Lauren and Lilli Seeman thought the best way to celebrate Women’s History Month was to make some history of their own.

Lauren, a senior, and Lilli, a freshman, are not just two of the first girls to wrestle for Licking Heights’ all-female team. They are the first female wrestlers from Licking Heights to make it all the way to the OHSAA Girls Wrestling State Tournament. Lauren competed as regional runner-up, and Lilli served as the alternate. Both girls were ranked in the top 20 wrestlers in the state and won over 70% of their regular season matches.

Both of the sisters are relatively new to competing the sport, though Lauren served as a statistician for the boys team two years in middle school and during her freshman and sophomore year. Her junior year, she jumped in herself and discovered a natural talent–going all the way to states as an alternate like her sister. While she was disappointed she didn’t get to wrestle at the state level in 2023, it inspired her to set an ambitious goal of returning for the 2024 finals.

“This year, I got to go onto the mat and wrestle on the mat,” she says. “Because of that, I felt like I succeeded even if I didn’t place.”

Lilli hopes to continue this tradition and says her goal for the 2024-2025 season is to wrestle at the state level, too. This was her very first year wrestling, with two years of experience as a statistician in middle school. Watching her sister wrestle and seeing how hard she worked inspired Lilli to try herself in high school.

Lauren admits she was scared to try wrestling at first, but she has since fallen in love with the sport.

“I’m not sure why, I just always wanted to do it. Honestly, I believe I was made to wrestle. I like kicking people’s butts,” she laughs.

Thanks to Lauren’s confidence and leadership, the girls team at Licking Heights went from two wrestlers in 2022-2023 to seven in 2023-2024. The district will officially hire a girls wrestling coach next season to support the growing team. This year, boys wrestling coaches Robert Price and Noah Weston generously volunteered to lead the girls team along with the boys.

Next season, Lauren will come back to Heights and serve as the assistant girls wrestling coach. She looks forward to watching Lilli continue to thrive as an athlete.

“I love watching her succeed, she’s amazing at everything she does. I’ve enjoyed being her teammate,” Lauren says. “I look forward to watching my sister grow as a wrestler. I believe she has a shot at being a qualifier for states.”

For Lilli, this year was just the beginning of her breaking barriers, challenging expectations and building a new community for women at Licking Heights.

“When I am a senior, I will look back and think that it was really amazing and important that I joined and was a part of Licking Heights’ first girls wrestling team,” Lilli says. “I think that girls should join any sport that they are thinking about just to try it out and see if they like it. I would rather have tried the sport now than years later wonder if maybe I just should have done it. I say do what no one thinks you will.”