This story originally appeared in Mile High Sports Magazine. Read the full digital edition.
Jessica Mosqueda is someday going to be the answer to a Colorado high school sports trivia question.
Someday, someone will wonder just who was the first winner at an all-girls wrestling tournament. The answer? It was the 101-pounder from Holyoke, Jessica Mosqueda. In mid-January, she participated in the first wrestling tournament designated for girls only. Frederick High School and wrestling committee chair Ernie Derrera hosted the inaugural event at the 2017 Warrior Invite.
Mosqueda wasted no time in making a name for herself. She blew through the 101 bracket, winning by fall in all three of her matches.
In total, she only needed 6 minutes and 42 seconds on the mat to come away with a first-place finish.
With girls’ participation numbers increasing and recent murmurs that the Colorado High School Activities Association may look at adding girls wrestling as a separate sport, Mosqueda’s win could prove to be a highly impactful moment in its history.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “Wrestling girls is a fantastic thing because we know we can do more and it just feels really special right now.”
Overall, the tournament received a very positive reception and could be the springboard needed to get the sport sanctioned by the CHSAA.
But like Mosqueda, more and more girls must be willing to participate in order to help the sport continue to grow.
“As long as girls know that we can do the sport as well, it’s going to keep growing,” she said.
For now, the girls will continue to mix in with the boys. But with what Mosqueda and several others have experienced recently, that may not be the case for long.
Featured Image Credits: Holyoke High School Yearbook; Dan Mohrmann, CHSAANow.com