The Waynesburg women’s wrestling team collected their first win in team history in their first open match at East Stroudsburg on Nov. 3. 

Freshman Faryn Dewitt from Scottdale, Pa. earned the freshly implemented program’s first victory by decision at 110 pounds. 

Dewitt was one of three wrestlers that competed for Waynesburg at the invitational. Following a bye and being sent to the consolation bracket, Dewitt secured the first ever victory forWaynesburg with a 9-6 decision over Leilani Martinez of Cedar Crest. 

“Reflecting on my performance, I recognize many areas of self-improvement I could use, particularly my stamina and the mental resilience I have,” Dewitt said. “I plan to focus on these aspects and carry them on throughout practices and matches. As I continue to make history with the rest of the women, I’m determined to keep setting goals and creating more history because this is the place that I’ve wanted to be since my very first practice in high school.”

Tensions and nerves were high going into this first match for Dewitt, but focusing on a positive attitude kept her afloat. 

“I have always had bad sports anxiety and have always let it get the best of me in important situations,” Dewitt said. “I was aware of the tough competition and reminded myself that the goal was not to win, but to do my personal best. I set specific goals for myself including a win and implementing a new move we had just learned. Achieving both of these goals in this one match had left me feeling accomplished and proud of myself.”

Head coach Karli Thomas thought highly of the first match with keys to take away for the upcoming match.

“Some of the strengths I saw in our matches in our first tournament were hand fighting skills and a positive attitude,” Thomas said. “Some of the weaknesses I saw were in bottom par terre wrestling and confidence in taking shots. We had a group of girls who have only been wrestling for a couple years so we have lots to work on overall. I am proud of the time these girls have put in and the progress they made just to this point.”

As the team gets ready to travel to Millersville, Pa., for their next match, Thomas intends on pushing for some extra work within the practices.

“Between our first and next tournament, I am pushing lots more conditioning and building confidence in shooting or forcing the opponent to take a bad shot,” Thomas said. “We have been working some more shot defense and scoring from there also. We have also been going over some par terre defenses as well. There is always so much to work on.”

The women return to action Nov. 17 when they travel to the Millersville Open.