Eighth-grader Ria Maheshwari made Blach Intermediate School history at the recent county wrestling meet by becoming the first champion of the girls 82-pound division.
Ria competed against the boys last year, qualifying for the sectional meet. The county added a girl’s competition this season, which Ria dominated. She did not lose a match at the meet and finished the season 11-0.
“I think that she inspires other girls to realize that wrestling is not just a guys’ sport and that girls are extremely good at it,” Blach coach Joe Commendatore said. “It’s inspiring the girls to be courageous and brave. She might be an 82-pound girl, but her courage and her passion for success, winning and competition is inspiring.”
Motivated by the Bollywood movie “Dangal,” Ria said the protagonist’s journey as a female wrestler pushed her to take up the male-dominated sport when she was in seventh grade.
“(The movie) showed me that girls in wrestling can still work out,” Ria said. “When I heard that my school team had a wrestling team, I was like, ‘I might as well try it,’ and I actually started getting into it.”
From that point, Commendatore said Ria has grown tremendously as a wrestler, cementing herself as a leader on the Blach team and honing her greatest wrestling talents: strength and speed.
“(Ria) is growing as a person as well,” Commendatore said. “She’s much more mature, she’s much more confident and she’s much more outspoken. She’s much more communicative and I think it’s really made her be a much more confident young girl, which is a beautiful thing.”
In preparation for the tournament, Ria said she reflected on her past losses to motivate and sharpen her skills to ensure future improvement.
“Last year, I participated in the same tournament, and got pinned at sectionals, even after I had a high lead against a guy,” Ria said. “I told myself that I was going to train over the summer, and I told myself I was going to come back and I was going to win counties. I really tried to perfect my moves and my skills and I tried really hard during the school season with a perfect record.”
Although Ria said the hard work has paid off, she had to battle fatigue and the feeling of stagnation. However, these challenges taught her to push herself mentally, Ria said.
“A lot of it is the mental mindset,” Ria said. “If you can get past the mental mindset, you can really do anything. Especially in middle school wrestling, your skill level isn’t going to be that different (to your opponent). I think it just really goes up to the mindset and how you position yourself.”
After achieving her goal of winning the county championship, Ria said she hopes to inspire girls around her to pursue wrestling.
“When my hand got raised on that mat signifying that I won, that was a great accomplishment that I never thought that I could do and I feel like that set the tone,” Ria said. “My goal from all this is not only to be an inspiration to myself, but also other girl wrestlers, because I was also there once and it’s very intimidating going into the sport.”
