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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 11, 2003
LAND O'LAKES -- Ask Dana Kearney and Jessica Worthington why they wrestle -- why they and a handful of girls across the state have staked a claim to an arcane, grueling, male-dominated sport -- and they'll stare blankly, not really sure what to say.
Why do they wrestle?
Why wouldn't they?
"I like it," Worthington said. "I like competition."
"We really didn't do it just to make a difference," Kearney said. "We love the sport so much that we're like, 'Why not do it?"'
Kearney and Worthington are seniors on the Land O'Lakes boys wrestling team but the pair is renowned, and feared, throughout the state in girls wrestling.
Last season, 798 schools across the country put 3,405 girls wrestlers on the mats, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. In Tampa Bay, there isn't a more dominant or decorated pair in this fledgling sport than Kearney and Worthington.
Saturday's state meet at Kissimmee Gateway was the last stop for two storied careers. Kearney won her third state title; Worthington her second.
They're not just wrestlers. They're pioneers.
"Are we?" Worthington said. "I guess so."
In 1995, St. Petersburg's Kelly Williams became the first girl in Florida to win a boys district wrestling title. Now girls have a choice: They can wrestle boys or they can take on other girls.
Girls wrestling came to Florida four years ago, born as a club sport by central Florida high schools. There are a few girls tournaments during the regular season, and the state championship is in its fourth year.
In central and northern Florida, girls have teams and enough wrestlers to compete against each other. At schools with few girls, such as Land O'Lakes, they wrestle boys.
That's what Kearney and Worthington do. It's why they were so dominant Saturday.
Kearney won the 124-pound weight class, scoring two pins and a 17-2 win. In the final, she defeated Gainesville's Kayte Seusse, taking a 2-0 lead into the second period, then pinning her foe in three minutes.
Worthington, who won the silver as a sophomore, scored two pins in the 132-pound division to reach the final against Lyman's Haly Haritan, state champion at 128 in 2002. Worthington took a 9-1 lead in the second and had Haritan in a hold, quickly working her way to a pin when she heard her foe's chest pop.
"Stop, stop, stop," a pained Haritan told her.
Worthington let go and popped off the mat, knowing what it was: a broken collar bone. The state title was hers by injury default. It was not the win she wanted. "I was hoping the match would last longer," Worthington said. "Just one more period."
Together with freshman teammates Vanessa Tyson (136), who took third, and Elizabeth Lewis, (102) who finished fifth, the four wrestlers led Land O'Lakes to fifth place, nine points out of second.
The seniors leave with several state records. Kearney has the fastest pin in the history of the four-year girls tournament: 13 seconds in 2002. That was the year Kearney and Washington tied for the most pins in a state tourney with four apiece. Kearney is tied with Winter Springs' Kristen Ianuzzi for the most state titles.
"Three years in a row!" Kearney screamed.
"Three years in a row!" Worthington screamed.
It was Land O'Lakes coach Brett Murray's first trip to the girls state meet. He was impressed.
"In a word, it was outstanding," he said. "I mean I probably felt more pressure than they did. But they were like, 'Coach, don't worry about it."'
Wrestling boys prepared them for anything the girls could throw at them.
"Because when I'm wrestling guys, I'm used to that strength," Worthington said. "When I wrestle girls, it's totally different.
"There's lots of moves I can use against girls that I can't use against guys, stuff I would never try against guys."
Kearney came by wrestling the hard way: Former Land O'Lakes wrestler Derek Schiffer used takedowns on her when they played youth football together.
"He'd be like, 'Come here, I want to show you something,' " Kearney recalled, "and then it was like, 'Boom!"'
When Kearney came to high school, the freshman was intrigued enough to attend practice. Then Worthington heard about Kearney. Classmates dared the sophomore to join.
"I said, 'Oh yeah? I'll show you,"' Worthington said. "So I came out. Everybody hated me. Dana hated me. Nobody liked me."
Perhaps. But only for a short time.
"When Jessica came in here, I resented her," Kearney said. "I was the only girl on the wrestling team. I was the princess, and all of a sudden I wasn't the princess anymore. I hated her for like the first couple of weeks.
"I tried to scare her off, but I couldn't do it."
The two laugh about it now.
"I'm very stubborn," Worthington said, "and I wasn't going to quit. I was like, 'I'll show them."'
When did Kearney give in? "When I figured she wasn't going to leave," she said.
Now the two do what seniors are supposed to do: boss the underclassmen around. "I got beat up bad, I got my butt kicked," Worthington said. "But they all get it back now."
The two had to take their lumps, just like any other rookie -- only more so. What they lacked in size, strength, speed and skill they made up for in grit.
Kearney and Worthington ended up on the boys varsity at one time or another.
Coaches use girls wrestlers to fill vacant weight classes. By wrestling boys, girls help the team by preventing a forfeit.
Knee injuries kept Kearney off the varsity this season while Worthington earned a spot at 130 pounds. She is 14-15 against boys with five pins and a sixth-place showing at the Sunshine Athletic Conference meet, the Pasco County championship.
"It wasn't like we just threw her out there to get pinned," Murray said. "Against some of those boys she had a legitimate shot at winning if she had executed some different moves."
But wrestling boys is still a frustrating experience for girls, who are forced to wrestle defensively. They have to be technically sound but can't risk trying complicated maneuvers or new moves lest they get caught on the mat and give up too many points.
Against girls, though, it's a different story.
"The way they dominated the girls was great," Murray said. "They were running from Jessica. She just went out there and dominated. The girls were on the Internet, trying to figure out what weight class she was in so they could get out of the way.
"And Dana had a tech fall and two pins. You can't get much better than that."
Said Kearney: "With wrestling, once you start winning the matches, it's just a domino effect. You feel like you're going to keep on winning."
Organizers hope the Florida High School Activities Association will one day sanction girls wrestling. The FHSAA requires 32 schools that have sponsored the sport for two years to petition for sanctioning. After a year, the board of directors could authorize an official state championship.
The unofficial state tournament has grown each year: 118 girls from 41 schools wrestled Saturday.
"We're trying to do whatever we can," Gateway coach Michael Glassburn said, "to get these girls recognized for what they do."
Why girls wrestling? For the same reasons boys wrestle: they like it, and it challenges them like few sports can.
"You can't hide yourself out there," Worthington said. "You've got to go out there and do it."
It's just getting started in Tampa Bay. Bloomingdale's Elizabeth Hernandez brought back the 167-pound state title to Hillsborough County, pinning Vero Beach's Bridgett Boger in 5:01. Gibbs' Amber Adams (112), Jessica Box (124) and Hudson's Patricia Conner (107) all wrestled.
Kearney and Worthington aren't done yet. Worthington will wrestle with the boys when districts start. Nationals are March 29-30 in Michigan.
Worthington wants to wrestle at the collegiate level. Kearney's future is in firefighting. She's already a lieutenant with the Land O'Lakes Volunteer Fire Department. But she would return to help coach if the school forms a girls team.
And the coach wants to keep their legacy alive.
Said Murray: "Hopefully, the past three years is not the end."