Making history on the mat: Eagle wins Idaho's 1st sanctioned girl's wrestling state title

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — A group of six girls at Eagle High School just won Idaho's first-ever sanctioned girl's wrestling state championship. With it, they're making history for their school -- and the state of Idaho.

Before this year, there was no such thing as a sanctioned girl's wrestling state tournament. Female wrestlers could compete in duals and in non-sanctioned tournaments, but they never had the opportunity to bring home an official state title for their school.

That changed in late 2020, when the Idaho High School Activities Association made the decision to sanction a female-specific state tournament for wrestlers. This past weekend was the first one.

"It's super exciting we could get to that point to have our own state tournament," senior wrestler Liv Wieber said. "When I started there were literally no girls. Every team had one girl or maybe two if they were lucky."

Liv started wrestling at Eagle three years ago as the only girl on the team. This year, there are eight.

After a knockout season this year, the team traveled to Pocatello to compete in state.

"It was the biggest place we've ever wrestled," said junior Olivia Woods. "It was like 'oh my gosh there are so many mats here and so many people.' I was scared."

Once the girls got on the mats, those nerves didn't stand a chance.

"It was awesome, it was probably one of our best tournaments of the year," Wieber said.

In the end, Liv Wieber, Olivia Woods and Reece Woods won individual titles. Jordynn LeBeau was a runner-up, Emery Woods placed 5th, and Holland Wieber finished 6th. They also won the team championship (by a landslide) -- and their coach, Mike Stone, won the 'Coach of the Year' award.

"It was so exciting," Reece Woods said of her team's win. "It was a great way to finish the season with a great group of girls."

Back at school, the girls have been enjoying the feeling of being champions.

"It kind of feels like we're celebrities on campus which is super exciting because nobody really cares about wrestling," Wieber said.

The girls hope their historic season will inspire more girls -- at Eagle and across Idaho -- to get out on the mat.

"I hope it means for everyone in the state that girl's wrestling becomes more of a popular thing and more people recognize it as a sport," Olivia Woods said. "I feel like right now a lot of people are like 'oh, it's girl's wrestling, they don't really know what they're doing, it's not a real thing.' But that's not true. It's different from boy's wrestling because we're girls, but it's still wrestling and we're all out here to work hard. I hope this whole experience shows girls that there is an opportunity to wrestle, and an opportunity to be great.

"It definitely teaches you things that other sports just can't," Reece Woods said. "It has been a very humbling and exciting experience to wrestle with these girls and the amazing coaches we've had."

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