MHS adds all-girls wrestling team

MARSHFIELD – When Ava Gardner won the first of her back-to-back state individual wrestling titles in 2024, girls in every grade level in Marshfield took notice.

By the time she won her second consecutive WIAA championship in 2025, more than two dozen girls were gearing up to be the next Ava Gardner.

“This is the first year that the girls’ team has an official coach. Otherwise they had always kind of combined in with the boys’ team. So, this is the first year for Marshfield girls’ wrestling and their own program,” said David Sleznikow, who is serving as the inaugural Marshfield High School girls’ wrestling coach.

“Marshfield girls’ wrestling is really exploding,” Sleznikow added. “We’ve had two girls for the last couple of years – Ava Gardner and Erika Sleznikow. So, we had some really great girls on the team. We still have a lot of girls in our youth and middle school programs, but a lot of the girls that we have… I believe we have five girls who’ve wrestled in the past – whether that was in youth or middle school –and we have eleven girls that have never wrestled before, and this is their first time coming out. So it’s pretty exciting to get to work with a lot of newer girls, but we have a lot of athletes on the team and I think it’s a big win for us.”

Sleznikow, an Owen-Withee native who wrestled in high school for the Owen-Withee/Stanley-Boyd coop, also told Hub City Times during our Nov. 20 visit at Marshfield High School that this year made perfect sense for the girls to make the official split from the boys’ program, based on what was happening at the state level.

“The WIAA made a change a few years ago where they were starting to make a definitive split between boys and girls,” Sleznikow said. “Up until this year, the girls could actually participate and wrestle in the boys’ program and still participate in a number of girls’ events across the state, including the high school state tournament. This year, the WIAA instituted a pretty hard cut. So you can pick between wrestling with the boys or wrestling with the girls, but once you make the decision, you can’t kind of go back and forth. There are some programs that they’ll still practice together and that’s okay, but for competition’s sake, all of the girls must wrestle girls’ competitions and all of the boys must wrestle boys’ competitions.” 

Wisconsin is among the many states seeing a huge uptick in girls’ wrestling.

In its latest High School Athletics Participation Survey released in September 2025, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) reported “that 8,266,244 student-athletes were involved in high school sports in 2024-25, which is up 203,942 from the previous year and tops the previous record of 8,062,302 set in 2023-24. The total includes 4,726,648 boys and 3,539,596 girls – both record highs – according to figures obtained from the 51 NFHS member state associations, which includes the District of Columbia.

“The biggest gains in 2024-25 were mainly found in girls’ sports, with flag football leading the way,” the report added. “Girls wrestling topped 74,000 participants for the first time, jumping 15 percent from a year ago and adding nearly 1,000 schools with a girls wrestling program,” the survey also found.

In its two previous surveys, girls’ wrestling was the nation’s fastest-growing high school sport.

Ten years ago, 11,496 girls were involved in high school wrestling – many competing on boys teams. This past year, there were 74,064 participants in girls wrestling at 8,100 schools. Ten years ago, five states had separate girls wrestling championships; today 40 states offer girls wrestling championships, the NFHS report said.

“Look at Marshfield,” Sleznikow said. “We went from two girls to sixteen girls. And there are other programs that I know of that have seen similar things, where they went with a couple of girls, they saw some success, other girls are seeing it, they’re looking at it and saying, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of that,’ and it’s really showing across the state.

“We’ve done lots of things, trying to do some girls-only ‘Open Mats,’ and it really has brought in a lot of girls,” Sleznikow added. “And actually, I think all the girls that have come out for the ‘Open Mat’ to give it a try have jumped in and are on the team at this point, so it’s exciting.”

Among those on the new all-girls wrestling team at MHS is junior Erika Sleznikow, who as a sophomore finished in 3rd place at 126 pounds at the 2025 WIAA State Tournament, losing to eventual state champion Madi Peach of Milton, prior to defeating Natalie Klavetter of Hudson in the third-place match.

“I think we knew last year,” Erika said of getting an all-girls’ team at Marshfield High School. “Towards the end of the season, we really heard there were a lot of girls that were interested in coming out for the team.”

She also says girls wrestling against other girls should eventually be better for them as individuals.

“The biggest change would probably just be the intensity of practice,” Erika said. “With the boys’ team, there are thirty-eight kids out of forty that have wrestled for a long time, so they really get into it. It’s nice with the girls’ team because we’re really dialing in on our technique and going over the basics and making sure everyone really has it down, which I honestly think could be a lot better for the team in the long run because everyone is really going to know the basics and it’s going to be a lot easier to build off of.”

“She’s a real good leader on the team,” Coach Sleznikow said of his daughter. “I’m super proud of what she’s been doing. She comes in, she helps get the girls going, she motivates, she mentors and models the behavior that we’re looking to see, so I’m super proud of that and I’m super excited that she’s a part of the team,” he added. “And it is pretty cool that I get to coach my daughter.”

But that’s not the only family tie on this year’s team.

Up to this point, Lauren Boon had always played basketball, but instead decided to join the new all-girls’ wrestling team with her younger sister, Logann. And they’re doing it for their younger brother.

“Emmett has always been our family’s sole wrestler,” said the girls’ father, Erick Boon, in a recent Facebook post. “After an unfortunate accident and multiple surgeries with plates, screws, and pins, he’s unable to wrestle this season. Leah and I wondered, ‘How are we going to get our wrestling fix?’

“Well, when one door closes, another opens,” Boon’s post continued. “This year, our two girls have stepped up. Lauren is forgoing her senior year of basketball to take on wrestling, and Logann is finally pursuing something she’s wanted to do for years.”

“It’s fun to watch them wrestle in the room,” Coach Sleznikow told us. “They like to scrap. They go hard. And Lauren is… I think she’s having fun with it, which is all I can ask – having fun with wrestling, being involved, wanting to be in the room.”

The Tigers open up their season at a tournament in Kimberly on Dec. 6, followed by a tournament in Wisconsin Dells on Dec. 12.

Marshfield will host the Wisconsin Valley Conference meet on Tuesday, Dec. 16 before heading to the Shawano Invitational on Dec. 20.