Three-time Oregon state wrestling champion Mallory Lusco continues to make a name for herself on the mat.

The Grant Union junior was invited onto Team Oregon and then traveled to Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Friday, March 29, and Saturday, March 30, to compete in the Heartland Duals high school girl’s folk style tournament. Lusco, who is the 28th-ranked female 235 pound wrestler in the nation, competed against top wrestlers from Nebraska, Iowa, Kentucky, South Dakota and Kansas at the dual tournament.

This was Lusco’s first time competing in a national tournament. Only one girl per weight class was selected from the entire state of Oregon. Lusco finished the tournament with four wins and two losses while the Oregon girls finished fifth out of seven teams at the event.

Lusco’s journey to the Oregon girls team was a unique one and came about after a conversation with a Crook County mother and daughter who were interested in getting an Oregon team together to compete against the best female wrestlers from around the nation.

“They wanted all the best (wrestlers) for their lineup,” Lusco said.

Being ranked as one of the best female wrestlers not only in the state but in the nation comes with a certain amount of pressure. Lusco turned that pressure into a commendable outing in Iowa, however.

“In my head I was kind of like, ‘If I can be here, let’s see how I can do,’ and I put some pressure on myself and I performed the way I wanted to,” she said. “I also didn’t want to put too much pressure and get nervous or anything because these girls, they were about the same level as me.”

That cool head led to a satisfying result in Iowa for Lusco, who proved to everybody that she belongs among the best female wrestlers in the nation.

“Nationally, I rank pretty high, and that (performance) just solidified it,” she said.

The idea of an all-girls dual tournament featuring the best female wrestlers from around the nation is something that was unheard of just a decade ago. Girls wrestling has exploded, going from the point where girls had to wrestle against boys to full girls teams and state-sanctioned competitions.

Lusco has been there through it all. She said the growth of girls wrestling is something she’s happy to be a part of.

“I started in sixth grade and for the first three years I wrestled boys because there wasn’t a girl to wrestle, so coming from that to my freshman year to now — it’s grown tremendously, and it’s incredible,” she said.

Now Lusco doesn’t have to look for girls to wrestle — the tournaments she attends have weight classes full of girls eager to compete.

“It’s incredible because I’ve been a part of it since the beginning of its growth, and it just has tremendously changed,” she said.