Elementary school wrestler Claassen shines at state tournament

When Alaina Claassen placed fifth in the 8-and-under 90-pound bracket at the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling youth state championships in Wilkes-Barre March 25, she received her medal from a trailblazer in the world of amateur wrestling.

As Claassen, a 9-year-old third grader at Roy Hunt Elementary in the Valley School District, approached the podium, three-time women's world champion Adeline Gray was waiting.

“That made me happy,” said Alaina, the only girl in the state bracket with 26 boys. “We watched her on TV at the Olympics, and she's a good role model.”

Gray told her, “I heard you are a beast out there. Keep up the good work,” her father, Casey Claassen said.

“We didn't know (Gray) was going to be handing out the medals,” he said. “She was really nice. She seemed to congratulate Alaina a little more. She took notice of her more. Alaina loves to win, but she's so humble at it. She knows that anything is possible if she works hard.”

Claassen, who qualified with a second-place showing at the 52-school Area VII tournament March 18, went 6-2 at states. She lost her first match in overtime, but pinned the same wrestler later.

Last year, she won the Area VII tournament, and according to her father, Alaina is the only girl from Area VII to qualify for boys states in its 54-year history.

At states in 2016, she competed in the 8-and-under 110-pound bracket and went 1-2.

“She gave up too much weight last year,” Casey Claassen said.

Alaina, who also captured a Pennsylvania Amateur Wrestling Federation PA girls state folkstyle championship March 12, often prefers to wrestle boys.

“They sometimes smile or laugh at their coach when they see they have to wrestle me,” Alaina said.

The reaction when she beats them?

“They cry, usually,” she said. “They are surprised and mad.”

Alaina said she doesn't see boy vs. girl, but simply wrestler vs. wrestler.

“It doesn't matter who I wrestle,” she said. “I just want to win.”

And win is what she did March 12.

Claassen won her second straight 86-plus (weight class) girls state championship by not giving up a point in any of her matches.

She placed second in 2015 when she was in first grade and lost to a third-grader in the finals.

Next year, Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling, which sanctions the boys state tournament, will pick up the girls state competition.

Alaina will have to choose between the boys and girls tournaments, her father said.

“Now, she wrestles boys 99 percent of the time in a season,” Casey Claassen said. “She has confidence in herself. She's super shy, but as soon as the whistle blows, she's a different animal. She wrestles aggressively.”

Alaina, who has wrestled for four years, practices three to six times a week, mostly with kids a lot older than her. She has trained with different wrestling clubs such as Namaste Wrestling — headquartered in the Claassen basement — The Mat Factory in Lower Burrell and with the newly formed all girls Black Widow team.

She has been asked to represent Team PA, Team PennWay and the Mat Factory at tournaments, and has traveled to several different states.

Alaina is at the lead of what her father hopes is a continued surge in the development of talented female wrestlers.

Four others from the area — Arianna Bernard, Tyarah Woody, Yasmin Martinez and Isabella Martinez — have produced strong results the past couple of years. All four represent Black Widow.

Bernard, a fourth-grader and New Kensington resident, won a girls state title last year and was fourth in 2015. This year, she wrestled in the fourth- and fifth-grade 82-pound bracket and went 2-2 to earn a top-six finish.

The Martinez sisters, also New Kensington residents, placed at girls states this year. Yasmin, a fourth-grader, earned a bronze medal at this year's fourth- and fifth-grade 60-pound tournament, while Isabella, a first-grader, took second in her first- to third-grade 45-pound bracket.

Tyarah Woody, a fourth-grade student in the Highlands School District, also placed second at girls states last month. She wrestled in the fourth- and fifth-grade 76-pound bracket.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.