Mia Macaluso: Covid Shutdown to Women's Nationals Breakout
Mia Macaluso the moment she won the Junior World Team spot in Irving, Texas. Photo courtesy of Jim Thrall / MatFocus.com
by Derek Levendusky, AWW Staff Writer
Twitter: @AWWderek
MINISINK VALLEY, NY - When PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) cancelled fall sports last November due to Covid restrictions, the highly touted freshman Mia Macaluso from New York had to sit on the sidelines and watch the rest of the NCAA women’s wrestling season play out.
Macaluso came onto the college scene with a long list of accolades, including a 2018 Cadet Fargo title and 2019 Cadet Pan Am gold medal. A few weekends ago in Irving, Texas, Macaluso won the 59 kg Junior World Team spot at Women’s Nationals.
“Sitting on the sidelines while other people were competing for national titles was really hard to watch,” reflects Macaluso, though she also recognized the positive things happening. “It was so amazing it was still going on through a pandemic and I am glad women’s wrestling is growing so much.”
In January, Macaluso was finally able to get into the East Stroudsburg room and prepare for Junior Nationals. Getting optimized was a team effort with her coaches, teammates, and family. “I trained with my college, which was a fast moving pace and hard work,” tells the Team USA member. “My coaches Anibal Nieves and Greg Shoemaker really pushed me. My teammate Jack Dardia was also a big help in my training these past few months. He pushed me in every practice down to every position. My father & life coach Heath Macaluso gets me mentally ready for these competitions. No one has ever pushed me harder than my father. Matt Nicholas is also another person I’m so grateful to have in my training and competition. I could never do it without him in my corner.”
Macaluso’s father runs Venom Girls Wrestling Club in New York, a program that has a history of producing some of the top young female wrestlers coming out of the state.
In spite of sitting out her college season, Macaluso—who also has a younger sister Sofia with her own accolades, a 3-time national champion and double All-American in Texas—kept her nose to the grind. During the pandemic isolation, the Macaluso sisters spent a lot of time training together. And when May hit and it was time to compete, both were ready to go.
Mia’s tournament was marked by dominance en route to the finals with a first round tech, Round of 16 fall, quarterfinal tech, and a fall in the semis over 2-time college All-American Phoenix Dubose of King. “Mia Mac” then sealed the World Team spot with an exciting back-and-forth 2-1 series win over #1 high school ranked London Houston out of Washington.
“I set my expectations very high for the competition leading up to World Team Trials,” says Macaluso. “I knew every girl was going to be a hard match. I had to go on the mat hungry to win every time.”
It’s all about the stop sign. Photo courtesy of Jim Thrall / MatFocus.com
But Macaluso wasn’t in a silo, taking it all in, enjoying watching the whole wrestling community perform; nor does she take for granted the rise of women’s wrestling to a new prominence and platform. “My experience at Junior Nattys was awesome,” says the New Yorker. “I got to see a lot of familiar faces and a lot of people that make wrestling what it is. Seeing the competition grow so much throughout the years was pretty cool to watch. Women’s wrestling is on the rise.”
Looking ahead, Macaluso is excited, hopeful, and plans to continue to enjoy the experience. “I’m so excited to train for Worlds. This is my first World Team and I want to give it my all and get ready to the best of my ability.”
She will head to Junior Worlds in Ufa, Russia, August 16-22. She’ll join a promising all-star lineup that will go with high expectations to come home with hardware.
Says Macaluso, “I’m so excited to grow as a person and athlete through this experience of travels and different training.”
2021 Junior World Team
50 kg Emily Shilson
53 kg Tiare Ikei
55 kg Payton Stroud
57 kg Claire DiCugno
59 kg Mia Macaluso
62 kg Korina Blades
65 kg Alara Boyd
68 kg Amit Elor
72 kg Kennedy Blades
76 kg Kylie Welker