Girls hit the mats: as more girls participate in high school wrestling, they're competing against--and defeating--boys.

• Author: Longman, Jere
• Position: SPORTS

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Rachel Hale kept the boy subdued on his hands and knees, then on his stomach. She hooked her leg tightly around his, flattening his hips toward the mat, trying to mm him on his back and pin his shoulders. Finally, the referee declared her the winner.

In February, Hale, a 15-year-old freshman at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont, became the first girl in Vermont and the third girl in the nation to win a state wrestling championship while competing against boys.

Hale's victory shows the growing success of girl wrestlers, who have qualified for state tournaments in as many as 49 states and have placed among the top finishers in at least 10, according to Kent Bailo, the director of the United States Gifts' Wrestling Association.

"Any girl could do this, too, if they've tried as hard as they could and stuck to their goal and worked at it every single day," says Hale. "I wanted this so bad"

During the 2009-10 school year, more than 6,000 girls competed in high school wrestling, a 20 percent increase in four years, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

"I think literally every state but Pennsylvania has had a girl qualify for state," Bailo says.

Still, the number of female wrestlers remains small compared with the more than 270,000 boys who wrestle in U.S. high schools.

Separate Teams?

Just a week before Hale's win, a boy in the Iowa state tournament refused to wrestle against a girl, citing religious reasons. He chose to forfeit the match instead.

In the Vermont championship, things played out differently. "She deserves to wrestle," says Cody Jolley, the...