Wrestling is rooted in Matti Hyland’s DNA.

“It’s been in my life since before I can remember,” said the Pleasant Valley sophomore. “I have a younger brother and a younger sister, who have both wrestled since they were in kindergarten, and my dad has coached wrestling since before I was born.”

The sport that has shaped much of Hyland’s youth has taken on even more significance as she’s earned a spot in the Bears’ varsity lineup.

Its importance was heightened when Hyland took perhaps the biggest step yet in her wrestling career this past weekend at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim. Never one to miss an opportunity to compete, Hyland seized the moment at the MyHouse Pennsylvania Girls State Championship wrestling tournament Sunday, placing third at 122 pounds to cap a remarkable weekend for her – and the sport.

“I’m most proud of how many girls showed up to the tournament,” said Hyland. “I’ve been involved with SanctionPA and trying to get more wrestling and a team at my school, so it was really awesome to see how many girls showed up to the tournament.

“And I was really proud of how I wrestled in my third-place match.”

Hyland was 3-1 Sunday with two pins. She won by a 6-4 decision over Layla Bennett (Athens Wrestling Club) to take third.

“In the room, she’s very competitive no matter who she wrestles,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Justin Micklos. “And that’s one of her best attributes. No matter who she’s wrestling, she’s always getting after it and she doesn’t like to lose.

“Her mindset is key in all this. She’s one of the hardest workers in our room. She knew she wanted to accomplish something, and she got it done.”

At the state tournament, Hyland wrestled for Pocono Wrestling Club Athena, which is located in Sciota. PWC is home to the first all-girls youth wrestling program in the Pocono area.

The club is also run by her father, Brett.

“It’s great,” Hyland said of the club. “My dad has had the club for probably five or sixth months, so not a super long time. But having it – it’s only about 10 minutes away from my house – so whenever I come home from school or there’s a practice he’s running there, if I want to go, I can just go. It’s really nice.”

The family also has mats in their home, and Matti is able to work with her sister, Morgan, who is in fifth grade, and her brother, Jake, who is in seventh.

“My brother is almost as big as me now, so it’s good for me to drill with him,” said Matti.

“It’s definitely a big responsibility I feel like to be the oldest. I try to help them and encourage them as much as I can.”

At Pleasant Valley, Matti is one of two girls on the team, this season along with senior Freya Lauritsen.

Last year, Matti was a freshman with senior Hannah Hunter.

“She helped me so much,” Hyland said of Hunter. “We were drilling partners ... and we got pretty close over the season.

“I help coach some of the younger girls – maybe first through sixth grade; some of them are younger than that – and I try to pass on as much knowledge to them as I can to make them feel comfortable coming up in a boys’ wrestling program.”

Hyland is a three-sport athlete at Pleasant Valley. In the fall, she was a Second Team EPC All-Conference selection in field hockey in the Monroe Division. She was also the TN/LVHN Female Athlete of the Week Oct. 12-18, scoring eight goals with four assists as the Bears posted four victories.

Currently, she is a member of the track and field team, where she competes in mid-distance events.

No matter the season, Hyland always finds her way back to wrestling.

“During the offseason, I got to a lot of tournaments. There’s girls’ wrestling tournaments almost every weekend if you find the right people,” she said.

“Right now, I do track as well as wrestling, but whenever I have a free weekend or there is a time when I think it would be good to go to a tournament, I try to get myself into those.”

Any girl who wrestles at a public or private high school within the geographical boundaries of Pennsylvania was eligible to compete in Sunday’s event.

According to the SanctionPA website, the goal is for 100 PIAA-member schools in Pennsylvania to officially recognize and approve a girls wrestling program at the high school level and ultimately have the sport sanctioned at the state level.

Girls wrestling is one of the fastest growing high school sports in the country. Mirroring the national statistics, Pennsylvania high school wrestling has experienced over a 200% increase of girls on high school boys teams in the past several years.All 12 PIAA district areas have girls wrestling within their area schools.

While there are 29 state high school associations sanctioning a girls state championship, Pennsylvania does not yet have an official state tournament and has not sanctioned girls wrestling as a sport.

Wrestling has always been a part of Matti Hyland’s life. Sunday showed that it’s also woven into the fabric of everyday life for countless girls across Pennsylvania.

“I hope that me going out and wrestling shows other girls that, if you put your mind to it, you can do it. You can wrestle,” she said.

“I hope that it shows schools across our state that girls wrestling is growing, it’s a huge sport now, and I hope that it shows everyone that Pa. should be sanctioned for wrestling and there should be teams at schools. I just hope everyone sees that.”