Lady Flames wrestlers experience mixed results in early-season tests

Saturday, November 16

Lynchburg, VA

12:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Liberty University Wrestling Meet

The seven Liberty wrestlers who competed in the East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University Duals last Saturday:

Lady Flames wrestlers experience mixed results in early-season tests

11/27/2024 4:31:00 PM | Women's Wrestling

With a roster replete with newcomers as well as a healthy number of experienced veterans, Liberty will look to peak toward the Mid-Atlantic Conference and NCWA Grand National tournaments in March.

Liberty University's women's wrestling team has reloaded its roster from last season and is developing its young talent while leaning on its veterans for leadership at the start of the year.

"We're excited to start off a new year," Head Coach Charisse McIlhenny said. "We've got half new, half returners, so we're still in that growing stage for the moment but looking forward to what the end of the year will bring us."

Last Saturday, the Lady Flames went 2-5 with victories over Utica (N.Y.) University and Marymount (Md.) College to finish tied for fifth with Southern Virginia University out of eight teams at the third annual East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University Warrior Duals. The Knights won the tie-breaker in the teams' head-to-head match, with a 23-21 triumph over Liberty.

The host Warriors finished 7-0 to win the round-robin event, including a 45-3 victory over the Lady Flames. Sophomore Anna-Mari Servin provided the only points for Liberty in that match with her 8-4 decision over Isabella Burmaster at 145 pounds.

"We took seven wrestlers and all seven won at least one match, which was excellent," McIlhenny said, noting that Servin, 131-pound senior Claire Wortz, and 160-pound senior Maile Ka'ahanui, who like herself is from Hawaii, won multiple matches.

After ending the fall semester schedule by traveling to the Dec. 6-7 Patriot Duals hosted by the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., and featuring at least 16 teams from around the United States, Liberty will start the spring semester by competing at the Southern Virginia University Invitational on Jan. 18 in Buena Vista, Va.

Liberty held a combined practice with the Apprentice School on Oct. 25 before opening its 2024-25 season with a home quad meet in the LaHaye Multipurpose Center on Nov. 16. The Lady Flames opened that day with a 19-14 win over Greensboro (N.C.) University before falling to Brewton-Parker (Ga.) College, 35-10, Montreat (N.C.) College, 38-10, and SVU, 20-15.

"I'm excited for what the year has to hold," Wortz said. "This year's going to look a little bit different because we've lost a few seniors and obviously have a lot of incoming girls who have never wrestled before, so we are building from the ground up and (the newcomers) are excited to start having that ground-level knowledge and build off of it."

"It's an opportunity to grow the team we have right now because we have a large number of freshmen and if we continue to invest in them and keep them all four years, then that will be a powerful team in a couple of years," McIlhenny said.

Freshman Alana Folcik said she and the other newcomers were embraced by the veteran wrestlers on the team.
"I just came in knowing nothing and the returners were so kind and welcoming, which I love," she said. "They're so Christ-centered and it makes it really easy to bond with one another."

Wortz said doing devotions together has helped the Lady Flames stay grounded in the Word and has provided a solid foundation for the fledgling team, complemented by the discipline inherent in the sport.

"Having Bible studies, doing team bonding and just getting to know one another, you start from knowing nothing and then, especially in the sport of wrestling, you give blood, sweat, and tears together," Wortz said. "It's a hard-working sport. It is difficult, and we're all in it together, so whether we know each other super well on a personal level, it's like you have this respect for one another because of what we're each giving in the room every day."

"Our coach strongly encourages living out your best and working your hardest, having a strong endurance and living as a woman of Christ, even when no one is looking," Folcik added.

McIlhenny tries to train the team to live out the biblical command found in Joshua 1:9, the team verse that challenges the Lady Flames to "Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

"We really focus on that concept of strength and courage that we feel as coaches that the sport of wrestling really develops that character in you and calls you to be a woman of resilience and integrity and strength and courage," McIlhenny said. "That's really important in our culture right now … so when you face adversity and have obstacles in life, beyond the mat, that you are able to have those characteristics shine through. Those are biblical things that Christ calls us to be and to do and to implement in our lives."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Videos edited by Cody Ware and Reagan Underwood/Club Sports Video & Media Intern