History made: Kernel girls wrestling is thriving early in inaugural season

Dec. 7—MITCHELL — When Frankie Kranz stepped on the mat on Friday night, she was well aware of the history she was making.

Kranz, an eighth-grader, became the first Mitchell High School girls wrestler to wrestle in a sanctioned girls varsity match, as the Kernels wrestled four matches against Chamberlain prior to their regular boys dual.

"I was nervous at first but when you get out there and you do it, it just feels natural and I'm used to it," Kranz said. "It's really exciting to be able to start a new program and to be a part of that."

Kranz made good on her debut with a 56-second pin over Chamberlain's Aine Graesser at 106 pounds and has started her season 4-0 after three wins over the weekend.

She has wrestled since third grade and admitted she was waiting anxiously for the moment to arrive to make varsity girls wrestling a possibility in Mitchell. Parents of the Kernel girls helped rally enough wrestlers together to make the new team possible.

"It was happening everywhere around in South Dakota and I was kind of thinking, when is it going to happen here?" Kranz said. "I had friends on other teams that were getting to start but eventually, we got it done."

Mitchell coach Andy Everson was among those beaming with pride after the inaugural dual meet in the MHS Gym.

"They've all been working hard in the room and I'm really proud of the things they've been doing," Everson said. "It's just super neat. ... (Frankie) had to be the first one ever to go step out in a Mitchell singlet to represent us on the mat and she did a great job. She's been wrestling a long time, so it was fitting for her to be the first one out there."

Teammate Danny Borja, who has wrestled for the last few seasons for the Kernel middle school team, has also started well at 4-1 and wrestled twice during the event to make sure every Chamberlain girl got a match.

While girls wrestling has been around at the youth level for years, Borja said there are still some unknowns about the skills of who they might face in a given match.

"I was wondering just how skilled everyone would be, how long they've been wrestling and how easy it would be to beat them or not," said Borja, who is a freshman. "When I started, I got in because I wanted to see if I could be better than the guys and I've enjoyed it and stuck with it."

Five Kernels are on the girls wrestling roster: Kranz, Borja and juniors Emma Trode, Bobbi Jo Middendorp and Alyssa Nolte.

Trode, who is wrestling for the first time, said after Friday's dual that she was setting what she believed were realistic goals. That included winning at least one match for the season. She accomplished that on Saturday in Watertown, earning a pin in 38 seconds in her first match.

"This is my first year, so it's a little scary," Trode said. "But I still had some fun and I'm glad I'm doing it. ... Personally, I feel like we're creating history right now. I'm glad the boys are so accepting and I'm happy that we have one big team."

Everson said nearly all of the Kernels' scheduled events have a girls element to them now, with the 2022-23 season being the third in South Dakota in which girls wrestling has been a sanctioned sport. A total of 62 teams are listed on the SDHSAA website as having some level of girls wrestling programming this season.

The girls' section of the Watertown tournament on Saturday had nearly 40 wrestlers, which is triple what they had a year ago, Everson said. Six of the eight teams involved had at least one wrestler in attendance, and the seventh — Harrisburg — has built a strong roster with 12 wrestlers that participated in a girls-only event in Okoboji, Iowa, on Saturday.

Mitchell will go to a girls-only tournament on Friday, Dec. 30 when the McCook Central/Montrose program has a tournament in Salem, one day ahead of its traditional boys event. Everson said the only tricky part of the schedule is the 15-event limit for weigh-ins, so Kernel girls won't weigh in for an event unless they know there will be enough competition on hand to go against.

Meanwhile for the Kernels, they're excited about what the future might hold for Mitchell girls wrestling.

"We knew we could be the first to do it for the Kernels and it's been great," Borja said. "We love it. We have new girls that are trying it and they're pushing themselves and it's really cool."