Two weeks ago, RAHS sophomore Alyzabeth Hiler qualified for the girl’s state wrestling tournament. This is her second year competing at state, and she is excited to see how it turns out.
Alyzabeth said that for her, wrestling is a “year-round thing.” She practices and competes with a club team in the summer and spends her fall running on the cross-country team to stay in shape.
This is her third year wrestling competitively. When she was in eighth grade, “the MSHSL (Minnesota state high school league) held their first sanctioned girls wrestling sections and state.” She competed in her section and got third place, narrowly missing the cutoff for state. Although this would have been discouraging for some, it served as motivation for Alyzabeth.
She took her frustrating loss as an eighth grader and channeled it into hard work as a freshman. Last year, Alyzabeth showcased her impressive work ethic, ending her season by getting second place in her section and third place at state.
This year, Alyzabeth continued her grind, putting in hours at practice and seeing results at meets. Alyzabeth won sections this year and looks forward to competing at state on March 2nd.
She said that her biggest challenge was an injury that happened about halfway through the season. She hurt her shoulder at practice and ended up missing a number of practices and meets, not knowing if she would recover in time for sections and state. However, with “help from Alisia (the school’s athletic trainer), it has gotten much better and [she is] feeling ready for state!”
Alyzabeth is excited to compete at state and to give her younger teammates a chance to see a higher level of the sport. She commented, “The state tournament is such a surreal thing to watch, and I hope watching the competition will motivate my girls to jump into wrestling next year with two feet.”
Alyzabeth’s wrestling career started when she was in fifth grade. She had recently quit another sport and was looking for a way to spend her time, and when a wrestling coach reached out to her, she knew she wanted to join.
She is grateful to have the opportunity to grow the girl’s program alongside her teammate, Bo Barze. Alyzabeth said, “Getting to know the girls and teaching them my favorite sport has been the highlight of my year.”
She hopes to continue expanding the program next year and mentioned that if the team gets some girls in the 150-235 pound range, they could fill out a team lineup and start competing at more meets.
Alyzabeth loves wrestling because of the way it has changed her life. It has given her an entirely new outlook on life, which she summed up using the quote, “Once you wrestle, everything else in life is easy” -Dan Gable.
Alyzabeth and her teammates are working hard to recruit more female wrestlers for next year’s season. She said, “If anyone wants to learn more about the benefits of wrestling, they can contact me through Instagram [@zerksys] or come find me in the wrestling room.”
