Girls high school wrestling is on the rise. The sport is experiencing major growth throughout the country.

The National Federation of State High School Associations reports the sport exploded to over 74,000 participants in the 2024-25 season, a 15-percent increase from the previous year.

Nearly 15 area high schools offer the sport and plenty of girls are joining programs.

Whether their brothers introduced them to the sport or their friends talked them into joining -- girls wrestling is on the climb.

Ohio sanctioned the sport in 2022, and Pennsylvania in 2023, allowing girls to compete for state championships.

"I want to win state, I want to be an All-American, I want to do so much and I want to wrestle in college," said Reagan Koch of Austintown Fitch.

Koch is just one local athlete to experience success in the sport. Poland's Ella Thomas is a trailblazer, she was the first girl to join the program at Poland but that came with challenges.

"I started in sixth grade and it's a tough sport to learn," said Thomas. "In middle school, I did wrestle boys and it's tough to wrestle boys honestly."

Paige Cowan of East Liverpool is another standout wrestler to top 100 wins, following in the foot steps of Makyah Newlun, the first girl to win a state title in 2024 for East Liverpool.

"When I first started out wrestling all boys in Junior High and there would be one or two girls from other teams," said Cowan. "So when I got to see all of us have a fully-sanctioned Ohio state tournament it made me really happy."

East Liverpool wrestlers like Newlun, Cowan and Alanna McGonigal are inspiring the next group of girls coming up.

"Our numbers in middle school right now, we have eight girls that came out and they're fully wrestling. All of them are doing well and our youth program just exploded with 16 girls," said Jeremy Shaw, East Liverpool Wrestling Coach.

The same trend is taking place at Austintown Fitch.

"The first year we had about five girls," said John Burd, Austintown Fitch Wrestling Coach. "We're up to about 15 this year. Each and every year, the numbers have went up slightly and our girls are getting way more competitive."

Girls wrestling has even taken off beyond the high school level. The NCAA officially added women's wrestling as its 91st championship sport, with the inaugural championship tournament scheduled for March 2026.