UFA, Russia -- East Stroudsburg University women's wrestling sophomore Mia Macaluso will represent the United States at the 59 kg weight class at the 2021 Women's Freestyle Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia from August 16-22.
Macaluso punched her ticket to the world championships after winning the USA Junior National Championship this past May in Irving, Texas.
To win the junior national championship, Macaluso had to not only win five matches to reach the finals, but had to win a best-of-three series for a total of seven-to-eight matches in one day.
After winning the first match of the finals by fall over London Houston, Houston defeated Macaluso by a tech fall (14-4).
"I'm going to be so honest with you, I was tired," said Macaluso after her seventh match of the day. "... I wrestled eight matches in one day and it was honestly crazy. My arms were like noodles. I looked at my dad before the third match in the finals and said, 'Dad I am tired. I'm sorry'. After I apologized, he was like, 'What are you talking about? This is what we're here for.' I found it in me. I know going into the finals that I wasn't as confident and said 'this is it'."
Macaluso found strength and resilience and pinned her opponent to punch her ticket to Russia and the Junior World Championships.
Adversity is nothing new to Macaluso.
Macaluso has been wrestling ever since she was in the seventh grade, but ultimately got her start in jiu-jitsu at the age of three with her father owning a mixed martial arts training center. Macaluso is from Otisville, N.Y., approximately 75 minutes from ESU's campus.
With women's wrestling still progressing as a sport across the country, Mia and her sister, Sophia, wrestled on the boys wrestling team at Minisink Valley, like many collegiate women's wrestlers do in high school.
"It (wrestling boys) was really hard for me in the beginning, since I got a lot of heat for it," said Macaluso. "I still got heat for it until I graduated. Wrestling boys made me tougher. I found it difficult when I wrestled girls. Their body types, flexibility and strength in different areas was a challenging."
After progressing through high school, Macaluso was able to place fourth in the NYSPHSAA Section 9 boys wrestling tournament as a senior in 2020. She pinned the second-seed in the quarterfinals. She was able to finish her wrestling season, but the three-sport student-athlete at Minisink Valley would see her lacrosse season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Missing her final spring sport season, graduating high school during a global pandemic and moving to a new state for college, all while training for competition against the best in the country is no easy feat. Macaluso made the best of it.
After having nearly a year off of training from March 2020 until the second semester of the 2020-21 school year, Macaluso saw the break to be a welcoming one, mentally and physically.
"Having the whole year off took a big toll on me and everybody else, but I feel having that break helped me rest mentally," explained Macaluso. After every tournament, I was training for the next one. Having that year off I feel benefited me. The training wasn't as tough, but I learned a lot. I was able to train five days a week, for an hour and a half. There were a lot of rules that we had to follow, but the training helped me win a USA Junior National Championship."
After competing against the best junior women's wrestlers in the world this August, Macaluso will prepare for her first collegiate season in the Poconos. She feels that this international experience will be a benefit not only herself, but her Warrior teammates.
Women's wrestling, ESU's 21st sport, enters its second season of competition in 2021-22 after placing 17th at the 2019-20 Women's National Collegiate Wrestling Championships in Adrian, Michigan. Along with ESU's fall sports and winter sports, the women's wrestling season was canceled in 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I'm definitely very excited for my first collegiate season," continued Macaluso. "I was really upset that we didn't have a season last year, but I understand. It (competing at the world championships) gives me an opportunity to give back to my teammates. I lived with three of my teammates this past semester. I was competing, while they were training. They didn't have the opportunity to go to competitions. When we were training five days a week, a lot of focus was on me. I appreciate my teammates so much and Coach Anibal Nieves. Everyone was training like they were competing, even though I was the only one going to tournaments. "
The Junior World Championships can be watched with a subscription to FloWrestling. The women's prelims and quarterfinals will take place on Wed., Aug. 18 between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Eastern time. For more information on how to stream and for a Team USA preview, visit flowrestling.com.
