<div class="caption-wrap"><div class="caption">Cascade's Lily Grismer (left) and Cut Bank's Mariah Wahl (right) captured all-American status at the USA Wrestling National Championships in Fargo. (Photo courtesy: Tina Grismer)
<div class="caption-wrap"><div class="caption">Cascade's Lily Grismer (right) placed fifth at the USA Wrestling National Championships in Fargo. (Photo courtesy: Tina Grismer)
<div class="caption-wrap"><div class="caption">Cascade's Lily Grismer (second from right) poses on the fifth-place podium at the USA Wrestling National Championships. (Photo courtesy: Tina Grismer)
<div class="caption-wrap"><div class="caption">Cut Bank's Mariah Wahl (far left) placed eighth at the USA Wrestling National Championships in Fargo. (Photo courtesy: Tina Grismer)FARGO, N.D. — The future of female wrestling in Montana looks bright after grapplers Lily Grismer and Mariah Wahl returned from the USA Wrestling High School Nationals with all-American accolades this month.
Grismer, a sophomore-to-be at Cascade High School, captured fifth-place honors in the 112-pound 16U division, months after qualifying for the Class B/C state wrestling tournament during her freshman campaign. Grismer opened the tournament with a first-period win, but suffered a 13-2 defeat to Illinois’ all-American Amiyah Hart in the ensuing round of 32.
After winning her next four matches, Grismer fell in the consolation semifinals to land in the fifth-place match, where she fell in an 8-0 deficit, but worked Indiana’s Torieonna Buchanan into a pin in the second period to secure the fifth-place finish.
According to Cascade wrestling coach Jason Lorang, Grismer is believed to be the first Badger wrestler to earn all-American honors at the Cadet/Junior National Tournament.
Cut Bank sophomore-to-be Mariah Wahl added an eight-place finish in the 138-pound bracket, falling in her first match before winning three straight matches, one by fall and two by identical 10-0 scores.
After following one match short of the consolation semifinals, Wahl dropped her seventh-place match to finish eighth in the weight class, the final spot to be considered all-American.
