The Utica High School Girls Wrestling team consists of a singular powerhouse athlete – Hailey Wygle.
In her second year with the sport, she is racking up wins in tournaments across the state and quite literally single handedly carrying the high school girls program.
Wygle isn’t the only rookie in the program.
Ashler Bauer is also only in her second year of coaching. Bauer praised of Wygle’s skill, work ethic, and leadership throughout her time coaching.
“Hailey has beaten some really good wrestlers this year, and I think that has been cool, you know, last year it was like everything was new for both of us,” Bauer told the Mount Vernon News, “She has picked up on things very quickly and is a really quick study”
In a sport where female athletes' only option to participate used to be simply joining the boys team, girls wrestling is growing exponentially.
According to USA Wrestling, girls wrestling had 64,257 participants in 2023-2024, marking a 102% increase from the previous year.
Ohio is one of the 44 states that holds an official state tournament for this quickly growing number of female athletes.
Not only is Wygle dominant on the mat, she is also a respected role model to the middle school girls, who are frequently competing at the same tournaments as her.
“She has her own things that she wants to focus on, [on a tournament day] so some of it has been figuring out how to still be able to go through what she wants to go through to get ready and also give a little of herself to them, lead them, and help them have somebody to look up to. But they do look up to her,” Bauer said.
Bauer said Wygle's greatest strength is quite literally her physical strength.
“She is unbelievably strong. Other girls have commented on that before…her strength is very deceiving. She’s very, very strong,” Bauer said.
Wygle has had a very successful season, taking first in many of the tournaments she attends.
Bauer also noted that lots of the tournaments Wygle has competed in have been extremely competitive, making her wins all the more impressive.
“We went to Maysville and she won five matches, won her weight class,” Bauer said. “We went to Licking Heights, won five matches, won her weight class. She has dominated. She won here at Utica. She has dominated in some pretty competitive settings and that's been really exciting to see.”
Although Wygle’s talent is impressive, it is far from shocking.
She is surrounded by wrestlers, as all of her siblings are also participants in the sport and her father is a coach.
“I definitely think it’s an advantage that she comes from a wrestling family,” Bauer said. “Her dad is there, obviously, coaching her. But also Hanna [Wygle’s older sister] wrestled last year… her older brother came to Maysville and was actually in the chair a little bit. Having family around her has helped a lot.”
Wygle is joined next year by a number of rising freshmen, exponentially growing the numbers for the high school team.
With the growing roster, the Utica Girls Wrestling team will certainly be a team to watch.
