Rock Hill High women wrestlers win state titles, help push sport toward SCHSL sanction
Rock Hill High School wrestlers Ta’niya Roberts and Kalijah Campos left their mark at the first-ever Women’s Wrestling Invitational last month.
Roberts won a South Carolina High School Leage title in the 160-pound divison, and Campos did the same as a 182-pounder. And their efforts helped propel the Bearcats to a 101-98 victory over Greenwood to take earn the team state title.
Trinity Davis, the third and only other senior on the team, finished second in the 132-pound division.
The tournament was the first-ever SCHSL-sanctioned state championship event for women’s wrestling. More than 200 athletes wrestled Feb. 25 in Anderson, S.C.
“They’ve been pretty dominant this year,” Rock Hill High coach Timothy Beard said. “We’ve won every girls tournament that we’ve been to. And it’s because of those three seniors and some underclassmen that scored us points at every tournament that prepared us to go to the state tournament.”
Roberts said it was a bittersweet moment when she realized she’d won a state title.
“I worked all summer,” Roberts said. “I did off season wrestling and during the season, and this is my last year. So I had to work extremely hard to make it to be a state champ. I placed third twice, all of my years that I wrestled, so this is my first time at the top of the podium, and I was very excited.”
Women’s wrestling isn’t a fully-sanctioned sport by the SCHSL.
So the Rock Hill women have entered wrestling tournaments this season to compete against other women wrestlers. In some cases, they wrestled their male counterparts when opposing schools didn’t have women participants -- like their opening night match against Boiling Springs, and other matches against Chapman and Clover.
Campos said she had wrestled for her school in California before she moved to Rock Hill, S.C. She said womens wrestling is farther along there than in South Carolina. She was not accustomed to wrestling against males.
“It kind of toughens you up because boys and girls have very different styles of wrestling,” Campos said. “For girls, they don’t focus much on moves. Boys, they’ll try and do more intricate moves, so they can do ... many different things.”
The Bearcats had won state titles in women’s wrestling in 2020 and 2021, but those tournaments weren’t sanctioned by the high school league.
Getting the sport sanctioned by SCHSL
High school league officials are optimistic that womens wrestling will become a sanctioned sport, but it won’t happen immediately.
“All indicators indicate that it’s popular,” said Dr. Jerome Singleton, commissioner of the SCHSL. “We had multiple wrestlers in each weight class. The spectators that were there appeared to cheer it on well and had an opportunity to enjoy it.
“Looking into it, for a first time, I was very pleased. But the goal is to be able to create wrestling teams in each school ... That’s the goal. So while I think we’re off to a great start, there’s no doubt we still got a lot of work ahead of us.”
Singleton said the onus of growing womens wrestling will fall on the schools.
As general interest from schools and athletes continues to grow, that will push womens wrestling closer to becoming a sanctioned SCHSL sport.