By Mike Clark
The first clue that this was not a typical prep wrestling tournament were the dozens and dozens of bracket sheets lining one entire wall of Lane’s Gym 1.
Another was this line from the info sheet sent to coaches of the 20 schools taking part in the Lady of Lane Tournament in mid-December: “No medals — effort is its own reward!”
Girls wrestling is one of the fastest-growing sports in Illinois, and also one of the newest in terms of IHSA backing. The first state series was held in the 2021-22 school year with sectionals and a state tournament. This year, there will be eight regionals feeding into four sectionals followed by the state finals.
At this stage of girls wrestling’s development as a prep sport, many athletes are still playing catch-up. They don’t have the match experience of many boys wrestlers. That makes for a wide spectrum of skill levels.
Hence the Lady of Lane format: brackets divided by not just weight class but skill level and a focus on gaining experience rather than on crowning champions.
“Some coaches requested to get in because they wanted their new kids to get some matches,” Lane coach Matt Yan said. “I try to make the best matchups where it’s just the elite kids against each other so your beginner’s not getting smashed by some returning state champion.”
There actually were two state champs in the Lady of Lane field: two-time winner Sydney Perry of Batavia and West Chicago’s Jayden Huesca Rodriguez.
There’s not much to be gained by having wrestlers of that caliber compete against novices just coming into the sport.
“There’s a lot of good wrestlers out there,” Yan said. “But to get better, you have to at some point get matchups against people of your experience level and I hope this fills that gap a little bit.”
Rickover junior Jasmine Mejia is one of the Public League’s elite wrestlers, having finished fifth at 235 pounds at state last season. In a typical tournament, she could roll into the finals without a lot of effort, easily knocking off less skilled and less experienced opponents.
But she much prefers this format both for herself and others.
“I think it’s really important, especially for younger wrestlers,” she said. “If they’re constantly getting beat down by older, more experienced wrestlers then this is a good opportunity for them to be like, ‘OK this is how people of my experience level wrestle.’
“I do think it’s important to wrestle against people who are better than you because then you realize, ‘OK, this is what I did wrong.’ Tournaments like this will really help grow women’s wrestling.”
Lane junior Nyah Lovis, who was one win away from earning a medal at state last year, agreed.
“It’s nice to have at least one tournament where you wrestle someone (at) your level,” she said. “If you’re new, usually the bottom seeds go against the top seeds and that’s really hard to see. The best matches are when you’re equal with the other person.”
The more competitive matches — for both newcomers and elite wrestlers — the better for everyone, Rickover coach Guillermo Mejia believes.
At tournaments like Lady of Lane, “there’s better quality of competition,” he said. “And that allows people to compete at a higher level. I think some of the frustrations in years past is, we’ll put one of our wrestlers out there and if there wasn’t enough competition, are we doing either side a service?”
Now it’s different, and it can be life-changing for athletes. It’s why girls wrestling has taken off, Guillermo Mejia said.
“To me, one of the beautiful things is how (the sport) builds their confidence,” he said, “to see some of our girls who were shy and timid and weren’t sure in their own skin, in a couple of years just having the confidence of taking over the world.”
