Wrestling: Westerville North Warriors girls team starting to take off
Three of Westerville North’s five girls wrestlers muscled into the statewide rankings in January, and each took a different route.
Junior Melania Szawranskyj, who was ranked third at 130 pounds by American Women’s Wrestling, is in her fifth year as a wrestler and, until this season, was the Warriors’ only girl competitor.
Giselle Duran, who was ranked 13th at 170 as a freshman, talked junior Marvet Hejazin into joining the team before this season.
Despite only aspiring to score a point in her first tournament, the Bob Williams Kickoff Classic on Dec. 4 at Marysville, Hejazin won that event and two more since and surged to a 17-4 record and No. 10 state ranking at 235 as the regular season winds down.
“I thought I’d have a very bad season, like I might not win anything,” Hejazin said. “It was an impulse decision (to join the team). I’d never watched wrestling. I knew nothing about it. But after I started, I felt like I could do well at this if I tried hard enough and wanted it enough.”
Szawranskyj is 22-3 and has won tournaments at Mechanicsburg, Olentangy Orange and Reynoldsburg. She dropped soccer after her sophomore year to concentrate on wrestling and also was a gymnast and swimmer as a youth.
“The team in general (is why I stayed),” she said. “I enjoy coming to practice, I like the guys and practicing with them. I like traveling to tournaments. I just like the environment.”
Rounding out the team are sophomore Simaya Johnson-Hunter (100) and freshman Ava Heckman (140).
Before this season, North had not had more than one girl wrestler in a season. The Warriors’ first girls competitor was 2011 graduate Brooke Perry.
Szawranskyj finished sixth at 126 at last year’s state tournament, a moment North coach David Grant called “an eye-opener as to where this can go.”
“It’s fun and competitive. It’s not just having a girl on the team anymore,” Grant said.
Tyler Arnette, a boys wrestler who often spars with Szawranskyj in practice, agreed that any novelty long since wore off.
“We don’t let her get away with any bad moves, but she doesn’t let us get away with them, either. She can catch them really easily,” Arnette said. “She stands out as even tougher than a bunch of boys, than anybody really.”
Walnut Springs Middle School coach Pete Wegley oversees the girls team and coaches them at tournaments.
“They enjoy pushing themselves and seeing what they can do. They end up impressed with themselves, or at least they should be,” Wegley said. “It was four or five years ago that it started picking up and I was really able to get some girls on the middle school team. It’s not a large amount but it’s growing.”
North finishes the regular season Feb. 5 at the Rossford Girls Wrestling Tournament in suburban Toledo before turning its attention to district Feb. 13 at Olentangy Orange. At district, the top four finishers in each weight class advance to state Feb. 19 and 20 at Hilliard Davidson.
This will be the third girls wrestling state tournament since its founding in 2020 and the last before the sport becomes sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association next season.
“(Sanctioning) will pull more girls toward the sport,” Szawranskyj said. “I talk to some girls and I tell them they should try wrestling and they’re skeptical. Now, since we’ll have more of a team and more coaches, they might come out.”
dpurpura@thisweeknews.com
@ThisWeekDave
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Wrestling: Westerville North girls team starting to take off
