Samantha Bertini, in just her sophomore year, has become one of the best high school wrestlers in the country. As of November 27, 2023, Bertini is nationally ranked third in her weight class by USA Wrestling.
Her insane talent at the sport did not just start in high school, as she has been wrestling since third grade and practicing jiu-jitsu since kindergarten. She started jiu-jitsu at Team Link in Ludlow where she discovered her talent in combat sport. In third grade, she started wrestling and discovered her love for the sport while continuing to train in jiu-jitsu. Her high school wrestling journey, funnily, began in eighth grade when she first joined the varsity team. Before high school, Bertini was a part of many wrestling clubs such as the Grizzlies, Krazy Monkeys, Doughgirls, and more. She says that “I’ve gone to many wrestling clubs…to improve my training but it really all started from Team Link.”
She comes from a wrestling family. They all started out at Team Link and transitioned to wrestling. She has traveled as far as 1,544 miles to Fargo, North Dakota, for a wrestling tournament, and, of course, walked out a further decorated champion, proving her immense commitment to the sport, a commitment that has skyrocketed her to the top.
Before tournaments and matches, Bertini puts on her playlist, stretches, and warms up to prepare. Her sister, a former wrestler, makes music. Bertini says she listens to her sister Alora Bertini’s music to hype her up before a match. This year, Bertini hopes to do well at sectionals and boy’s states and win girl’s states. She achieved all of these goals.
After explaining wrestling to me, we talked about titles. She is nationally ranked 3rd for girls and 1st in New England for girls. She is a 2x State Champion, New England Champion, Regional Champion, 2x All-American winner, Fargo Placer (4th), and many more. Along with these titles, she has many awards. Too many to count, actually.
To put her wins into perspective, the USAW Wrestling Girls Freestyle U16 National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota, is a national tournament that is extremely competitive and challenging. Bertini is the only wrestler in LHS history to place at this prestigious tournament. I just want to emphasize how remarkable it is that she is already making wrestling history in just her second year of high school.
This year she was named team captain, along with Lucas Alvan. Her leadership skills and enthusiasm for the sport set her apart from her peers, making her the obvious choice for the role.
Along with all of these athletic achievements, she also maintains good grades and makes high honor roll. Regarding balancing school and wrestling Bertini says, “School while wrestling is sometimes stressful, but I usually plan out specific days where I’ll get work done and study after wrestling.” Her commitment and dedication to maintaining greatness in both school and wrestling is honestly so immensely impressive.
She shared her most crazy wrestling experience with me. During regionals last year she broke a girl’s leg. Just to clarify, this was NOT a Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan situation. She explained the situation, “I went for a trip on the girl and her leg was straight, so when I went to take her down, her leg snapped and she started screaming. The pop noise of her leg was so loud. It was terrible.”
On January 27th, I watched her wrestle at the Rodney Smith Invitational tournament, which was insane. She won her first match in 10 seconds, leading her on to the next round where she won once again. She moved up the rankings and left the tournament placing second.
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