A Fresh face in women's freestyle wrestling

Jessica Fresh never thought she'd wrestle again.

Although she loved the sport growing up in Knoxville, watching her younger brother compete and following him to practice and hoping to impress her father, she thought her days on the mat were over when she quit after her freshman year in high school.

“The coach,” she said when asked why she hung up her singlet. “And I wasn't enjoying it as much. I just lost interest.”

But that interest returned during her freshman year at the University of Northern Iowa, where she played on the club rugby to satisfy that competitive urge.

“I liked it, but it wasn't for me,” she said.

While working a tournament as a volunteer, she started talking to some women's freestyle wrestlers during a break and found out colleges in Iowa actually offer the sport.

She couldn't get it out of her mind.

“I dreamt about it,” she said with a laugh.

After talking to Waldorf Coach Dustin Baynes, Fresh decided to switch schools and give wrestling another shot.

Now she's in this weekend's Olympic Wrestling Trials in Iowa City, earning a berth at a last-chance qualifier in Cedar Falls earlier this month. She wrestles at 105.5 pounds, the lightest of four weights in women's freestyle.

“I was pretty surprised I made it,” she said. “It was just a tournament coach had us all wrestle in.”

Fresh, 19, opened the qualifier with a solid win over Esthefania Jimenez, winning 1-0 and 7-0. She won by technical fall in the next round, then pinned Courtney Workman in the semifinals.

In the finals, she lost to Candace Workman of Colorado Springs, 1-0 and 6-0.

Workman was ranked nationally in November.

“I was excited to make the Trials, but I was disappointed to fall short in the finals,” she said after the qualifier.

But it's a long way from her freshman year in high school - and her first year of competition at Waldorf. She wrestled in a handful of tournaments but doesn't even know her record.

“I know I did decent,” she said. “Won some, lost some. Learned a lot.”

She hopes that learning experience continues this weekend, but isn't in Iowa City just to gain experience.

“I want to wrestle the way I wrestle, do the best I can, take this as a learning experience and make the Olympics,” she said.

Not bad for a wrestler who had to beg her dad to even get on the mat as a youth,

“Now he's my biggest fan,” she said.