Wrestlers serve as ‘pioneers’ at Section One’s first girls championships
Section One's first Girls Wrestling Championships held Feb. 12, 2025 at County Center
Throughout her high school career as a wrestler, Adriana Palumbo envisioned the gratification she would feel while participating in a Section One Girls Wrestling Championship event. Though the nationally-ranked Palumbo, a senior at Pleasantville High School, couldn’t compete in this year’s inaugural competition due to injury, she no longer had to wait. When the time came this winter, she still soaked in the significance of the moment.
“It’s an emotional day for me,” said Palumbo, who finished fifth in the boys championships at 160 pounds and won an unofficial state girls title last year. “When I started wrestling, I always pictured myself having this type of community around me. I don’t get to be part of it in the sense that I’m not wrestling, but it’s great to see all of these girls come out and compete.”
The winners advanced to compete in the NYSPHSAA’s first official state championships, which were held on Feb. 27 at MVP Arena in Albany.
Chappaqua Athletic Director Jamie Block, who serves as the wrestling chairperson in Section One, labeled the competitors in Section One’s first girls tournament as “pioneers.”
“You know, life can be tough for pioneers,” Block said. “But they have done a great job and built a lot of great relationships through this. And that’s really what this is all about.”
The girls wrestled in freestyle rather than folkstyle, which is the technique used for high school boys competitions. The NCAA recently added freestyle women’s wrestling championships, which will be held for the first time in 2026, but freestyle girls high school wrestling has already expanded rapidly throughout the country.
There are already tournaments with hundreds of girls competing at once.
“Thankfully, we don’t have to hope that girls wrestling will grow,” said Kerry Ghanie, a girls wrestling official in Section One and New York City. “It will absolutely continue to get bigger and bigger.”
The girls competing in Section One and even their coaches have already received valuable training. For girls who still wrestled in matches against boys, there are different techniques to learn that differentiate between freestyle and folkstyle.
The expansion of girls who compete — including girls teams and girls competitions — will help. Section One officials hope the presence of the first girls championship will encourage more girls to participate.
“I hope there are some girls watching who will say, ‘Hey, I’m doing that next year,’” Block said.
Odunayo Adekuoroye, who wrestled freestyle for Nigeria in the Rio, Tokyo and Paris Olympics, worked at the scorer’s table during Section One’s championships. She said the explosion of girls wrestling has encouraged some young athletes to dream of competing in college and even at the Olympic level, which, for most of them, had never been a past consideration.
“I’m glad that wrestling in America has become such a fast-growing sport, and I’m happy to see that,” Adekuoroye said. “Giving girls their own tournament is great for wrestling.”
The Section One tournament featured a display of athleticism, including girls who have been successful on the mat against boys or in girls competitions.
Some of the girls had to take impressive initiative to compete. Sophomore Gianna Cruz, who was one of the event’s winners, is a national jiu jitsu champion. However, in order to compete, she had to start a team at Ursuline and become a shadow team member of the Eastchester High School varsity.
“I’m just really glad I was given the opportunity to compete here,” Cruz said. “There were a lot of hurdles and obstacles to overcome. I had to start a wrestling team. I had to do track practices. I had to do a lot to get here today, but I’m really happy to be here.”
