The Elsbury sisters are staying busy this summer after a remarkably successful 2022-2023 wrestling season.

Coming out of the inaugural IGHSAU Girls State Wrestling Tournament, Maeley and Autumn Elsbury made an instant impact.. With Mealey earning the title of champion at 135 and a fourth place finish at 170 for Autumn, goals and dreams are still being chased and pinned down. With a summer and eventual wrestling season on the horizon, the Electric Elsburys are thirsty for more.

Both sisters reflected positively on the inaugural tournament. A satisfied yet ever hungry Maeley spoke on her historic performance,

“Winning a state title this year was huge and an amazing experience especially since it was the first year of girls wrestling being sanctioned. Winning a state title has set the tone for me and helps me continue to push and get better,” she said. “Being the first ever 135 pound state champ is just so hard to wrap my head around and is unbelievable. It’s really just mind blowing how far the sport has come.”

Autumn reflected fondly with eyes set on the future.

“I enjoyed state, It was an amazing opportunity and I hope to be back next year and hopefully place higher than fourth place,” she said. “Overall I was pretty proud of where I am now in wrestling and I hope to keep wrestling and wrestling in the summer and that will hopefully help me.”

Both sisters incurred immense amounts of success and captured the state’s imagination after their tournament performance.

An atmospheric change is underway as girls wrestling sweeps the nation. With increasing numbers of states adding additional opportunities for girls wrestling, the Elsbury’s have become state wide trailblazers. With the changing times, roles have been redefined and opportunities are becoming more and more available.

With great passion and pride Brintley Elsbury highlighted wrestling and the impact it has had on her daughters.

“I have absolutely loved seeing the younger girls in our community looking up to both girls so much and we now have seen a huge growth in numbers in our youth Club wrestling too,” their mother said. “Our youth club had about 40 to 50 kids usually, and this last season our numbers jumped to 80 kids. We have had a ton of girls joining. The middle school numbers really blew up this year with like 25 girls too.”

With an increase in wrestlers comes the need for additional coaching. Both Elsbury sisters have stepped up to the challenge, and Brintley couldn’t be more proud.

“Both girls are at every youth practice. There are not just girls that are looking up to Maeley and Autumn but there are boys that look up to them too. The girls both go to as many youth meets as they can too and help coach the younger kids,” she said. “They even have a lot of the little kids that will ask Mae and Autumn if they will be at their mats to coach them. So watching my girls be trailblazers in a male dominated sport has been so amazing.”

Maeley spoke of the love she has felt through the journey.

“I love that I get to help pave the way and set the tone for our school and state in the future of girls wrestling. I love having younger girls look up to me and it makes my experience so much better,” she said. “I love getting to bond with the younger kids and it brings me so much joy when they specifically ask for me to be at their mat to coach them. Knowing that I have young girls who aspire to be like me, it helps me push harder and I love getting to help and interact with the girls who want to go somewhere with the sport.”

With statewide momentum and a community in their corner, the Elsburys will continue to wrestle this summer.

First up is the Scholastic Disney Duals, a national tournament with top teams from other states gearing up for top level national competition as a team. In July, they will be traveling to Fargo, N.D. and will be competing for national titles individually. Rounding out the summer is the Junior Olympics that just so happen to be Des Moines this year. This is a two day event with day one set up for team dual action and the next is an individual competition.

Competing at the top level of any sport comes with an unfortunate price tag. With community support, hard work, and generosity the Elsburys are able to make these national competitions a reality.

“Both girls have worked for a lot of the money either babysitting, working for people doing yard work, moving stuff like boxes or heavy items some people may not be able to move on their own. They also help their dad with tree work and roofing,” Brintley said.

They have also sold raffle tickets that were provided to them from AAU wrestling. One of the other fundraisers was selling shirts that said Electric Elsburys.

When the girls were at state wrestling and they were broadcasting the matches, the announcers kept calling them Electric Elsburys, which gave her parents the idea to sell shirts with the nickname on it.

“We thought we would only sell a couple but ended up selling 56 shirts, and have been requested to do another round of shirts so we plan to do that when we get back from Florida,” Brintlsey said. “We have been very lucky to have people and businesses donate money to them.”

With the Elsbury family currently in Florida set to compete at Disney Duals, the summer awaits these historic, hardworking, and humble STC Wrestlers.