Female Supremacy Articles - Page 13

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Almost technically as good as boys, especially at the lower weights. Girls know they are still at a disadvantage at the middle and heavy weights because they're not as strong as the boys in those divisions.

That doesn't prevent Hutchison, or the other two girls on Skyview's team, from challenging boys, even if they're heavier and stronger.

"We'll wrestle anybody that's close in weight," Hutchison said.

It's that attitude, and the ability to back it up, that has people taking note of the strides female wrestlers have made in Alaska.

But while Hutchison and many other girls in this state have come a long way, earning respect and establishing themselves as equals on the mat, they can go further still.

INSPIRATION

The history of girls wrestling in Alaska is cloudy. Many of Alaska's large-school coaches said girls first began showing up for wrestling tryouts in the mid-1990s, although former ACS wrestler Jason Hofacker -- who just last month hung up his whistle as the ACS wrestling coach after seven years -- remembered girls wrestling at the small-school level in the late 1980s.

Regardless of when girls started going toe-to-toe with boys on the mat, they didn't truly make their mark until 2000. That's when Melina Hutchison and O'Donnell became place-winners at state -- and instant pioneers.