The Jupiter High wrestling team ended the 2024-25 season sending two female state qualifiers for the first time in JHS history.
The state competition was held at Silver Spurs Arena in Osceola, Fla. on March 6-8. Audrey Brunnett, senior, and Sara Newell, junior, both placed 3rd at regionals, allowing them to advance to states.
“The main goal of wrestling is to pin your opponent and get them on their back. You use various takedowns and techniques to get points,” Newell said.
Brunnett and Newell both started wrestling their freshman year.
“I started wrestling when a friend said it would be fun to do and that I should try, I knew nothing about it, but I ended up liking it so I stayed,” Newell said.
Advancing to the state level is an accomplishment that both girls are extremely proud of.
“[Making it to states] means everything in the world to me. Of course I wanted to place at states, but just getting the opportunity to go and experience it with my coaches and teammates was amazing,” Brunnett said.
This is the first time JHS has had female wrestlers advance to states, which is something not many wrestlers get to experience.
“Not a lot of people go to states, and once we got to states there were only 16 other girls in my weight class,” Newell said.
The team’s preseason started in Oct. and had extensive amounts of training and practice to prepare the girls for the upcoming competitions.
“Going to practice every day is super super important. Getting conditioned and getting your stamina up is super important for matches,” Brunnett said.
The team practices every day after school from 3:15 to 5:45 p.m. and they often have competitions on Friday and Saturdays.
“I train by running, going to the gym and the main focus is a lot of cardio,” Newell said.
In the district and regional tournament, in order to advance to states, a wrestler has to place top four to advance to states.
“I placed 2nd at districts and 3rd at regionals,” Newell said.
Each match is three periods with each period lasting two minutes. The matches can end early if the wrestler is injured, disqualified or by fall which is when one wrestler pins their opponent. Pinning in wrestling is when a wrestler holds their opponents shoulders to the mat for three seconds, after the three seconds the winning team earns points.
At the end of the match the opponent with the most points wins. If there’s a tie, then the match can go into overtime to determine a winner.
In the past, wrestling has been a predominantly male sport with less than 10 percent of wrestlers being female, creating a possible stressful and intimidating environment.
“Getting constantly overpowered and over muscled by guys can definitely make you want to quit and I had considered it multiple times. Not being as strong as someone gets in your head a lot,” Brunnett said. “Getting through that and staying tough is an acquired skill.”
As the wrestling season comes to an end, the girls learned a lot from this experience and made many fun memories along the way.
“What I took from this experience is not to take it so serious and to just have fun. The more serious you take it, the worse the nerves get to you,” Newell said. “Just have fun and don’t let the pressure get to your head.”
