MONTAGUE — Montague wrestler Emma Pendell has made a lot of history in her time as a Wildcat, and she added one more piece of trailblazing to cap things off Tuesday, May 7, becoming the school’s first girls wrestler to sign with a college program.
Pendell, who won a state title in 2022, the first Wildcat girl to do it, will attend NAIA Siena Heights University and wrestle for the Saints next year. It’s the culmination of a journey she said began in middle school. She joined the Wildcats program in large part because of the increasing collegiate opportunities in women’s wrestling.
“The goal has been college,” Pendell said. “There’s been more and more opportunities as the years have gone by, so that’s been really cool. Grand Valley State, a Division II school, opening up a program for women is really incredible, and it’s really exciting. Just having those opportunities just as I was growing up just made the reality of it (feel like), yeah, I am going to college and I am going to wrestle.”
College wrestling will present at least two big changes to Pendell; first, she’ll be going into freestyle wrestling, one of two international standards (Greco-Roman is the other), as opposed to the folkstyle wrestling at the high school level. Among other differences between the two, freestyle wrestling has two three-minute periods instead of three two-minute ones, and freestyle does not begin periods from the up or down position, as in folkstyle.
In a second difference, Pendell will be joining an all-girls team after years wrestling on the coed Wildcats.
The latter is something Pendell is actually looking forward to. She considered wrestling on a coed collegiate team, but found that without the guys she’s grown up with, it wouldn’t have felt right.
“As much as I love wrestling the guys and having that relationship with them, it’s not going to be the same going into college,” Pendell said. “My guys are going to a different college.”
Pendell also, according to coach Kris Maddox, received strong financial aid due to her impressive grade point average. Maddox said Pendell’s accomplishments send a strong message to prospective future Wildcats.
“She was born here and went through our youth program,” Maddox said. “It’s not just our varsity program. It’s what our youth coaches have done, the people that invested time and effort into her growth. People can see they can do it too. You don’t have to be this wrestler that’s traveling all over the country. You can do great things just by working hard and doing the right thing and being a good student.”
