Photo by Ben Stuart, Homer News

The past, present and future of women's wrestling converged on a mat in the Homer High School gym Sunday at the 2005 Alaska Girls State Championships.

For the 19 wrestlers who competed, the United States Girls Wrestling Association meet provided an opportunity to learn from the best in the sport and compete against their peers.

Homer Olympian Tela O'Donnell held a wrestling clinic for the participants before the meet, and said she enjoyed teaching techniques and strategy to the younger wrestlers.

"It's really a lot of fun," O'Donnell said. "I feel like I'm part of something big."

In high school in 2000, O'Donnell finished sixth and Skyview's Melina Hutchison finished third at the 4A state championship.

They were the first-ever female place-winners at a state tournament.

The following year, as a sophomore at West Anchorage, Iris Mucha became the first girl from Region 4 to qualify for the state tournament.

Since then, Mucha wrestled at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, wrestled in college and is currently the No. 6-ranked U.S. Senior Women's wrestler.

Sunday, Mucha shouted encouragement and gave advice to the younger wrestlers from the sidelines.

She also wrestled against O'Donnell and Chugiak's Melissa Apodaca.

The sport has come a long way for girls since Mucha was in high school, she said.

Already at a disadvantage in terms of strength, especially at the upper weight classes, Mucha said, coaches rarely pushed girl wrestlers or taught them the technique required to compete.

"During high school girls get beat up by the boys," Mucha said. "It's neat seeing girls compete against their equals and against others that have gone further with the sport," Mucha said.

Today, many coaches expect more from their girl athletes, and the added attention is beginning to show.

For instance, Melina Hutchison's two younger sisters — Michaela and Hannah — both wrestle competitively.

Michaela, a freshman at Skyview, finished third this season as a 103-pounder at the 4A State Tournament, and beat all-comers at Sunday's Alaska Girls State Championship.

Ten-year-old Hannah beat 6-year-old Grace Wiggins from Anchorage to take the 52-pound title.

Photo by Ben Stuart, Homer News

In some circles, however, girls wrestling boys — and sometimes beating them —, is still controversial.

Homer wrestling coach and Sunday's event organizer, Chris Perk, said much of that stigma has evaporated as girls participate more.

"I think it has (lessened) for sure, especially with their being more girls wrestling and doing well such as Michaela," Perk said. "Some people still do not believe it is right though."

While the foundation of girls wrestling has been laid by pioneers such as Melina Hutchison, O'Donnell and Mucha, the future of girls wrestling has yet to be written.

By the time Hannah begins competing at the high school level, for instance, girls wrestling could be a separate sport from boys wrestling.

Perk said he sees the benefits of having all-girl wrestling tournaments.

"I would like to see ASAA adopt, as they have with hockey in Anchorage, all-girl competitions in the state," he said.

"(Girls wrestling) seems to be booming on the college scenes. I could see it in a couple of years getting a state tournament hosted by ASAA."

Until then, girls will compete against the boys and other girls in high school, and against girls in tournaments like Sunday's.

Either way, they are competing, and learning what it takes to compete against the best.

In one of the matches Sunday, Chugiak's Melissa Apodaca lost 15-0 to Olympian O'Donnell.

After the match, however, Apodaca's confidence was unwavering.

"I think it was mental," Apodaca said. "She's the same (weight class) as me. If I try hard enough, I could beat her."

Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homernews.com.