Figueroa becomes first female to win the Pottstown Alumni Wrestler Award
POTTSTOWN, Pa. (BVM) — Julianna Figueroa was recognized this month as the first female in school history to win the Pottstown Alumni Wrestler Award. The Class of 2021 wrestler was recognized for making the most out of her athletics career at Pottstown High School (PHS).
Figueroa placed second in the 134-pound class at the 2021 My House Girls State Championships, becoming the first female to be a three-time state medal winner in PHS history.
Although she didn’t take the first-place finish, Figueroa in the final round fell to Delaware Valley’s Lily Sherer, who before the start of that meet was already a two-time Pennsylvania girls wrestling state champion.
Figueroa ended her high school career with three straight silver medals, but the journey to prepare for the state meet each year was no easy one.
Currently, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association doesn’t recognize girls’ high school wrestling as an official sport. Often, there aren’t enough females to wrestle prior to state, so athletes like Figueroa have had to wrestle boys to prepare for the meets.
That has never deterred Figueroa away from the sport. It’s determination like this that has become a part of the initiative to help move the sport of girls wrestling closer to being recognized by the PIAA. Currently, the PIAA requires that at least 100 schools across the state have dedicated girls wrestling teams first and the state is only 10% of the way there.
The only way to get there is to have enough girls interested in starting a team at their school. One of the ways to pique more interest is by having more wrestlers follow in Figueroa’s footsteps of never quitting at the high school level.
