Wrestling; the world’s oldest sport and one traditionally dominated by men. But in the past few years, women’s wrestling has been on the rise. Originally starting in Hawaii in 1998, girls high school wrestling has grown to 36 out of the 50 states. Now, for the first time ever, Saint Viator High School has its very own girl’s wrestling team, joining 1600 others. Spearheaded by junior Nat Gubernat, the program displays strong promise.

“I originally joined as a way to cross train for other sports,” said Nat. “But my goal has now evolved into being as successful as possible. Wrestling has been an incredibly rewarding sport—it’s been awesome to see myself progress and get stronger physically and mentally in such a short period of time.”

“I was originally hesitant about joining the team due to worries of social judgment or injury,” said Nat. “[But] wrestling has given me some of the best memories of my time at Saint Viator, while also making me faster, stronger, and tougher.”

The girls program currently has a low population, but growth is expected. In the country as a whole, women’s wrestling has grown by 16,753 participants, a 32% increase. This level of explosive growth is very uncommon and highlights a strong future for women in the sport.

The future of the program is also extremely bright. With only one season of training Nat made it to sectionals, finishing her season with a positive record and an impressive 3-2 finish with wins over past state qualifiers. With such positive results like this in such little time, Saint Viator girls wrestling could be extremely successful provided it gets enough participation. With their future as bright as the lights they battle under, girls wrestling at Viator is sure to take Illinois by storm.