Editor’s Note: Isabella Castro is a writer for the New Trier News and is mentioned in this piece. She was not involved in the writing, reporting, or editing of this article.
On Jan. 25, the New Trier High School girls wrestling team finished their season with a first place win at the Central Suburban League (CSL) conference, earning a final score of 167.5 points. Maine East High School placed second with 141 points and Evanston Township High School took third place with 136 points.
Based on the results of the CSL conference, four New Trier wrestlers qualified for regionals: seniors Lola Bianco and Jillian Giller took gold in the 110 pound and 140 pound weight classes, respectively, sophomore Isabella Castro took second place in the 105 pound weight class, and sophomore Sunny Aitzemkoir took third place the 100 pound weight class.
“The conference was a very fun and enjoyable experience with the team,” Bianco said. “I went up against Maine East, Deerfield [High School], and Vernon Hills [High School] in the finals and finished with all pins. It was an all out great effort by our entire team.”
The sectional tournament took place on Feb. 14 and 15. From there, the top four wrestlers from each weight class advanced on to the state tournament, which will be on Feb. 28 and March 1 in Bloomington, Illinois. Giller and Aitzemkoir advanced to state.
One of the team’s goals at the beginning of the season was to win the CSL conference for the second year in a row, which they managed to do. However, they still have other things they want to achieve.
“Even though this season has been really successful, I still have a few goals I want to accomplish which include winning sectional and state,” Giller, Bianco’s co-captain, said. “I’m 42-1 and I get to avenge that loss at sectionals.”
Giller said that since the wrestling competition in Illinois gets tougher with each year, the team needed to be even more prepared this season.
The girls wrestling season started in November and the team initially had more wrestlers, but lost some girls along the way when they decided wrestling wasn’t for them. In the end, the team had 13 wrestlers for most of the season. They competed every Saturday leading up to Thanksgiving.
“We’ve had a lot of first year wrestlers get a lot of wins and show a lot of improvement,” head coach Andrew Ortman said. “And our returning wrestlers have gotten better and really put together quality seasons,”
To make sure his team was ready for the conference, Ortman conducted practices using the 5 T’s: talent, technique, training, toughness, and time on the mat.
“He’s [Ortman] brought the team together and built the biggest girls wrestling team New Trier has ever had,” Giller said. “Everyone has come through with big wins when it matters.”
This year, the girls wrestling team had to adjust to a new coaching staff, but Giller said that Ortman, who’s in his first year teaching at New Trier but has been a wrestling coach for two years, is the best coach she has ever had.
“I think it’s a really good group of girls,” Ortman said. “There are leaders on the team that lead by example that the girls want to work hard to live up to their expectations, but also their teammates’ expectations.”
As the regular season comes to a close and the post-season continues, the team still faces the challenge of growing their team.
“Getting more girls to go out for wrestling is something we need to continue to advocate for,” Bianco said. “As a co-captain, I felt it’s been a responsibility of mine to get more girls to join the team so we can push New Trier girls wrestling to a new level.”