IGHSAU head: Little talk of girls' wrestling tournament

DES MOINES -- In his nine years with the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, Mike Dick has taken "very few calls inquiring" about the possibility of a girls' state wrestling tournament."For us to do something, we would need to hear from the member schools, and that just hasn't happened," said Dick, the IGHSAU executive director.Thursday's events at the state wrestling tournament -- Linn-Mar's Joel Northrup defaulted his first-round match to Cedar Falls' Cassy Herkelman -- "might spur some further discussion," Dick said.Thirty-nine girls participate in high school wrestling in Iowa. Herkelman and Ottumwa's Megan Black were the first females in state history to advance to the state tournament, both in the Class 3A 112-pound field.According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, just more than 6,000 girls competed in wrestling in 2009-10 -- compared with nearly 275,000 boys. California, Hawaii and Texas are the only states with girls competing solely against girls.Herkelman advanced to the second round via Northrup's default. Black went 0-2 and is done for the tournament.Dick said he can "fully understand all sides" of the Northrup dilemma.