JEFFERSON TWP — When Knoch junior Miranda Lajevic said she expected to place among the top three at the PIAA Girls Wrestling Championships last weekend, she wasn’t kidding.

Once Knoch’s regular season was over, Lajevic — wrestling at 100 pounds — simply turned it on.

“She more than holds her own against the boys,” Knoch wrestling coach Josh Orris said. “But when you’ve got a 15-year-old girl wrestling against 15 to 17-year-old boys, the big difference there is physical strength ... and strength can go a long way in this sport.

“When Miranda goes up against girls, her own strength takes over. She’s a very strong girl.”

And how.

Miranda was 18-9 against boys this season. Eight of those wins were by forfeit. Once she moved into the girls postseason tournaments, she put together a 13-3 record with 11 pins.

She placed third at the WPIAL, West Regional and PIAA tournaments.

“I’d like to turn that streak of 3’s into a streak of 1’s,” Miranda said. “I was happy with the way I bounced back after losing matches in these tournaments, but next year, my goal is to win those championships.”

Miranda lost one match at the PIAA tourney — a 9-2 decision in the quarterfinals — and pinned her other five opponents.

“While strength is a major asset for her, Miranda gets around very smartly on the mat, too,” Orris said. “She knows how to quickly maneuver her hips, which comes from her background in gymnastics.

“Her hip movements benefit her in scramble situations.”

Miranda admitted that “I wasn’t myself” in that PIAA quarterfinal loss, but added “that girl wrestled a better match than I did. I have to learn from it.”

She did gymnastics until the age of 10, when she fractured her back in a mishap.

“I had to wear a back brace for three months,” she recalled. “That was it for me and gymnastics, but my wrestling has definitely benefited from those experiences. My body flexibility and movement on the mat are better as a result of doing gymnastics.”

Miranda wasn’t the only female wrestler on Knoch’s varsity this season. Braylee Ireland, a sophomore, finished 12-10 against boys. She was injured in the final regular season match this year and did not compete in the girls tournaments.

Orris said Miranda and Braylee are both candidates to be Division I wrestlers down the road.

“Their talent level’s there, but even if they wind up at Division II or III, as long as they follow the educational opportunities they want, wrestling will open up doors for them,” the coach said.

It was Braylee, in fact, who got Miranda interested in wrestling.

“She was a youth wrestler and talked me into giving it a try,” Miranda said. “I love the individuality of it. Every opponent wrestles differently, so each match is different. I love that.”

Orris wants the sport to open up doors for more female wrestlers at Knoch in coming years.

There is a movement going on to create a girls wrestling team at the high school level next season.

“We’ve got six or seven girls wrestling on the junior high team right now, another 10 at the youth level,” Orris said. “The numbers are there. But even if we don’t get a girls team started next year, those junior high girls won’t leave the sport.

“They work hard. They love the atmosphere. They’re totally into it. None on them, are walking away from this.”

The coach added that Lajevic and Ireland are serving as leaders for the girls in Knoch’s youth wrestling system.

“Absolutely. It’s been that way for a couple of years,“ Orris said. ”Those two do everything the right way. The younger girls in our system look up to them and want to be like them.“

Miranda is hopeful a girls wrestling team gets started at Knoch soon.

“We’ve got a lot of girls wrestling here now,” she said. “I enjoy being a bit of a leader that way. I’m honored that younger girls in the program are looking up to me. We need to do right by them.”