Sue and Liz, both 18-year-olds, went to the same
church -- though they didn't know each other. That's
how I knew both of them. But, although they went to
the same church, they both went to different high
schools. Sue went to Marlton High while Liz attended
Cinnaminson. Both were on their girls wrestling team
and, when I heard that the two teams were going to
wrestle each other one Saturday, I realized that the
two girls, since they both weighed between 115-120
lbs., would wrestle each other!

Word spread quickly about the match and a lot of
people from the church turned out to watch the two
girls wrestle. This put a tremendous amount of
pressure on both girls to win and not "lose face" in
front of their friends by losing.

Neither Sue nor Liz had ever wrestled before, but both
felt they would do well in the sport. Sue, a
short-haired brunette, was the prettier of the two. At
5-5 and 117 lbs., she had the look of Marie Osmond
when she was the same age. She also was very athletic,
being an avid skier, swimmer and softball player. She
was thus very competitive and hated to lose.

I didn't know about Liz. I knew she had some pride,
spunk and was somewhat strong due to her guitar
playing at church which would serve her well in a
sport that relied so much on physical strength, but
didn't know how that would translate in the ring in a
match against Sue. Liz was very quiet and a librarian
type so I wondered if she would be aggressive enough
against Sue to win the match.

Both women were young, active, about the same size and
both had a lot of spunk. Their lack of wrestling
knowledge but their willingness to "mix it up" thus
made it an even fight. It would be the stronger, more
determined and better girl who would win this fight
and the fact that both were also the same size would
make it a fair fight as well.

Sue came to wrestle Liz wearing a white harness top
and very, very short denim shorts while Liz wore a
harness top with green shorts. Both looked very
determined and single-minded before the big fight,
glaring at each other and trying to intimidate their
opponent before they began.

The ref called them to the center of the mat and
signaled the beginning of the match! Immediately, the
two went at each other, grabbing each other by the
arms and struggling with each other, trying to trip
the other up and gain an advantage with upper body
strength as the crowd cheered them on!

You could tell by their faces that both of the young
girls were bound and determined to win this match and
certainly didn't want to lose. The intensity in their
faces showed the competitive nature of both young
women as Liz gritted her teeth and Sue contorted her
face in effort as the two struggled with each other!

Surprisingly, it was Liz who struck the first blow.
Unable to outdo Sue in the initial test of strength,
Liz pulled her right arm away from Sue and tried to
slap her, but in the process she instead came down
with a chop across the base of Sue's neck! Sue yelped
in pain as Liz hurt her thin neck -- and took control
of the match!

Liz then tried to follow up with a kick-out leg trip,
but Sue had recovered from the chop and blocked the
kick with her foot. Then she drew a round of "oos and
ahs" from the crowd as she literally shocked Liz with
a swinging punch to the face!

The ref immediately began to move in so he could warn
Sue, who obviously had been taken up in the spirit of
the fight and its intensity, letting it get the better
of her. But before the ref could get there, Liz came
back with a punch herself to Sue's face as she moved
in! The ref stepped away, seeing that Sue got her just
desserts for punching and that the two were now even.

The punches thrown by the two women surprised the
crowd as well as the ref -- especially taking into
account that both girls were devout Christians and
were originally just trying to prove they were
stronger and better than their opponent in a clean,
by-the-book wrestling match. But their desire to win
seemingly was getting the better of them, endangering
the integrity of the match which now threatened to
break down into a hand-to-hand, anything goes,
catfight since the ref failed to say anything about
the exchange of punches.

The ref did manage to calm the two excited girls down
a bit. But then they quickly went after each other and
both girls went down to the mat hanging on to mutual
headlocks! Then, as the two were rolling around the
mat, struggling for the advantage, Liz got Sue down on
the mat and was about to pounce on her with her body
when Sue, trying to keep Liz off of her, used her
right foot and caught Liz right in the forehead with a
front kick!

Liz groaned softly and fell backward! This match now
was no normal freestyle match like you'd see in high
school wrestling. It was much more assertive and a bit
more violent -- especially for a kind of church league
match between two girls! But then again, girls
sometimes got more emotional and thus a bit more
violent with each other during fights, especially when
you pit two nervous women against each other who knew
very little about wrestling. Sometimes the wrestling
turns a little desperate, and even into a little
catfighting. And that's what was happening between Sue
and Liz!

The two women got to their feet. The ref checked on
Liz to see if she was OK and then backed off. Sue,
trying to take advantage of the ramifications of her
kick to Liz's forehead, went after Liz and immediately
tried to throw Liz down to the mat, but Liz blocked
the attempt with an upraised knee to the solar plexus
of Sue, then took the cute and attractive girl from
Marlton to the mat with an impressive headlock
takedown, turning things around again -- and received
two points award for a takedown!

Liz was now atop Sue, holding onto the headlock as the
fans were going wild! Liz held not only a 2-0
advantage over the cute Sue, but also had the leverage
and was atop Sue, trying to lean in and put Sue's
shoulders on the mat! Liz strengthened her grasp
around Sue's head with her strong arms as Sue, with
her face beginning to redden due to the powerful vice
around her head, began to use her cute, strong legs to
move around the mat in an attempt to avoid being
pinned! But Liz kept moving with Sue while retaining
the headlock -- and gained another three points for
putting Sue in danger! Liz now led, 5-0!

