Women wrestlers redefining the sport at Syracuse University
And singlets for all: Syracuse women’s wrestling
Inside the grit, dedication, and community driving women’s wrestling at Syracuse.
“We’re more than our sports bras,” Mason Harsch said emphatically.
The three other wrestlers standing on either side of Mason unanimously voiced their agreement.
And, Harsch, she is sore following another two hours of throwing and being thrown.
A black belt in taekwondo, Harsch, 18, from Danville, California began participating in fight sports at four years old and wrestling since ninth grade.
Syracuse University Club Wrestling team includes individuals with a combined 26 years of experience.
And that’s only counting women.
“I’m just feeling tired but otherwise my spirits are pretty high,” said Jhanaé Ottey. “It was a good practice. A little sore but, you know, I’ll recover.”
Ottey, 20, a political science major from Nyack, New York, began wrestling in ninth grade, now in her seventh year overall, and knows very well what draws her to the sport.
“When I’m on the mat, and I’m proving that I have the strength and technical ability to hold my own,” Ottey said. “I feel like that empowers me as a person.”
At any given club wrestling practice, women comprise at least 1 in 4 team members in attendance.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, since 2017, the number of girls competing in high school wrestling programs nationwide increased from 16,562 to 49,127 in the 2022-23 school year.
While that trajectory only increased since the introduction of Title IX, the landmark gender equity legislation passed in 1972, the momentum nearly dissipated on the world stage a decade ago.
The International Olympic Committee voted in 2013, before reversing course shortly thereafter, to remove wrestling from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In 2016, United World Wrestling, the governing body of international amateur wrestling, responded to the near fall by evening the weight classes for women’s freestyle, men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman at six.
The sport synonymous with the Olympic Games, even in ancient times, managed to keep its proverbial shoulders off the mat and the popularity of women’s wrestling continues to benefit from these changes.
“There was a really big boom,” said Jayandré Boscia, 21, a computer science major from Carmel, New York. “I would say there’s even more viewership into the women’s side.”
According to Boscia, vice president of club wrestling for the past three years, the rise in popularity of women’s wrestling made it so the club didn’t have to actively seek it out. Boscia likes to keep the club diverse–with an emphasis on encouraging anyone of any skill level to attend practices, even just to watch.
Mishell Capra, 19, of Oneonta, attends SUNY ESF and majors in wildlife science. Capra only began wrestling the last couple of weeks since the beginning of Fall semester and, when asked what keeps her coming back, signaled a determination to keep improving.
“I really just want to learn it,” Capra said. “And I know that the only way to do that is just to be consistent and keep trying my best and eventually it’ll come. I feel like I’m already picking things up a little faster.”
The team meets at Flanagan Gym for three to four weekly practices in a diminutive downstairs room. The space is all the more pronounced when so many people converge with the singular aim of maneuvering themselves and their opponents’ bodies around in a circle until a pinfall occurs or one reaches technical superiority.
One wall composed of mirrors belies the general purpose fitness area that the current space serves.
Blue mats, 34 feet by 34 feet, with several smaller orange circles surrounding a central circle, unrolled and taped together, represent the canvas where upwards of two dozen students take instruction. Women and men learn technique and a variety of throws, holds and takedowns that will produce a versatile and intelligent move-set in freestyle tournament competition–a form of wrestling often times not exposed to younger girls.
“It’s definitely hard for women,” Harsch said. “The post-collegiate opportunities are in freestyle wrestling. They teach folkstyle wrestling in high school.”
SU club wrestling looks to fill that gap.
“In college, for women, it’s freestyle which is a whole different style,” Boscia said. “If you only wrestled folkstyle your entire life, to jump to another style of wrestling with almost no training is almost impossible.”
The differences in wrestling styles aren’t the only hurdles that women have to clear in their pursuit of wrestling. Oftentimes, besides the opponent, the referee or the wrestler themselves, the hallmarks of a formerly male-dominated sport represents a formidable obstacle all its own.
“In middle school, a referee refused to ref my match because my sports bra was showing on the side of my singlet,” Emily Barcik said. “They wouldn’t order me a women’s singlet because it was $60 more. I had to put a shirt on under my singlet–which nobody has had to do that ever, and I had to wrestle that way.”
Barcik, 20, of North Tonawanda attends SUNY ESF and majors in conservation biology. A wrestler for nine years, she started MMA and jiu-jitsu in fifth grade. By seventh grade, Barcik wanted to participate in a school sport and chose wrestling.
And while each of the veteran women wrestlers could share an experience of male wrestlers subjecting them to unsportsmanlike conduct in high school competition, namely forfeits and refusing to shake hands, that’s in the past where they’re concerned.
“We’re just one of the wrestlers and [Jayandré] also is working on getting us women’s cut singlets for the first time ever,” Milania Rodriguez said. “We always get those stupid men’s singlets that cut way down. It’s tough because a guy will be standoffish, or more worried about pulling up our singlet than actually wrestling.”
Rodriguez, 18, from Grosse Pointe, Michigan majors in psychology. A wrestler for nine years, she grappled across the competitive spectrum.
“I was fortunate enough to go from an all-girl’s wrestling team [of 17] but then, when I moved, I went to an all-boys wrestling team,” Rodriguez said. “I got the advantage of both sides.”
Wrestling both women and men led Rodriguez to a few conclusions roundly shared by her fellow women wrestlers.
“Our center of gravity is so low,” Rodriguez said. “When taller guys come to wrestle us they don’t know how to process it. Their automatic thought is to use brute strength; I can’t get rolled as easily as a guy might.”
Another conclusion: male wrestlers do not want to lose to a girl.
“You can feel it as soon as they touch you,” Barcik said. “It’s not technical where, ‘what am I going to do next?’ They just grab you [and] they’re gonna hurt you. They’re stiff [and] you can use that against them.”
A third conclusion: wrestling is empowering.
“It’s built my self-confidence incredibly,” Rodriguez said. “Wrestling is the best community I’ve ever put myself in.”
And when it comes to the shared sisterhood of wrestling, it all starts with going to the mat.
“It’s always good to get out there and wrestle with my girls,” Barcik said. “I feel like any girl who puts themselves on that mat, and puts themselves in the situation that we all put ourselves in, you deserve to be there.”
is a contributor for The NewsHouse.