Girls’ wrestlers made history around Chatham County last week.
Chatham Central had a girls’ wrestling team compete for the first time in school history, and it won its first ever dual against Bartlett Yancey on Nov. 20, 25-24.
However, none of the girls actually wrestled anyone. Chatham Central’s team of six wrestlers and Bartlett Yancey’s team of four only had one matching weight class for the 100-pound match, but Aspen Phillips, the Bears’ 100-pound wrestler, was out sick. As a result, every match ended in a forfeit, tying the dual at 24 points apiece. Because of the rare circumstances, the tie was broken by a disc flip that went in favor of Chatham Central for the extra point.
But even with the lack of action in the first try at a girls’ wrestling dual, the process of forming a girls’ wrestling team at a storied wrestling program has been “fun” for coach Stephen Silhan.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association sanctioned girls’ wrestling as a championship sport in 2022, setting up the first sanctioned girls’ individual regionals and state titles for the 2023-24 season.
“I tried to get some girls to wrestle last year,” Silhan said. “My selling point this year was that not only will they have the individual, but they’re going to do a team championship. I recruited based off of, ‘Hey, you’ll get to be the first Chatham Central girls’ wrestling team.’”
Silhan started with two girls who were on board from the beginning, sophomore Madalyn Holton, who also plays softball, and Aspen Phillips, who is a cheerleader. They began recruiting other girls to join the team, ending up with a six-person roster, including five senior cheerleaders.
Holton, the younger sister of Aidan Holton who was the senior heavyweight for the Bears’ boys’ wrestling team last year, has wrestling experience from competing and even winning a state title with Silhan in her rec days. Phillips has experience from being around the sport and participating in wrestling practices as a child. But since it’s been a while since they last wrestled, even those two will still have a lot to learn as the rest of the team takes on wrestling for the first time.
The girls have shown significant enthusiasm in taking on the challenge, even as far as requesting extra practices, and the boys have “bought in” to teaching them the sport as well.
Silhan even feels that some of his girls wouldn’t mind wrestling against boys in real matches once they get more practice.
“The girls were like, ‘God, why didn’t we do this before?’” Silhan said.
In addition to Holton and Phillips, Chatham Central’s girls’ roster includes Amani Carter (114 pounds), Caleigh Warf (120), Jayla Clark (145), and Payton Pickett (185).
Down the road at Jordan-Matthews, the Jets’ two girls wrestlers Alexandria Zumano (132) and Ruth Interiano (165) competed as the first girls’ wrestling team in school history on Nov. 20.
Interiano took part in the first ever girls’ wrestling team match for Jordan-Matthews, losing to Apex Friendship’s Praise Abiahu by fall. Zumano won over her Montgomery Central opponent by technical fall, earning the first ever win for the Jets’ girls’ team. As a team, the Jets lost to Apex Friendship, 30-6, and they lost to Montgomery Central, 18-12 (multiple forfeits in both duals).
At Seaforth, five other girls’ wrestlers joined the seasoned Keira Rosenmarkle to form the Hawks’ first ever girls’ team. Their roster includes Sarah Tanner (120), Caroline Cook (138), Elise Warner (145), Thaialyn Horton (150) and Lilliana Messier (185).
Northwood has two girls’ wrestlers this season, Gabriella Freeman (132) and Marelyn Martinez (138).
