#235lbs   #Women’s   #Weight   

Hi, my name is Kailey Rees. I’m creating this petition to add a 235lbs weight class in college wrestling and beyond for my friend Eliana and other girls just like her. Eliana Bommarito wrestles the 225lbs weight class for women’s HighSchool and national wrestling.(just like many other girls in her weight class). I’ve know Eliana for about 3 years we have wrestled together on MI Rev and ever since that first time we wrestled together, Eliana and I have been great friends. Eliana puts in countless hours of work to achieve her goals within wrestling( Boys varsity HighSchool record 98-28, MI’s first 4x girl state champion, Back-to-back Fargo National Champion, 2022 Hartland HighSchool scholar athlete of the year award, 2022 National wrestling Hall of Fame inductee, Multiple time All-American, and the 2022 Tricia Saunders award recipient, ranked #1 in the nation at 225 and is ranked #7 pound for pound) and it’s devastating to see that she does not get the same opportunities as me or other female wrestlers. In college for women’s wrestling the highest weight class is 191, but what about all those girls who have been wrestling that 225lbs weight class in HighSchool? Why are we limiting opportunities for women’s wrestling instead of expanding them? We talk about how there needs to be change and equal opportunities for women’s wrestling but those opportunities are restricted to only certain weight classes. Wrestling is always said to be a sport where everyone can come and compete, and that’s correct up until we graduate high school,  when all the other girls can go to college and compete but any girls above 191 can’t. It’s absurd because in the wrestling world we talk about how we want to see a change happen for women’s wrestling but why can’t we change the sport for all women not just a few. Growing women’s wrestling we look for equal opportunities, but in college the highest weight class for men is 285 but for women it’s 191. On the World and Olympic level the highest weight class for men is 264 and for women it’s 167. Everyone deserves to wrestle on every level of wrestling. Some people think there is not enough girls in those weights, but imagine if those girls had the same opportunities as the lower weights to receive scholarships to further their education, and to be able have the same dreams as making a World and Olympic team. So, help me by signing this petition so we can get it to the people in charge of NAIA and NCAA Women’s Collegiate Wrestling. Let’s create some change. It all comes down to the old saying, “If you build it they will come”.