TULSA, Okla. — Every year, North Dakota boys wrestling teams are invited to compete at the USA Junior National Duals Championships in Tulsa, Okla. But in 2018, Junior Duals added a girls division welcoming girls from North Dakota to compete for the first time this year.
The duals tournament, which took place from June 18-22, is a “USA Wrestling Tournament for the high school age group 9-12 and has been around for years and is the biggest duals tournament in the nation,” William Smith said.
Smith, the USA Wrestling North Dakota women’s director, added a dual tournament is where each state sends a team and the teams compete against each other in a large tournament.
“North Dakota is sending two boys teams as usual, but this year we also have a girls team,” he said.
The team comprised of 12 girls from the state of North Dakota including a few girls from the Fargo-Moorhead area.
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“We chose the girls who had the most experience competing for their high schools as well during offseason tournaments,” Smith said.
“I can’t wait for the bond that we are going to create,” said Morgan Stranberg, who will be a sophomore at West Fargo Sheyenne. “It’s nice because we haven’t really had a full team before, so it’s cool to have a group of girls together and wrestle."
Brooke Leedahl from Kindred seemed to echo Stranberg as she prepared for the tournament, as well as the adjustments she has to make.
“I’m looking forward to the new journey, as well as wrestling girls, since all of my career I have wrestled boys,” she said, adding the freestyle wrestling at Nationals will be a change from folkstyle in high school. “It’s been a little difficult trying to adjust and get used to the new moves but Tony has been really helpful giving us guidance along the way."
Tony Fugleberg, an assistant coach at Fargo Davis High School, said he noticed the growth in the girls wrestling over the past year and thought it would be a great idea to help out.
“It’s something about the girls, they work hard, they want to learn,” Fugleberg said.
As far as coaching a new style of wrestling, Fugleberg said he doesn’t get too caught up in that and keeps things basic.
“For a lot of them it’s new, but even with folkstyle in high school, I teach very basic because it works,” he said. “You drill and hammer away at the basic stuff, and once you get real good at that, you can start adding in a couple of new moves.”
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North Dakota's girls did not place at the tournament.
Morgan Stranberg went 4-2 with an exciting last second 10-8 win, Brooke Leedahl went 2-4 including two 4-point throws for a technical fall against Oklahoma, and Avery Mohr from Fargo Davis went 3-3 with a technical fall and a pin.
Smith said the girls showed improvement from the first match to the last and even impressed some viewers.
“A college coach told me our North Dakota team showed the most heart he saw all day,” Smith said, adding that he really couldn’t ask anything more than that. “The girls fought through some bumps and bruises but battled in every match, so we are really proud of their effort.”
