National-champion Slyter a trailblazer for girls wrestling in Idaho and beyond

As a two-time state champ and recent junior national champion, Lewiston High School senior Joely Slyter loves wrestling meets more than almost anything. But as a 10-year-old spectator, she found them quite boring and was not afraid to let her father know.

When Slyter grew tired of watching one of her younger brother’s meets, her father gave his dissatisfied daughter an ultimatum:

Stop complaining or start wrestling.

She chose the latter.

“I think I just wanted to make my dad angry,” Slyter said. “He was over the complaining and I was like ‘Ok, I’ll do it.’”

Soon after, Slyter was on the mat and practicing as the only girl with the Lewiston Wrestling Club and one of two girls in the entire region.

Fast forward about eight years, and Slyter has catapulted herself to the top of the sport she once just watched from the sidelines.

All her hard work culminated with one of the biggest prizes in wrestling: a national championship Saturday at the AFSW Junior Folkstyle National Championship in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Liked the challenge”

Slyter won two state titles — one her sophomore year and another in February to cap her senior season — and over the weekend won her first junior national championship.

Her wrestling career is rich with medals and awards, but the thing that has kept her coming back is the challenge that the sport presents.

“I played soccer and I did basketball, and track and cross country, and like, just being at a wrestling practice, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Slyter said. “Wrestling is definitely a very physically (and) mentally demanding sport. And so just being there, it was a challenge. And I just really liked the challenge.”

Slyter accumulated a 134-17 win-loss record over four years of varsity high school wrestling.

In 2023 as a sophomore, she won a state championship in the 100-pound class. She advanced back to the state final at 114 pounds in 2024, but lost the match.

The 2024 state final loss turned out to be Slyter’s second-to-last loss in her high school career.

Slyter turned in a 37-1 senior season, crescendoing to her second state championship last month.

For about four years, she has wrestled on the national level with Team Idaho and claimed seven All-American honors.

The opportunity to wrestle at a national level was an easy choice to make.

“I like challenging myself,” Slyter said. “If I just stayed local, I don’t think I’d ever get the matches that I want to get. I want to see the top-level girls.”

Mentally resilient

In Slyter’s 115-pound national championship match over the weekend, she had to come from behind against Beyonce Espinosa of Legacy Wrestling (Florida).

Slyter fell into a 4-0 hole before she snagged two points by the end of the second period and three points in the third to secure a 5-4 victory by decision.

Slyter said that believing that she can do something is half the battle. She credits the comeback to her mental approach.

“I’ve always kind of had struggles with believing in myself when I would get to those big stages,” Slyter said. “Second round, I just remember saying, like, ‘There’s no way she wants this more than I do.’ And I started wrestling way harder than at the beginning.”

Slyter said that when she wrestles nervous, she is not as quick on her feet or confident enough to attempt the shots that she is capable of.

In the 2024 freestyle national quarterfinals, Slyter dropped a match.

“My coach was just like, ‘It’s a high school sport, go have fun and enjoy it.’” Slyter said. “Enjoying it and believing in yourself kind of go together, because if you’re not enjoying it, you’re probably not going to believe that you’re going to have the best results.”

Slyter said the focus on enjoying the sport flipped a switch for her.

She also credits her junior season state championship loss with pushing her to train even harder for her senior campaign.

“I’m super grateful I did lose that match,” Slyter said. “If I would have won, I don’t think I would be as focused as I am right now, even though it kind of sucks the way it happened.

“You’ll learn more from losing than you ever will from winning.”

Lewiston wrestling coach Colton Maddy said that Slyter’s success stems from the way she approaches life, achieving the best on and off the mat as an All-American wrestler and a 4.0 student.

Her mental acuity transfers to an analytical approach to wrestling.

“She’s a technician,” Maddy said. “She’s got great technique. She’s very clean. She can attack upper and lower body. And she can dissect where you’re good and where you’re weak, and then go exploit that.”

Slyter said she has always had a competitive side, whether that meant putting more Easter eggs in her basket than her siblings or asking her elementary school teacher what she could do to make a project a little better.

“Whether in the classroom or in the community or on the mat, I just want to be the best version of myself at all times,” Slyter said.

Growing the sport

Slyter found herself and her fellow female wrestlers overlooked and — at times — excluded in a largely male-dominated sport.

“When I was younger, people were definitely not as accepting of female wrestling,” Slyter said. “We’d have coaches or kids that didn’t want to practice with me.

“I just try to not pay attention to the people who don’t think I should or can do this, and just focus on the people that do believe in me.”

Over the course of her career, Slyter has found there are a lot more people in her corner than not.

Idaho did not support a high school girls wrestling championship until the 2021-22 school year — Slyter’s freshman year — and its implementation wasn’t perfect.

Slyter said she was disappointed in the small size of the bracket, but thanks to advocates voicing their concern, the state added weight classes and expanded each bracket to 16 spots.

The Lewiston-hosted Clearwater Classic has grown during Slyter’s career as well, introducing girls brackets in recent years.

Maddy said that Slyter’s success has earned her the respect and admiration of the region, as schools would sign up for the Clearwater Classic with the hope of competing against one of the best wrestlers in the state.

Maddy and his staff gave Slyter “The Bengal Award,” which recognizes an outstanding student-athlete.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better role model for other kids in the mat room,” Maddy said. “And not just because she was good when she got here, but just because of how she carries herself, how she trains, you know — just everything that she’s done has been what we want our athletes to do.”

Slyter has seen women’s and girls’ wrestling grow from a niche sport with little support to a popular and widely accepted community.

Locally, Slyter has played a big part in that transformation. These days, she is one of eight girls on the Lewiston High School wrestling team and one of about 16 in the club program.

“She left herself a legacy,” Maddy said of Slyter. “She is the face, especially of women’s wrestling, here in Lewiston.

“She should be an inspiration for our boys team as well, you know. I think anyone that comes in this room should be able to look at the legacy she’s leaving behind like, ‘Man, I want to do that.’”

The seven-time All-American wrestler also credits her first wrestling coach Kim Geist, club coaches Bob and Dan Maurer and Fred Bartlet for helping her thrive within the sport.

Slyter plans to sign a letter of commitment with a college wrestling program in the coming weeks and eventually coach wrestling herself.

“I just had amazing coaches that really shaped my life and changed it for the better,” Slyter said. “So I want to help see that change and give back to the sport that helped me turn into the person I am.”

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.