The ref was now on his knees on the mat! The
red-faced, obviously worried Sue was in real danger
now and if Liz could just put a little more weight
down on Sue, she would be able to pin her! The crowd
could see it and began to yell encouragement to their
favorites! Sue knew what Liz was trying to do and
pushed at the arm Liz had around her head with her
right hand while pushing off with her left leg, trying
to keep her right shoulder off the mat as she wrapped
her left arm around Liz's neck to pull her over! Sue
was in trouble, but she was strong enough to roll Liz
over and not only escape the hold but also get a
headlock on Liz to the delight of her friends, getting
a total of three points for the escape and reversal!
The two ended up rolling off the mat! Liz's lead had
now been cut to 5-3!

The two got to their feet, but not for long as Liz got
her arms around the thin Sue and threw her down to the
mat, getting two points back and upping her lead to
7-3!

As the two struggled on the mat, Sue got away and got
to her feet, cutting the lead to 7-4! As the two went
after each other on their feet, Sue got behind Liz and
had a reverse bearhug on her Liz when Liz almost
instinctively hit her with an elbow like a basketball
player to the face! This really angered Sue, who then
lost her cool and slapped Liz! She then tried to kick
her in the shin, but Liz blocked it and then grabbed
her arm and threw her down to the mat!

The ref was losing control of the match, but nobody
seemed to mind as the crowd was now enjoying this
catfight -- a match that Liz now was leading 9-4!

Liz tried to swat Sue back down as the cute brunette
got to her feet, but Sue blocked it! Liz then came
running at her, but Sue ducked down, grabbed her by
the legs, and flipped her over her head and onto her
back as the crowd cheered her fantastic move! Sue now
had Liz in trouble and with one move, she had gained
five points -- and the match was knotted at 9-9!

Liz was stunned and a look of desperation came upon
her face as Sue tried to maneuver her into a pin! Liz
desperately fought the move and avoided the attempt!
But there was a look of fear on her face!

Liz got to her feet, but Sue had her in a headlock!
Liz looked like she was going down to her knees, but
instead grabbed the left leg of Sue and lifted her up
and over, dropping her back and head first on the mat
in an impressive move to gain two points and an 11-9
lead! Sue grabbed the back of her head after she hit
her head on the mat and opened her mouth to let out a
groan of pain as she grabbed the back of her head!

Liz looked as though she had avenged the overhead toss
move and now had Sue on the mat in trouble! But the
fall had hurt Liz as well as she had twisted her body
in an abnormal way and fell on her ribs!

Both women got up slowly, trying to recover from their
pain! Sue, behind in the match, rushed into Liz, who
caught Sue in a headlock! Sue's momentum took them
near the edge of the mat, where Liz -- still holding
the headlock -- wrenched the neck of Sue in an
impressive display of strength as Sue let out a moan
of pain and took her down to the mat to gain another
two points and a 13-9 lead! Liz actually looked like
the stronger of the two young women, which was
surprising taking into account Sue's athletic prowess!

Sue worked her way up to her feet and got a point for
an escape, narrowing Liz's lead to 13-10. As both
girls faced each other hunched over in wrestling
stance, breathing heavily, Liz tried to throw Sue off
guard with a slap to the face just as the period was
about to end! Sue got angry again and punched Liz in
the face! An equally angry Liz responded with a kick
to Sue's shin! Then Sue caught Liz with a hard double
chop to the back of Liz's neck, putting a groaning Liz
on her knees with head bowed!

The ref called for the end of the period and warned
both women of their infractions of the rules as the
two took a quick break before returning to the center
of the mat.

With Sue trailing 13-10, she had the top advantage to
begin the next stanza. Sue noted Liz was still hurt
from the go-around at the end of the first period and
saw her opportunity. As soon as the ref blew the
whistle to begin the second period, Sue quickly pulled
the hurt Strohlheim backward and laid across her
chest, grabbing her left wrist with both hands while
plastering Liz to the mat with a great body press and
made a cover, pinning her to the shock of the crowd!
The ref quickly slapoed the mat! Just like that, the
match was over! Sue had pinned Liz after trailing the
entire match!

As a stunned, shocked Liz lay on her back, putting her
right wrist daintily to her forehead as she
experienced the bitter taste of humiliating defeat in
front of her friends, Sue lept to her feet in glee and
stood over her, raising her arms in victory with a
huge smile on her face!

Sue had proved she was the better and stronger woman
as she stood over her vanquished foe and enjoyed the
fruits of her triumph as the crowd cheered her!

Liz got up slowly, stood face to face with her and
glared at Sue, scowling, "You cheated!" The ref then
took her by the hand and moved her next to him,
grabbed Sue by the hand and raised Sue's arm in
victory! Sue smiled and waved, enjoying her huge win!

But Liz then moved in front of Sue again and got in
her face, declaring, "You had to cheat to win! If you
want to fight like that, then let's fight like that!"

Sue then stuck her neck out, extending her head in
taunting fashion to Liz and said, "Any time! Any time!
Pick the day! I'll beat you up any time you want!"

Liz retorted, "You'll be hearing from me!" She then
walked away, with an angry look on her face!

This was a strange way for two devoted Christian girls
to act toward one another, but this kind of
competition will cause this kind of reaction. Liz
hated to lose and felt somewhat embarrassed over it.
Thus, her reaction.

But her family and friends agreed with her. After all,
Liz was actually beating Sue before the illegal move
which stunned Liz. "If Liz knew it was OK to fight
that way, she would have beaten Sue," her brother said
later.

It seemed clear that these two girls were not done
with each other -- and just as clear that nothing had
really been settled between the two. Yes, Sue did pin
Liz, but Liz did have a somewhat legitimate gripe
about the result. Perhaps hey would meet again -- and
then maybe, just maybe, they would definitely prove
just who was the better girl!