PEKIN, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — Tessa Donaldson loves her role as a cheerleader at Pekin High School but she also loves another role she has in high school.
A wrestler. And a good one who says she started wrestling at the Pekin Boys and Girls club when she was in second grade.
Now she’s a state qualifier in girls wrestling.
“I watched my cousin wrestle and thought it was cool. You get to wrestle around with boys and it’s fun to beat them up,” Donaldson said with a smile.
Most of her matches this season have been against boys. Girls wrestling is still in its growing stages as an IHSA sport and there aren’t as many girls-only meets.
Donaldson made the decision a couple weeks ago to skip a girls wrestling invitational, to compete in the Mid-Illini Conference championships. Against boys.
“My coaches and I decided to go to the boys conference meet to prepare myself for the girls,” said Donaldson. “He told me if I pin boys, I have a better chance against the girls.”
Donaldson, who wrestles at 105 pounds, held her own and finished as runner-up at the Mid-Illini Conference meet.
“We don’t have a ton of girls on our team so she’s practiced with the boys and she takes it to them,” said Pekin assistant wrestling coach Jared Dowell, who was with Donaldson at last weekend’s Peoria sectional.
Donaldson finished runner-up at the sectional meet. That qualified her for next week’s state finals in Bloomington.
“When I started there weren’t a lot of girls wrestling,” said Donaldson. “It was cool if you got to wrestle against a girl because there were not a lot of girls in wrestling. So I grew up wrestling guys.”
Donaldson is tough. In fact, she has wrestled the past two months with a kidney stone.
Her doctor says it’s not moving, it’s not going anywhere. But it’s not preventing her from going where she wants to go.
That’s to state. Even with a kidney stone.
“I never thought I’d go to state as a sophomore,” said Donaldson. “I feel like it shows girls can go to state. It’s not just a boys sport. Girls can do anything that a guy can.”