It was a 49-second start.
In the debut match of the Blair High School girls wrestling team, 135-pounder Josie Biffar stepped out onto the mat Thursday and pinned her opponent in less than a minute. The Bears lost the home dual to Fremont 54-24, but came back and won their second of the triangular against Papillion-La Vista South, 66-18.
“It's pretty awesome, and exciting,” BHS coach Terry Bellamy said of Biffar's triumph. “That girl has never wrestled before. She's a senior and she just wanted to get out and try it.”
Josie Tilson, Madi James, Savanah Roan, Jaysie Garcia-Abalos, Abigail James and Biffar earned contested match victories during the Blair team's first night as an NSAA-sanctioned lineup. Shelby Kain, Riley Martin, Alison Wheeler, Bri Matzen and Lizzy Flynn claimed six points apiece by forfeit, too.
"Super happy with the way the girls did,” Bellamy said. “Fremont has always had girls (wrestling), they've always had a lot of girls.”
The Bears, meanwhile, had considerably less experience going in.
“For most of my girls, this is the first time they've stepped onto the mat,” Bellamy said. “Some of them got wins, some of them didn't do as well as they thought and they were all nervous. That first match is the hardest one to get out of the way.”
In addition to Biffar's first-period pin at 135 pounds, Tilson and Madi James earned their victories during the debut Fremont dual. James, a 145-pounder, pinned the Tigers' Martina Alonzo-Gomez in 1:52.
Tilson, meanwhile, bested Elliot Engel by pin at 115. After nearly two periods of competition, the BHS victor stopped the match at the 3:51 mark.
Next, against Papio South, the Bears' most experienced wrestler earned a win. Abigail James, a former Ralston state qualifier, beat Alexandra Grow by first-period pin.
Roan, the daughter of Blair boys wrestling coach John Roan, took just 26 seconds to beat Meagan Petersen of the Titans, too. Garcia-Abalos' junior varsity pin took just 38 seconds as well.
“I'm super happy with them and I think most of them are happy with their own performance,” Bellamy said.
Bears compete in Bennington
After their first duals at home, the Blair girls competed in their first tournament Saturday in Bennington. They took eighth with 55 team points behind first-place Lexington's 143.
Martin scored the Bears' top finish, going 1-1 with a pin to take second at 105 pounds. Wheeler was 3-1 at 120 to take third, too, while Garcia-Abalos was third at 155 with a 2-1 mark.
Abigail James and Biffar added fourth-place finishes, while Tilson and Roan also won tournament matches.
Wheeler finished the day with three pins, while Biffar and Garcia-Abalos had two apiece. Biffar's quickest took just 36 seconds.
The Bears next compete Friday during the Council Bluffs Classic at the Mid-America Center. Matches start at noon during the two-day tournament.
Enterprise Editor Greg Forbes contributed to this story.
