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Saturday, July 20, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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Isabella McNutt from Hampton is starting to look a little McNasty.

After graduating this year as the most decorated female wrestler in the school’s history, McNutt has added a new level of aggressiveness to her approach on the mat.

“I realized that I had a lot more success when I was more aggressive,” she said. “It’s only come recently. I’ve always had the opportunity to go out there and put up a good fight. But aggression is something that definitely came later for me.”

McNutt only started playing the sport three years ago, but she continues to improve as she prepares for her freshman year at Division II Gannon.

She qualified for the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals for the third year in a row and traveled with the other Pennsylvania girls to Fargo, ND, in mid-July after a four-day team camp in Lock Haven.

McNutt, who had lost her opening match against Fargo the past two years, left nothing to chance this time, defeating New York’s Makayla Matson in 1:13 in her debut.

“I was just ready for it,” said McNutt, who wrestled in the 115-pound division. “The last two years in Fargo, the first match didn’t go so well. This year I was able to get off to a good start.”

“She was very, very dominant in that first game and looked really good,” said North Allegheny and Pennsylvania girls coach Dan Heckert.

McNutt, who placed sixth at the Northeast Regional Championships in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in mid-May to qualify for the national championship, lost her next two matches in a tight pool of 102 girls, losing to a runner-up from South Dakota and a champion from Massachusetts to finish 1-2.

McNutt said she had no regrets about her final 1,100-mile trip to Fargo.

“It was a good experience, as always,” McNutt said. “Because it was my last high school tournament, I knew I had to go all out.”

McNutt is still relatively new to the sport. An accomplished mixed martial arts competitor, she began wrestling as a sophomore and last winter wrestled her way to the 112-pound title at the inaugural WPIAL girls wrestling championships. She went 0-2 at the 2024 PIAA West Regionals and failed to qualify for state, but has stayed busy this spring.

“She’s really good at focusing on (being aggressive),” Heckert said. “When you’re wrestling in your local tournaments, it’s a little easier. When you get to that national stage, everyone’s good. You have to take it to another level and learn how to be aggressive and address the issue. That takes a little bit of time to understand.”

McNutt saw immediate improvements, performing well at two events in April: the Viper Pit Nationals Duals in Tridelphia, West Virginia, and the PAUSAW Club Duals in Downingtown.

“I’m not afraid to go out there and try new things now,” she said. “I’m not as afraid to use the new techniques that I’ve learned. I don’t feel like I have to be so safe because I know what I’m doing and I have more experience now.”

McNutt brings that experience to Gannon, where she will wrestle for a respected coach, Erin Vandiver, and for a program that finished sixth in the NWCA Women’s Wrestling Preseason poll last season.

The 5-foot-10 McNutt is expected to wrestle for the Golden Knights in the 115-pound class as a freshman.

Heckert believes McNutt will do well in college.

“I think she’s going to do really well,” he said. “She’s going to be able to focus 100 percent on freestyle. She’s also going to be able to focus on girls wrestling all the time. She hasn’t been able to do that yet. Hampton didn’t have a girls team, so she didn’t see the girls until the postseason. Girls wrestle differently than boys. Their flexibility and everything, it changes. Now she can focus on that. She has a great coach in Gannon. She has a really high ceiling.”

Tags: Hampton