Ashlyn Register is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Centennial High School for AZPreps365.com

A rugby injury changed the course of Mia Didur’s sports career.

Didur is a junior at Centennial and a member of the girls wrestling team, but wrestling was not her first love. Rugby was.

“I originally played rugby because I needed a sport to get me out there, and I really wasn’t a fan of football,” Didur said. “One of my friends came up to me and was like, ‘Hey come do wrestling,’ so I tried it out and I loved it.”

Little did Didur know that she would make history.

She became the first girls wrestling state champion in the Peoria Unified School District as one of 10 state champions.

“It was a lot to take in at first,” Didur said. “They raised my hand and I shook all the hands. Then I started crying and ran and jumped onto my coach. That was one of the biggest victories I have ever had.”

Didur defeated one of her old club teammates, Sofia Rubio of Marcos de Niza, in the 185-weight class to take home the state championship.

“It was one really big battle,” said Didur. “It was really hard and intense, and Sophia did her best. I am so proud of her. I can’t wait to see where she goes.”

It was a battle off the mat as well.

“I was trying to not to cheer at every single little point, but it was hard trying to coach her from afar,” girls wrestling coach Melissa Girmscheid said. “I was watching every little thing. That what was literally going on in my mind.”

For Didur, it did not sink in right away that she was a state champion.

“My coach and I were going to celebrate. He and I were sitting in the van at Sonic, and he told me you just made history,” Didur said. “It was so hard to comprehend.”

It took two weeks and one speech in front of the school for Didur to realize what she has just accomplished.

“I definitely broke down crying in front of 2,000 students,” said Didur. “It made me feel so proud to be able to forge the way for younger girls.”

The Peoria district office recognized Didur for her state championship as well.

But Didur didn’t always have the same opportunity to compete.

“It is an emerging sport,” Centennial athletic director Peter Jelovic said. “Before this, girls just wrestled with the boys. Now they have their own weight classes, sectionals and championships.”

The AIA separated boys and girls wrestling last year.

“Last year, I only competed a small bit and this year my brackets are looking pretty big, so I am pretty excited to see what is in store,” said Didur.

Before the emergence of girls wrestling, Didur competed on the boys team.

“Last year they were really stand offish from the females in the room, but this year they treat us like one of the guys,” said Didur.

Despite the difference in gender, the sport is the same.

“If you are talking about it mentally, it is not that much different,” said Colton Waken, a member of boys team. “It is both such a challenging sport, and they go through the same conditioning, same everything just different rules.”

Boys wrestling is called folk style, which is wrestling on the ground. Girls wrestling is called free folk, which is more take downs and less time on the mat.

Girls still have the same opportunity to compete folk style, but only on a boys team.

This poses an awkward situation for Waken.

“I have wrestled girls three times in a match,” said Waken. “Every time I wanted to forfeit because for me it is feels like if boys go up against girls there is no winning mentally. If you win it is, ‘Oh wow you beat girl, you didn’t go easy on her’ and then if you lose, then it is like ‘Oh you lost to a girl.’”

At Centennial the boys and girls practice together.

Practice is no different for each team until they do “live wrestling” in which the boys follow the girls rules.

“It prepares if you are going up against a girl,” said Waken. “It is not as weird anymore. It is a lot less awkward.”

There is one more difference in boys and girls wrestling hidden to the normal eye.

“The guys are offensive, and the girls are defensive,” Girmscheid said. “Guys will go for things, and they will go for the shoot really fast. The girls lay back and they watch what happen. They seem to be a little more methodical about it.”

Girmscheid sees this same tendency in boys and girls in her classroom.

Didur sees this firsthand.

“Guys have more technique, and they seem to be more confident when it comes to their moves,” said Didur. “As for girls, they are still more is this the right thing to do right now rather than taking a leap faith.”

The boys team at Centennial cheered on Didur during her state championship match.

“They had moved from across the gym to right in front of my mat, and I could hear them the entire time,” said Didur.

The presence of girls wrestling is increasing in the state of Arizona, but there is still room for it to grow.

Centennial is helping the growth by promoting girls wrestling in its lower level schools in the Peoria school district and hosting events on their campus.

“I think the numbers should continue to grow but we really have to communicate,” said Jelovic. “I think some people might be unaware we actually have girls wrestling as a sport in the state of Arizona.”

One of Didur’s teammates wrestled growing up in the state of Indiana and heard about Centennial’s wrestling team.

With the continue growth of girls wrestling, Didur’s presence in school is getting recognized.

“She is a leader on our campus,” said Jelovic. “She is well respected. She understands the importance she has our campus as state champion.”

“Now I am walking through the halls and teachers are like, ‘Hi Mia,’ and it is just insane and really exciting,” said Didur. “It means a lot.”

Didur’s presence in the wrestling world has given younger girls a role model to look up to.

“You see pictures on social media now of four and five-year-old girls who are getting into wrestling,” Girmscheid said. “She has some smaller girls who have seen her picture and think I would like to do that.”

Didur wants to see this sport flourish not just in Arizona but everywhere.

“I want to see small little girls wrestling,” said Didur. “I want to see this program bigger than the boys because I think girls can do it.”