Dunkirk’s Aubrey DeLeon (left) takes on Salamanca’s Jessica Seekins in the inaugural Section V Women’s Wrestling Invitational at SUNY Brockport. Submitted Photo.

BROCKPORT — Various local schools were represented at the inaugural Section V Women’s Wrestling Invitational held on Friday, Feb. 14 at SUNY Brockport.

Dunkirk High School had two wrestlers compete at this all girls competition. Dunkirk’s Alegria Solares wrestled in the 120 lbs. weight class while Aubrey DeLeon was entered at the 285 lbs. weight class.

DeLeon pinned her way to victory to take first place at 285lbs. By pinning Jessica Seekins from Salamanca in 0:42 and beating Ken-Ton’s Mia Burgos in 1:12, Aubrey became the first female wrestler to earn a varsity win in the history of Dunkirk wrestling. This is Aubrey’s first year wrestling. As a senior, she led Dunkirk’s varsity squad as one of the team’s four senior captains this season.

Since Dunkirk’s 2008 reboot of the wrestling program, it has seen an increase in intermittent participation of female athletes in the historically male dominated sport. This year, however, is the first time that Dunkirk’s program has seen girls compete through the end of the season. Solares and DeLeon are the only girls of the 20 student-athletes ending Dunkirk’s 2019-2020 varsity wrestling season.

Dunkirk’s modified program also benefited from an increase in female participation in wrestling. Middle schoolers Amiclair Centero and Mariana Arroyo were of the seven students who completed the modified wrestling season in late December. During the month long season, Mariana earned three wins on the season in her first year with the sport.

As New York State, and the country as a whole, continue to experience a drastic increase in women participation in wrestling at the scholastic and collegiate levels, Dunkirk and other local schools are showing great promise in helping grow the sport and opening up great opportunities to its female student athletes.