Freshman, senior leading charge for Kiski Area girls wrestling

By: Michael Love
Monday, January 9, 2023 | 8:57 PM

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It was an all-Kiski Area final in the 126-pound bracket at the high school girls Powerade Tournament on Dec. 28 at Canon-McMillan High School.

On opposite sides of the bracket, senior Bella DeVito and freshman Ava Golding were among the favorites to win in the 16-wrestler field that featured numerous competitors from WPIAL schools.

DeVito and Golding rolled through their respective matches, DeVito pinning her way to the finals, while Golding earned two pins before a convincing 7-0 decision in the semifinals.

That set up a head-to-head match for gold, and familiarity of each other’s wrestling styles and abilities created a defensive classic.

In the end, Golding survived the title encounter with her friend and Cavaliers teammate, besting DeVito, 1-0, in an ultimate tiebreaker.

“With it being my first high school girls tournament, I was really nervous,” said Golding, who has been wrestling and competing since fourth grade.

“It’s a really big tournament. I thought about not doing it, but my parents convinced me to do it, and I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do. Facing Bella also concerned me that if we wrestled each other, how the outcome would affect our friendship. But we both are fine with it. We’re both competitors, and the match brought out the best in both of us. We both had to wrestle very carefully.”

DeVito said she was happy with the way she and Golding represented themselves and Kiski Area at the tournament and hopes that it will serve as a beacon for other girls in the district to invest in the sport.

“I had a feeling we might wrestle in the finals,” she said. “We said to each other to just go out and have fun. We practice with each other all the time, so we knew it was going to be competitive. Ava knew my game plan, so I had to try something different.”

DeVito and Golding have helped form the foundation of the still-young Kiski Area girls wrestling program, which earned sanctioning from the school district Dec. 20, 2021.

Both are excited for what the future holds in the program. There are a couple of district wrestlers at the youth level and three in seventh grade in addition to Golding in ninth and DeVito in her final varsity season.

Golding said there is a feeling of momentum at the present, born from an enthusiastic start about 12 months ago.

“It’s cool to know there is interest and seeing it grow, both (at Kiski) and all over the state,” she said. “I look at it every week, and there are new schools sanctioning programs and more girl opportunities.”

There are 90 schools in PA that have sanctioned girls wrestling since March 2020, and 100 are needed, as required by the PIAA, to have it sanctioned as an official sport.

Kiski Area became the first school in the Alle-Kiski Valley, the fourth in the WPIAL and the 31st in the state to sanction girls wrestling.

“When they approved it, we were really happy and knew that it was a great opportunity,” DeVito said.

Plum followed suit in June as the 47th in PA. There now are 15 WPIAL schools who have sanctioned wrestling.

“I thought it was going to be until my senior year before it got sanctioned,” Golding said. “I am glad I am going to have three more years after this year to compete and help build the program.

“We had held meetings for all the girls if they had questions and wanted more information. It’s not an easy sport, so we want to make sure that whoever comes in they know what they are getting into. I’ve talked to a good amount of my friends and others about possibility coming out for wrestling.”

The high school Powerade title came at Golding’s lone high school tournament so far this season as she has competed predominantly in boys junior high matches and tournaments.

On Saturday, Golding entered the junior high boys tournament at Southmoreland and finished third at 122 pounds with a 4-1 record.

DeVito, who also trains extensively at the Mat Factory in Lower Burrell and owns considerable time on club tournament mats, has battled at the high school boys level throughout the early part of this season. She is 1-13 overall.

But while her record against the boys hasn’t been exactly where she’s wanted it to be, she has ruled the roost in high school girls matches with a 25-3 record the past two seasons. Last year, she went 5-1 and claimed third place at 124 pounds at the girls state tournament.

She is 11-1 this year with eight pins and one major decision. She rolled to a dominant 3-0 record and the 125-pound title at the Queen of the Mountain tournament Dec. 18 at Central Mountain High School.

DeVito made her mark Saturday at the North Allegheny girls tournament, winning the 124-pound bracket with four pins and a 5-0 record.

“I was happy with how I wrestled Saturday,” DeVito said. “I was pretty confident in my shots and offense.”

DeVito, who will wrestle at the girls Mid-Winter Mayhem Tournament this weekend at IUP, is not done with wrestling once her senior high school season concludes. She is committed to the women’s team at Lock Haven.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I was really excited to know that I could continue wrestling in college. College wrestling for women is growing so fast.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Kiski Area