Maddie Blumenthal has found her sport.
The Bordentown Regional High School junior played some soccer as a youth, and she also took up horseback riding and ballet.
But in eighth grade, while getting involved in a boot camp that focused on conditioning, she was turned onto a new sport: wrestling.
“I joined the club because I was looking for an aggressive sport,” Blumenthal said. “I’ve loved my journey so far.”
Soccer has been long gone. Blumenthal still rides, but she dropped ballet when she took up wrestling, and she’s been all in. She started with Revolution Wrestling Club in Allentown, which gave her training before she got her middle school start. There’s been steady growth in her training, competing and expectations since then.
“She has that winning culture and it’s noticeable,” said Bordentown girls wrestling coach Sammy Mazzella. “Right when you walk in the room, the way she practices, the way she conducts herself when practice is over as well, going right from practice to another practice. And it shows.”
* * *
Blumenthal’s hard work helped her experience early success. She was fourth at 107 pounds in the Central Jersey Region tournament as a freshman, then last year moved up to 114 pounds and after placing second at regions, she went on to place third at the state championships. That set the bar sky high for this year.
“This year overall for me it was pretty good season,” Blumenthal said. “I had some regrets for some of my matches, but overall I think I did pretty good.”
Blumental went 21-5 and placed second at 114 pounds to Kylie Gudewitz of Howell. She advanced to states again and wrestled in the fifth-place match before falling to Marlowe Donato of Jackson Memorial.
“That 114-pound state bracket was probably the toughest bracket I’ve ever seen in girls wrestling history,” Mazzella said. “There was probably I want to say six or seven returning state placers in that bracket at states.”
There was some consideration about moving Blumenthal to another weight, but she belongs among the best.
“I feel like 114 for girls has always been stacked with good people,” she said. “I don’t necessarily want it to be easy.”
Blumenthal was right on the cusp of finishing higher. She lost in sudden victory in a consolation semifinal. She lost narrowly in the fifth-place match as well, falling for the second time in states to Donato.
“There’s so many just talented girls that are coming in out of nowhere and being able to compete at that high level,” Mazzella said. “She definitely didn’t do what she wanted to do — win the state championship obviously — but I think she was really hard on herself by not getting there.
“But I’m happy with the way she was battling adversity throughout the year. She got a lot better handling losses throughout the year compared to even last year. She was a whole different person in that aspect.”
Mazzella knew from the outset that Blumenthal had star power. He saw it in the first practice.
“I knew right away she was going to be a hammer and she was going to be a pretty dominant wrestler,” he said. “She just has that attitude to her.”
Blumenthal has to stay sharp. She has noticed the field get progressively tougher each year. More girls are taking up the sport, and all Blumenthal has to do is look around the Bordentown wrestling room for proof.
Blumenthal was one of only two returning wrestlers this year, but nine new girls joined the team, and seven of them are freshmen.
“We’re a very young team right now,” Mazzella said. “So I’m excited.”
It’s Mazzella’s first year as head coach of the Scotties girls team. He grew up wrestling in Bordentown and now is sharing his expertise and passion for the sport with his young team.
It helped him to have an experienced wrestler like Blumenthal to work with the new girls.
“The coach would have me walk around and help them out after I had done my own drilling,” Blumenthal said. “And I would just give them some pointers and tips and maybe even show them the move they had to do.”
Mazzella saw more leadership out of Blumenthal emerge through the winter. Now an upperclassman, she enjoyed taking on a larger role for a growing team.
“It was a really good environment,” she said. “I love being able to kind of create a family within it. We all are friends. It was nice having a big team like that for sure.”
Blumenthal has been an ideal example for her younger teammates. She has continued to work at her game regardless of how she’s done on the mat. She has a plan to continue developing over the high school offseason.
“I’ll just focus on bettering my technique on the stuff that I’m already good at and making it even better,” she said. “And it’s really focusing on the mental side of it so I can perform as good as I know I can.”
That potential is something she’s had to develop. It has helped her to do wrestling year-round. Two years ago, she moved over to Elite Wrestling Club in Jackson, and the practices there have been a huge benefit to her. Some of the top girls that she ran into at states like Gudewitz and Donato also go to Elite.
“It’s really good for being used to struggling, because of how hot they run the room,” Blumenthal said. “Then when you’re in a normal match, it’s easy compared to the conditioning they put us through there.”
The hard practices and tireless work have paid off. Blumenthal has seen the benefits of crafting her aggressive style. It’s paid off with deep state runs the last two years.
“I like wrestling because it gives you a chance to show your strength,” she said. “You are on your team, but when it’s you on the mat, it’s pretty much you against you, even though there’s an opponent out there. I just enjoy the glory of winning a match.”
There’s already been plenty of that through her first three years of high school. Wrestling is her newest athletic pursuit. She took it up after ballet, soccer and riding, yet it’s the thing she puts the most time into now.
“I think it’s good so I could experience different types of sports,” Blumenthal said. “I think it’s helped with deciding what I like.”
* * *
Now she is trying to spread her passion for wrestling to others. The Scotties already had an interest meeting for next year, and several girls seem interested in following Maddie Blumenthal and pushing the Bordentown team to new heights together.
“I’m really glad to be a part of it,” Blumenthal said. “It’s really nice to see girls learning their own strength and gaining confidence through the sport. And it’s just nice to see us supporting each other. The amount of growth is amazing.”
