On Friday, February 28th, through Saturday, February 29th, the Norman North Wrestling team took their qualifiers to State. We sat down with one of the team members who attended and asked some questions to freshman, Devin Jansing. 

Q: “So, how was your experience at State?”

A: “It was good, the environment was nice, and everyone was nice to me. It was just a new experience to go for the girls’ first time.”

Q: “This was the first girl State in high school ever? And you’re the first girl from Norman North to make it all the way to finals in the first one, you’ve set the bar pretty high. How’d you feel going in, were you nervous?

A: “Yeah, I felt nervous. I had to wrestle my friend from Choctaw.”

Q: “They have a pretty good program. So how long did it take from your first to last match?”

A: The first match started Friday morning and the last match ended Saturday evening. They had a band playing and had five mats set out.”

Q: “At the fairgrounds? Pretty big deal?”

A: “Yeah, it’s really cool!”

Q: “I know you wrestled last year right? So how do you prepare for the year?”

A: “Well we practice everyday, Monday through Friday, and sometimes Saturday. So we had about four months of preparation for Regionals and then State.”

Q: “Did you have to wrestle mostly boys or did you have other girls to practice with?”

A: “I had to wrestle boys and also the junior high division because I’m a ninth grader. Then I went to tournaments and I got to wrestle girls.”

Q: “Oh cool! So are you the only female wrestler at North?”

A: “Yep”

Q: “What is it like being the only girl on the team?”

A: “They treat me like a little sister and they’re nice to me. It’s like a family.”

Q: “So when you practice with the boys do they give you boys with a lower weight class than you are do they give you the same general weight class as you?”
A: “I wrestle with my teammates anywhere from 100 pounds to 120 pounds, but gender normally doesn’t matter much. I’m the lightest person in the room, everyone else weighs more than me.”