No fluke: Maine girl beats boys to win 2nd straight state wrestling title
At the age of 17, Maddie Ripley is already being regarded as a female athlete trailblazer having just proven that her high school championship wrestling victory in the boys division last year was no fluke.
Ripley, a senior at Oceanside High School in Maine is not just the first girl to win a high school wrestling title against boys in Maine, she defended her crown over the weekend when she defeated three boys in one day.
"I didn't really hear too much that it was a fluke. Now that I've won a second, then it just proves that it wasn't," Ripley told ABC News.
Competing Saturday in the 113-pound weight class of the Class B high school wrestling championship tournament in Rumford, Maine, Ripley beat a male opponent from Belfast Area High School to capture her second straight title.
"Last year when I won I was like really excited. It was the first time I won. And then this year, I was still super excited," Ripley said.
The big victory came in the same week she won the inaugural state wrestling title in the girls' division, besting the competition in the 107-pound weight class.
She said she gained six pounds in a matter of days by pumping weights to compete against the boys for the state championship.
The back-to-back victories, she said, show that "girls are working hard."
Ripley's coach, Jason Yates, who is also her stepfather, said Maddie is leading a rise in girls taking up wrestling across the country.
"I think girls wrestling is just exploding right now," Yates said. "We're seeing more and more college teams pick up programs and with that, it brings more girls to sports and the more athletes we get the better they're going to do. And, quite frankly, there's just a lot of good girl wrestlers out there right now."
Ripley's triumph occurred the same day that Audrey Jimenez, a senior at Sunnyside High School in Tucson, Arizona, made history in her state by becoming the first girl to win a title at the AIA Arizona High School State Wrestling Championships, competing against boys in the 107-pound weight class.
"The crowd was just super crazy. So that's what made it seem more like, oh wow I just won state," Jimenez told ABC affiliate station KNXV in Phoenix. "Women's athletics overall is really shining right now. Once you see it's done, you know it's possible."
Jimenez is now training for the 2024 Olympic trials in April and says she is still deciding what college to attend to continue her wrestling career.
Ripley, who also plays softball and field hockey for her school's girls' teams, said she also hopes to keep wrestling in the future once she decides on what college to attend.
"I hope someday to become a national champion and then hopefully after that maybe go to the Olympics and be on the world team," said Ripley, who noted she ultimately wants to be a nurse.
Ripley credited Yates and her twin brother, Gavin Ripley, for helping her reach her on-the-mat achievements. Gavin Ripley, who also attends Oceanside High School, won his third consecutive high school wrestling championship over the weekend, taking the title in the 132-pound weight class.
"He's definitely a big influence on me," Ripley said of her brother. "He's the guy to beat in the practice room."
