she’s done as a varsity boys-level wrestler, she definitely was the right one.”
Moore isn’t the only one though, Kretzer said.
There are six Kansans ranked in the nation’s top 20 across all weight classes. Class 3A Osawatomie senior Amanda Newcomb is No. 8 at 100 pounds. Senior Morgan Mayginnes of Class 1A Onaga is No. 8 at 152 pounds.
And Junction City senior Elisa Robinson is the best high school female wrestler in the U.S. at 180 pounds.
“It feels great because people are looking up to you,” Robinson said. “Girls are coming up for photos. They’re thinking about this sport.”
- Amanda Newcomb - Osawatomie, senior, 100 pounds, No. 8
- Nichole Moore - Nickerson, senior, 112 pounds, No. 2
- Elise Rose - Marysville, junior, 122 pounds, No. 15
- Morgan Mayginnes - Onaga, senior, 152 pounds, No. 8
- Elise Robinson - Junction City, senior, 180 pounds, No. 1
- Maranda Bell - Shawnee Heights, sophomore, 200 pounds, No. 20
With participation on the rise and some of the country’s best wrestlers, Kansas girls wrestling is in good hands. Now it’s about refining the format.
As more girls jump on the bandwagon, regional tournaments will be split between classifications and eventually different locations within those classifications. In Kansas boys wrestling and girls golf, Class 6A, Class 5A and 4A each stand alone while Classes 3-2-1A are lumped together. In Kansas high school bowling, regional and state tournaments are broken between Class 6A and Classes 5-1A.
But Kretzer said there is a more glaring issue after going through the first regional tournaments.
The top six regional finishers at each weight class qualify for the state tournament Feb. 27 at Salina’s Tony’s Pizza Event Center. With two regionals, 12 girls will make up each bracket.
Kansas honors a five-match rule, which states no wrestler can compete in more than five matches in a day. In a 12-wrestler bracket, it is possible for one girl to reach six matches in one day.
Kretzer said the state tournament needs to bump up to 16-wrestler brackets at each weight class and make the state tournament run over two days, not one. That would be the same format the boys follow.
“Team championships could be impacted by not having the ability to wrestle that sixth match,” Kretzer said. “And in a 12-girl bracket, No. 1 seeds will have a bye in the first round. Those are team points that you’re missing there. That’s the next step.”
As participation grows, more regional tournaments will sprout across Kansas, making way for a change to the format, but Friday was a big step in the maturation of the sport.
Last year, there were 227 wrestlers at the unofficial state tournament in McPherson. With Friday’s regionals, there were two tournaments happening simultaneously with that many girls at each and potential Olympians sprinkled throughout.
“Usually, Kansas wrestling, we don’t get a ton of attention just because we’ve never been great before,” Moore said. “So the fact that our girls are stepping up and making a statement is really cool to see.
“We’re gonna be great someday.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 10:25 PM.