SR girl a national champion
SLIPPERY ROCK — Since March, Kayla Brendlinger has been to New York, Oklahoma City, Mexico, Florida, Iowa, Canada and North Dakota, among other stops.
This is not an extended vacation for the incoming Slippery Rock High senior. It's more like extended preparation for what might loom ahead on the wrestling mat.
Brendlinger placed first at 116 pounds at the Girls Junior National Freestyle Championships in Fargo, N.D., last weekend. She defeated fellow first-team All-American Sara Hildebrandt of Granger, Ind., 3-2, 2-1 in the finals.
Only 14 high school female wrestlers nationwide were named first-team All-Americans by The Mat.com.
"It's hard to keep up with what she's doing and where she's going sometimes," admitted Ron Brendlinger, Kayla's father and coach.
A captain on the Slippery Rock High boys wrestling team, Brendlinger was 24-7 at 112 pounds last winter and reached the district tournament. She finished second at the junior nationals in Fargo last year.
So far this year she's captured six gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes at various female wrestling tournament stops.
Brendlinger also placed fifth at the U.S. Open in Cleveland, where she competed against women from the college division and world team members.
"I was just hoping she wouldn't get her clock cleaned too badly and she goes there and places," Ron Brendlinger said. "She even beat a collegiate national champion, Jackie Styles, in that event."
Placing in the U.S. Open made Brendlinger eligible to compete in the U.S. World Team Trials in Iowa. She wound up placing third in that event in June.
She spent the Fourth of July pinning her way through the Canadian Cup.
Despite her consistent success, Brendlinger has yet to receive a college scholarship offer. Her father refuses to talk about the Olympic Games, either.
But Brendlinger may be headed to both.
"I'm not bringing up the 'O' word," Ron Brendlinger said. "We'll take that stuff as it comes.
"When it comes to colleges, Kayla is like the pretty girl in school who never gets asked to the dance because everyone figures she already has a date. A lot of people we know assume Kayla has a scholarship, but no school has offered her yet."
Brendlinger will be at the Ohio State Fair this weekend before heading to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for a two-week camp Aug. 5 to 19.
"She was invited to train with the national team there," Brendlinger said.
By the time Brendlinger returns from Colorado, she will have four days of summer left. When school starts, she'll run for the SRHS cross country team and prepare to start the wrestling cycle all over again.
And she loves every second of it.
"When you step on the mat, boy, girl, black, white, it doesn't matter," Kayla told the Butler Eagle earlier this year. "You're a wrestler and it's a challenge every time."
Brendlinger's younger sisters, Kelsey and Kandice, placed third and fourth, respectively, in boys wrestling tournaments this spring. Kelsey competed in a Greco-Roman tourney while Kandice wrestled freestyle.
"They're so much more intense than I was when I started," Kayla said.
March 20: U.S. Girls Wrestling Association Pennsylvania state championship, gold medal in folkstyle• March 21: USGWA New York state championship, gold medal in folkstyle• March 26: 2010 Youth Olympic Games qualifier in Oklahoma City, gold medal in freestyle• March 27: Women's Folkstyle U.S. Wrestling Association National Championship in Oklahoma City, gold medal• April 3-4: USGWA National Championship in Michigan, silver medal in folkstyle• April 23-24: U.S. Open in Cleveland, fifth place• May 4: Youth Olympic Games qualifier in Monterrey, Mexico, bronze medal in freestyle• May 15: "Body Bar" Freestyle Nationals in Kissimmee, Fla., bronze medal in junior division, silver medal in cadet division• May 22-23: Pennsylvania Wrestling Association State Championship, gold medal• June 11: World Team Trials in Iowa, third-place in freestyle• July 4: Canadian Cup, gold medal• July 24: Freestyle Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D., gold medals
