Junior wrestler Kali Gracy walked away from the regional wrestling tournament on Saturday, Feb. 16 with a victory, advancing her to the state tournament. However, Gracy only wrestled one match out of the three that were scheduled. Two of her opponents in the beginning of the tournament were from Saint James Academy and Saint Thomas Aquinas, and came with restrictions.
“I saw it over the news a couple times and their coaches said something about it being a rule,” wrestling coach Travis Keal said. “[All of the coaches] knew how it was going to be.”
Mixed-gender wrestling is prohibited in the Catholic faith, and the archdiocese of Kansas City is enforcing it.
“This was brought up last year before the archdiocese,” Saint Thomas Aquinas wrestling coach Lorne Parks said. “They did allow catholic schools to wrestle last year because of the late notice and misunderstanding between the archdiocese and the schools it could affect.”
This season coaches were willing to move wrestlers around in brackets to limit the possibility of forfeits among the Catholic wrestlers. But the regional tournament held a different standard. The regionals bracket would not be moved around to accommodate the wrestlers due to gender differences.
“Kali’s a wrestler and she has been for three years,” Activities Director David Ewers said. “We had to hold the tournament under the guidelines of KSHSAA (Kansas State High School Activities Association).”
Both wrestlers who forfeited were given the chance to advance in the tournament through the consolation round.
“Both wrestlers from STA, and St. James qualified [for state],” Parks said. “The only problem was that they could have possibly wrestled to a higher place which in turn could have been a better draw in the state tournament.”
Gracy has chosen not to comment.
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