The girls wrestling team is starting its season off on the right foot. On Dec. 17, they took home their second trophy of the season from the Kansas City Stampede, taking sixth out of 44 teams. Their success is no surprise as sophomore Kailey Benson is ranked in the top 25  for Missouri. 

“It feels great [to be ranked] because I put a lot of work in the offseason, so to be able to come to the high school season and just, you know, that be recognized,” Benson said. 

Beyond individual rankings, the team is searching for success on and off the mats. Junior Stevie Lupo mentioned she isn’t concerned about her own record this season, but for the team to become stronger together in hopes to reach a postseason berth. 

“We’ve gotten a pretty good team out of our entire conference and state. I think there’s a really big chance that our team could get a state trophy of some sort,” Lupo said. “Because we have a big team and the girls are becoming a family with all the newer girls so it’s just nice, like all finally coming together and finally clicking.”

Their team has grown this season, up to 23 girls in total, as their coaches, Steve Cross, Jacob Mattson, Brian Bitney, and Kurt Kruse do a good job of getting the word out about girls wrestling. The sport is continuing to grow, and there are plenty of possibilities to make it to the next level, especially with their coaches’ help. Sophomore, Neveah Smith, also ranked in the top 25, detailed the coaches approach to bouncing back from faults. 

“If we do bad in this tournament, or we see that we’re not good on bottom at this tournament, then they’re going to come back and make us do bottom all week until they see that we’ve had growth in it,” Smith said.

The girls wrestling team will be back in action to uphold their strong season thus far against Francis Howell North at home on Jan. 4.