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Through the years, a handful of female student-athletes in Montgomery County have experienced success and participated on traditionally male-dominated high school wrestling teams. And when a girl suited up for their school, she was most likely the only female in the program.

But this winter, Richard Montgomery High School is bucking the trend with five female grapplers.

Sophomores Carmen Arevalo (106-pound weight class), Karina Ramos (113), Ingrid Rosales (132) and Jennifer Vuong (152), and senior Maria Portillo (106) all don the Rockets’ black and gold.

“This is a new experience for me,” Rockets coach Randy Bosnic said. “But I think it is great to spread the sport. The boys have handled it great with no issues. Even my 8-year-old daughter [Chesna] loves watching them, and now she wants to try wrestling.”

At the national high school level, girls make up just 2.5 percent of all wrestlers, with 7,351 involved in the sport during the 2010-11 academic year, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the governing body for most of Maryland’s high school athletic programs. In addition, wrestling was the sixth-most popular sport for boys with 273,732 participants.

“It is so much fun,” said Ramos, who is sidelined with a knee injury. “Wrestling is a great sport because it gets you in shape and stronger. But I think all of us kind of want to prove to the guys that we can hold our own and every girl is not necessarily always girly.”

The Rockets’ most accomplished female grappler is Arevalo, a varsity starter. She began wrestling in sixth grade at Julius West Middle School during physical education class. There, Arevalo was taught the basics of the sport by her teacher Chris Tao, who also is Quince Orchard’s coach, and learned about the accomplishments of former Col. Zadok Magruder grappler Helen Maroulis.

Maroulis became the first female to place in the history of the MPSSAA state wrestling tournament during the 2005-06 season, and has since gone on to compete internationally and is in the midst of attempting to qualify for this year’s Summer Olympic games in London.

“I’ve seen her on Facebook and followed her career online,” Arevalo said. “She’s a great role model and person I kind of idolize. Knowing that she is from Montgomery County, had a ton of success in high school and has a good chance to make the Olympics, just makes me think and believe that maybe I could do the same thing someday.”

Arevalo was the first of the Rockets’ female contingent to take up wrestling in high school as a freshman and she recruited Ramos.

“I was going to try out for cheerleading, but the first day I realized it wasn’t for me,” she said. “I just came down to try out wrestling and liked it a lot.”

Rosales started this year and likes what the sport has given her thus far.

“I was going to do it last year because Carmen was doing it, but my dad didn’t let me,” she said. “In between the years, I convinced him and he saw a match and said it would be OK to do it. … I just enjoy everything about it, especially since it makes you stronger mentally and physically.”

Vuong, who has wrestled a couple of varsity matches this season, thought wrestling might be interesting and pose a few new challenges because of her judo background.

“I thought it was going to be a lot easier,” she said. “But there is a lot more physical endurance you need. I like it since wrestling is more of an independent sport and it is all on yourself. You can easily see how much you have improved and learn by your performance on the mat. You can’t really compare or take anything from wrestling to judo or judo to wrestling.”

While the quintet has developed a close bond and been embraced by its male teammates, the girls have experienced a few negative issues against opponents.

“My first match at [Bethesda-Chevy Chase] there was a little bit of a problem since their guy didn’t want to wrestle me,” Vuong said. “But overall, it has been fine. Our teammates have been awesome. As a girl, you just can’t be intimidated.”

Added Arevalo: “It is really cool [because] guys are like, ‘You’re [junior varsity]?’ Then you tell them, ‘Nope. Varsity.’ And they are like, ‘Really?’ It’s fun to see the look on their face.”

kzakour@gazette.net