The conference room at McLoud High School was full of laughter and chatter. Teen girls ribbed each other over pranks and talked about hanging out.
At first glance, they looked like any other group of teens. But go deeper, and you’ll find a formidable team of wrestlers.
With regionals around the corner, McLoud is currently ranked No. 3 in 5A, a feat considering they only have nine wrestlers and often go up against schools that have anywhere from 15 to 30 wrestlers.
Six wrestlers are ranked in their weight classes - Carli Sisco is No. 1 in 105 lbs., Yazmin Nevarez is No. 3 in 110 lbs., Launa Troutt is No. 1 in 115 lbs., Brenlie Peacock is No. 5 in 125 lbs., Laine Walker is No. 2 in 130 lbs. and Kendra Perrien is No. 2 in 140 lbs. Two others were honorable mentions for their weight classes: Addi Addams (135 lbs.) and Melania Nenaikita (190 lbs. and heavyweight).
Even more, two of their wrestlers - Walker and Troutt - hit 100 varsity wins a little over a week ago. A few others are on track to hit 150 before they graduate, according to Coach William Winters.
“We started three years ago and pretty much just blown up. Not so much like we’ve got a bunch of numbers, but the girls that have come in and stayed have gotten really good really fast,” he said.
He continued that when the program started, they had no idea if the girls could handle practicing with the boys. Winters said the plan wasn’t to change practice or do anything different from what they were already doing; the girls could come in and handle it, or they couldn’t.
“We were just as hard, if not harder, on the girls at the beginning, and some of them have outlasted the boys,” he said.
The girls’ wrestling team still practices with the boys, though they are much harder on each other. Winters joked that they can’t score points against each other during practice, so they go up against the boys. He continued that every girl on the team can go deep in tournaments and that it’s been one of the craziest things he’s witnessed as a coach.
“The harder the tournament is, the better they do because whenever the quality matches, the quality of girls that we have, it evens out the playing field,” he said. “All nine girls can make it deep into tournaments. They can all make the finals; they can all go for third and fourth. They can wall place fifth and sixth.”
Facing the odds headon is something that every girl on the team does with gusto. Laine Walker said she wasn’t sure if she would hit 100 wins this year, considering she spent a lot of time out with serious medical problems. She’s now signed to wrestle with Ottawa University in Kansas. Addi Addams and Launa Troutt are also battling pretty serious conditions as well.
“Honestly, between those three girls, how they’re even wrestling, I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense. I wouldn’t be able to wrestle through what they wrestled through,” Winters said.
The team recognizes they are trailblazers. Walker said she’s happy to pave the way.
“I think that most people don’t think it’s a women’s sport or that women shouldn’t do it because it’s not, it’s more of a manly thing… but I think that just gives us more of an excuse to go and do it, dominate it against them,” she said. “I feel like, out of all the other sports, we’re not as well taken care of… so we get to just prove, like, okay… you can give all the other sports in McLoud all this stuff, and you barely have to give us anything, and we still come out on top of the other sports.”
She added that other sports do put in a lot of hard work, but it’s easy to see who works harder.
Troutt said she feels good about being a role model.
“I like that it’s this group of girls that gets to leave the legacy behind to all the other kids,” she said, adding that she loves helping younger wrestlers and being a leader to them. “I trust all these girls to be a good example for them, too.”
While winning is great, there are bigger rewards. Kendra Perrien said that since girls’ and women’s wrestling is so new, not only do they get to leave a legacy in high school, but they’ll also be trailblazing at the collegiate level.
“Coming up and actually being the first real girl wrestlers for the team, for all these teams that are just now starting to sanctionize. I didn’t really plan on wrestling in college until I heard that OSU is planning on getting a program, and I would love to be a part of that,” she said.
Probably the most important to every girl - team bonding. They told stories of doing karaoke and making bracelets and necklaces at a competition. They were quick to praise each other’s work, as well as encourage one another.
“I love these girls with everything. I would die for them,” said Walker. “We’re gonna hang out with each other, and it’s like one of my favorite times, like our favorite, favorite moments.”