Senior Lynnia Doss is the first female wrestler in school history to qualify for the Regional Championships. 

Doss has competed in a number of different weight classes.

Performing strongly in her first full year of wrestling, Doss received first place at the girls’ Pre-Regional, qualifying for Regionals as a top seed. 

“I definitely wish I did compete at Regionals,” she said. “I qualified for it, but didn’t make weight.” 

Doss feels discouraged about the low number of females who wrestle and by the lack of opportunity for females in the sport.

“It’s not cool to know there’s only one real D1 college out there competing [at women’s wrestling] and that’s the University of Iowa,” Doss said. “My options are limited and that sucks.”

“It’s really discouraging because there’s only a couple colleges I have options for,” she added. “As for competing, it doesn’t discourage me very much because I have a lot of options for competition. I can wrestle against guys and girls.” 

Doss would like to continue her wrestling journey in college, where she plans to major in criminal justice.

Brooklyn Pryor is another female wrestler who is very committed to the sport. Pryor was not able to complete this year’s season due to a collarbone injury. 

Both girls are optimistic about the wrestling team’s future. 

“There’s a lot of room to grow. We have a really young team. They’re going to do great when I’m gone,“ Doss said. 

The two wrestlers have important advice for anyone interested in wrestling.

“Don’t quit once you hit a wall. Like, it’s gonna be hard, like, every sport is going to be hard,” Doss said. “Once you hit a wall and you keep going, that’s when you’re really going to start growing in a sport.”

“Just do it. Don’t worry about looking pretty,” Pryor said. “If you want to do it, you should try to come try before you say no to being completely in for the team.”

They hope to see more girls join wrestling.

“I am going to be [the only female wrestler] if I don’t recruit any more girls, which I’m trying to do,” Pryor said.  

“We don’t really have any upper weights really,” Pryor said. “Yeah, all of our members participate in the lower weights. And so we give up points during duals and stuff like that. And that’s just six points that go to the other team automatically.”