Carly Siewerth practices her moves with Leland Mason. "She gives it her all every time," says John Kneup, Flowing Wells High's wrestling coach.

Jim Davis / Arizona Daily Star

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Scrappy 103-pound Flowing Wells High freshman Carly Siewerth, 15, just wrapped up a season of takedowns, reversals and escapes as the only female member of the Caballeros wrestling team.

She spent part of the season wrestling at the varsity level, finishing with a 5-4 varsity record. At the state freshman championships in Cottonwood last Saturday, she won one of her three matches.

"I know she would have liked to have (had) more wins," Flowing Wells wrestling coach John Kneup said of the state tourney. "It was a close match until she got pinned in that last match.

Yet, he said, "she and I both know she gives it her all every time."

Siewerth started wrestling last year on a dare from a friend when she was an eighth-grader at Flowing Wells Junior High. Her friend's parents wouldn't let her join the team, but Sie-werth said her parents gave their permission.

"We said, 'Let her do it,' and now we're as hooked as she is," her mother, Val Siewerth, said. "We always go to all the kids' events — all their sporting things and whatnot. Her first meet was a meet in Benson. The first time on the mat, she pinned a kid."

Siewerth is the first girl Kneup has coached in his six years with the Flowing Wells program.

"Because I never had a girl on the team, I was a little apprehensive," he said. "After a couple of days, I realized there wasn't going to be any problem. She does everything the boys do and I didn't have to do anything differently.

"She wrestled at the junior high," he said. "She's a pretty quick study. She learned things quickly. She picked it up."

Siewerth has played other sports. She was on the volleyball team earlier this school year and will try out for softball in the spring. But with wrestling, "I enjoyed the competitiveness," she said.

Coaches at the junior high said it's not unusual to have a girl on their team, but most don't stick with the sport the way Siewerth has.

"We tend to have at least one girl every year the last few years," said one of the junior high coaches, Todd Auternreith.

"Sometimes the girls take it seriously and sometimes they are here for other reasons," he said. "Carly is a dedicated athlete and she's dedicated to all the sports she's played. She's very coachable. She does what we tell her to do, which helps her be successful. She's always working hard and giving it her best effort."

Carl Corona, who's been coaching wrestling at Flowing Wells Junior High for 31 years, said it's smarts in addition to skills that have made Siewerth successful.

"What helped her out is, she's very intelligent, she works at it. She's a good kid, works hard, is intelligent, athletic and has great support from her parents, which all equals a good kid nowadays."

Siewerth said she plans to compete on the high school team as a sophomore and will continue wrestling throughout this year with a club team at Flowing Wells, Arizona USA Wrestling, organized by Flowing Wells assistant coach Dan Garcia. The team travels to state and national tournaments from March through August.

Senior Steven Prior and freshman Leland Mason have both run wrestling drills with Siewerth.

"I was kind of worried about how she'd react, but she wrestles with high intensity and never gives up," Prior said. "I was surprised how determined she was and never stopped."

Mason wrestled for the first time this season and said Siewerth "beat me pretty badly."

"She's really flexible," he said, "so it's hard to do some of the moves we get taught on her."

But Siewerth also helped Mason work on his own moves.

"She really helped me out when I was brand new. She taught me a lot of stuff, basic technique, helping me get it down," he said.

Siewerth's one weakness was her limited upper-body strength, Kneup said, but she worked on that throughout the season.

"The one problem with her is her upper body and her back. ... She's not as strong as some of the boys. That's been her biggest problem this year," said Kneup, who opened the school's weight room at 6 p.m. twice a week so his wrestlers could pump iron.

"She was always there," Kneup said. "There've been several times it's just been the two of us lifting weights."