Although she’s the only girl in Concord High School’s wrestling program, Madison Beauregard is setting benchmarks for the younger female wrestlers who will follow her.

Beauregard notched those benchmarks by winning her third state championship title and being named an All-New England wrestler for the second time by beating Montachusett Regional’s Kaleigh Fuller in the third-place bout.

“There’s been a huge amount of growth,” Beauregard said, “especially while I have been in high school because I’m pretty sure when I was in middle school, I only saw one, maybe two other girls the entire three years that I was in middle school, and now going into high school I’m going to girls tournaments and competing alongside the boys.”

She’s a junior now and has been working to become the best wrestler possible since sophomore year when she realized she loved the sport and wanted to continue doing it after high school and pursue athletic training academically. To get to the college level she has trained every off-season with the Lowell Doughgirls to compete against the best female wrestlers in the country. 

Her coach with the Tide, Nicholas Zeras, said Beauregard’s commitment is unlike many wrestlers he has coached. He cited her positive energy and willingness to help the team standing out the most, and said she is always willing to do the extra work required to compete at the highest level.

Although he has seen a significant increase in the number of girls wrestling in New Hampshire, Concord, hasn’t completely caught on to that. He said there are some girls wrestling in middle school right now, “and I think they’re looking towards Madison being a role model as that goes and what they could possibly achieve coming up.” 

In the last year, Beauregard has competed in more than 80 matches. Some were folkstyle wrestling for CHS and her club has helped her expand into freestyle, which is the style she would wrestle in college. She travels around the country for the sport, most recently competing in the National Coaches Association High School Nationals which features 600 female wrestlers, all at the top of their states. Learning how to wrestle against the best in her weight class was a challenge, but fortunately, she will have another shot at it this year.

Zeras said that her perseverance is what has made her stand out as a special athlete in Concord’s ranks, adding that he’s lucky he’ll be able to coach her for another year. Beauregard, a junior, won’t rest on her laurels now that the high school season is done. She will be training a few times a week in Massachusetts, with her aims set high to make it to the right program and pursue wrestling and her career aspirations. 

Despite the personal adversity she has faced and tough competition at the national level, Beauregard still loves the sport.

“I definitely had some mental health struggles with being one of the only girls on the Concord High wrestling team,” she explained. “There’s the pressure of being the only girl, like, I had to be the best. My coaches stood by me no matter what and made sure that I was OK and was able to compete.”

“Hard work definitely pays off, and I feel like there’s so many lessons that wrestling can provide, especially girls,” she said. “It’s something that you can do just as much as a guy can do.”

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com