In 2019, Kennedy sent one wrestler to the Iowa women’s wrestling tournament. In 2022, they sent nine girls-with two placewinners and another winning a match in the main bracket

At the weight class 195 in 2019, there were only four competing wrestlers at women’s state. Fast forward to 2022, the sport is sanctioned by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and the now 190 weight class had 27 wrestlers at the state tournament, including Kennedy wrestlers Ella Brown and Gwen Canney. Brown, a freshman at Kennedy, finished 7th, after finishing her season 12-0. 

“It just shows me from where I started to where I’m at now, I’ve grown so much over the years so I can just see myself growing even more through my senior year,” said Brown.

The Kennedy coaching staff, with the girls’ head coach being Craig Mallicoat, has been and will continue to be pivotal in these girls growth, and have also made great strides to grow the team, such as handing out flyers in the cafeteria during lunch.

The Kennedy staff has formed a new commitment to the Kennedy women’s wrestling program- “Nick (Leclere) and (Craig) Mallicoat have been such a big help,” said Brown. “Not only helping with technique, but believing in us and making us believe in ourselves.”

The University of Iowa announced the creation of a division one women’s wrestling program on Sept. 23, 2021. They have three commits already to their program— Ella Schmit, Kylie Welker and Reese Larramendy.The rapidly growing sport looks to expand at an even quicker pace.

“More girls are gonna start realizing that they’ll be able to wrestle just girls, so i feel like it’d be more fun to wrestle just girls than guys,” Brown said. 

With more and more programs adding wrestling, college and highschool alike, the sport will continue to grow exponentially.