Two girls stand close together in the middle of Moriarty High School’s gymnasium with their arms locked in a firm grasp. The floor is completely covered with a foam mat. Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” blares at full blast throughout the gym.
The girls start tussling with each other before plunging to the mat with a thud.
A separate pair of girls are close by, on their knees. Their arms are wrapped around each other. As they start grappling, the light reflects off the sweat on their faces.
These girls are members of Moriarty’s girls wrestling team, one of the fastest-growing high school sports in the country.
“We have some scrappers here,” said Brenda Gonzales-Means, Moriarty’s girls wrestling head coach. “Our girls leave it all out there on the mat — win, lose, or draw, you know, they don’t lay down for nobody.”
High school wrestling used to be exclusively a boys’ sport. That has changed dramatically in the last few years. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, growth in high school girls wrestling over the past five years in participants and championships is greater than any other sport. Twenty-five states, including New Mexico, have added girls wrestling championships since 2018.
“There’s definitely been an increase,” Gonzales-Means said. “The first year we started doing it, there were maybe 100 girls statewide, last year there were over 400.”
Five of Moriarty’s girls recently qualified for the state championships, Feb. 23-24 at the Rio Rancho Events Center.
One of them is Lydia Gabaldon.
“I’m very excited,” Gabaldon said. “I’m looking for a good fight, I’m looking for a good match.”
Gabaldon said she finds wrestling to be rewarding and loves how fast paced it is. “You really have to master the skill, it’s not just about how strong you are,” she said.
Freshman Lilly Shoemate-Means is headed to the state championships for the second consecutive year — she qualified last year as an eighth grader. “I’m hoping to place at least one place higher than I did last year,” Shoemate-Means said. “As long as it’s higher than what I did last year then I’ll be good.”
Isabell Urioste, a junior who also plays soccer and runs track, said, “For me, there’s no other sport like it.”
Moriarty senior Miranda Quintana, who is in her first year of wrestling and plays basketball, sometimes must go directly from a basketball game to a wrestling match. She said it means a lot to her to be a wrestler. “It’s definitely a lot different than other sports in that you have to be a lot more disciplined,” Quintana said.
Mia Saiz said she wasn’t sure if wrestling was for her until she tried it: “And then I ended up falling in love with the sport.”
Gonzales-Means said there are about a dozen girls on the team. They all are hard-working and mentally and physically tough.
“They suck it up, they go out there and get the job done,” Gonzales-Means said. “They have lots of grit, lots of grit, and we instill that day in, day out.”