WASILLA — When Kendra Nelson clinched her first career state tournament berth with a second-round pin at last year’s Northern Lights Conference championships, the Wasilla 103-pounder said it was far from a joyous scene.

“Everyone was crying.”

Winning a state-qualifying bout is an event usually accompanied by jubilant post-match celebrations from wrestlers, coaches and fans. But the scene at Soldotna’s Skyview High was much more somber, as Nelson spent the minutes following the match consoling her vanquished opponent. Her little sister, Brooke.

“I was crying because I just made state, she was crying because she lost,” Kendra remembered during a break in this year’s NLC tournament.

Wrestling each other was nothing new for the sisters.

“Since we were little we’ve always wrestled at the house,” Brooke said.

But having to wrestle an elimination match was something altogether different, and not an experience either sister wanted to go through again. So this year, Brooke, a 16-year-old sophomore, moved up to 112 pounds while Kendra, 18, stayed at 103.

The move paid off.

On Saturday, both sisters were all smiles as Kendra won her fifth-place match to improve on her sixth-place showing a year ago, while Brooke got her first state bid by placing sixth.

With their performances, Wasilla’s full Nelson duo joined Skyview’s Michaela and Monica Hutchison in becoming the first sisters to reach the state tournament in Alaska wrestling history.

Doing well in a male-dominated sport is nothing new to the Nelson sisters, who started wrestling in elementary school when Kendra brought home some paperwork for her parents, Ken and Rose, to fill

out.

“We had always wrestled at the house,” Brooke explained. “Kendra went to school and was like, ‘Dad, I want to wrestle! So she brought the papers home for both of us.”

With little choice but to join her big sister, Brooke was on board.

“I’m like, ‘okay,’” she said. “We’ve been in it ever since.”

The Nelsons’ father, Ken — himself a former wrestler — said he started his daughters off early in the sport.

“I started them off when they were about that high,” he said, holding his hand near his knees.

From early on, Kendra and Brooke showed promise in the sport. But Kendra said natural talent can only take female wrestlers so far, explaining that it’s tougher for girls to stay competitive in a traditionally-male sport.

“It took us a long time. You can tell, the guys it takes a couple years and they’re awesome wrestlers,” she said. “We have to wrestle continually to be even considered okay wrestlers.”

Now, however, they’ve gotten better than many of their male peers in the sport — something Kendra admitted is part of wrestling’s allure.

“Beating the boys is cool,” she said.

Once a boys-only sport, wrestling has slowly opened its ranks to female competitors. A half-dozen girls qualified for this year’s 4A tournament, and two years ago Michaela Hutchison became the first girl in the nation to win an individual state title when she claimed first at 103 pounds.

To continue beating the boys, the Nelson sisters said they have to be constantly working on their sport.

“We’re wrestling all the time,” Kendra said.

Even when they’re participating in other sports — both went to state this year as members of the Warriors’ varsity cross country running team — the Nelson sisters are essentially training for their chosen sport.

“It’s what we’re known for,” Brooke said.

Wrestling is more than just a sport for the two sisters. Both credit it with keeping them involved in school and enhancing their lives overall.

“If I didn’t wrestle, I would probably be a different person altogether,” Kendra said. “I wouldn’t know very many people.”

The sisters said they’ve gained a large amount of respect for their wrestling ability. Kendra, in fact, was named as one of Wasilla’s three captains this season — and not by the team’s coaching staff.

“The team votes on it,” Warriors head coach Shawn Hayes said.

Hayes said he felt Nelson’s election as a team captain was more than justified.

“She’s one of the hardest workers in the room,” he said.

Hayes said he’s enjoyed coaching the sisters, but admitted this season’s tournament was much easier to watch from a coaching perspective.

“It was nice not to have them wrestling at the same time,” he said.

Although both Kendra and Brooke said they’re happy to have made state, neither is predicting a state championship. Instead, Kendra said the sisters’ only goal is to continue working hard and competing head-to-head with the best athletes Alaska has to offer — boys or girls — and said anyone who takes them lightly will be in for a surprise.

“We’ll give ‘em a run for their money.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

frontiersman.com