THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Feb. 27, 2014

Only a freshman, Cierra Foster has already accomplished quite a bit in her first season on the Post Falls High wrestling team.

* First girl to win a match at Tri-State, the most prestigious tournament in the Northwest.

* First girl to win a 5A regional wrestling title in North Idaho - if not the entire state.

What's next for Foster, who wrestles at 106 pounds for the Trojans?

"Actually, I want to be the first girl to win a state title (in Idaho); that's been my goal for a while," said the 14-year-old Foster, who has been wrestling since age 6.

Foster, who sports a 24-16 record, is seeded No. 4 in the 5A 106 class for the state tournament, which runs Friday and Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

That's the state BOYS tournament, mind you. Idaho does not offer a state girls wrestling tournament. In club wrestling, Foster wrestles girls. But in school wrestling, she wrestles boys.

"It's been a great season," Post Falls coach Pete Reardon said. "She's really seasoned, as freshmen go. She did a good job this year. And the part of it that is difficult for her is, the older you get, the more strength she has to face in wrestling boys. When she was wrestling in middle school, she was equal strength or stronger than most boys, and the older you get, the more boys mature, and it just makes it tougher.

"That said, she's done a great job. That says a lot for a young lady in a male-dominated sport."

THE YOUNGER sister of Drake Foster, a Post Falls junior and a two-time state champion, Cierra got into wrestling because of her brother - just not in the manner you might expect.

"I was always at (his) tournaments, and I was like, 'Well, I'm going to be here anyway, I might as well wrestle,'" Cierra said.

Besides, she said, it was more fun than sitting in the bleachers all day and watching.

At first, her mom said no, she was worried about her getting hurt, and her dad said let her try. A local coach invited her to a club practice.

"I came to a first practice and I cradled a kid," Cierra recalled. "And then my first tournament I took first, and I've been wrestling ever since."

Since there's not a lot of girls wrestling, Cierra has had to travel quite a bit during the club season to find competition.

Last summer, she won a USA Wrestling junior national title in folkstyle. This year, she plans to return to nationals in folkstyle, as well as compete in two national tournaments in freestyle - one as a member of Team Idaho.

"I'm so used to wrestling guys, that usually girls in my weight are easier to beat than guys," Cierra said. "Since I started wrestling, my main goal is to go the Olympics in 2020."

IN HER first high school tournament, Cierra was one round from placing at the Inland Empire Classic at Central Valley. The next week, she went 1-2 at Tri-State, winning her second match by pin.

She remembers her second match at the CV tournament.

"I got taken down, and then he turned me," she said. "And then in the second round I chose neutral, and I threw him and pinned him. He was very angry."

A turning point, she said, was when Post Falls traveled to the Rocky Mountain Rumble tournament in Orem, Utah. She lost in the round of 16, and ended up in a second-chance tournament the next day, where she made it all the way to the finals.

Most of her wins this year have come by pin. At regionals, she pinned all three of her opponents.

"Guys are getting way stronger than me, and I have to be more technical," Cierra said.

Reardon said he and the other Trojan coaches thought, coming in, that Cierra would have a good shot at a state medal.

"I would say that she's a grinder," Reardon said of her wrestling style. "She just gets in there and wrestles hard. She's not flashy ... she's kind of fearless - she's not afraid to get in there and bang with the boys."

After 98 pounds, 106 is the second-lightest weight in Idaho high school wrestling. Cierra said if she can stay at 106 or 113, she's keep wrestling the boys in high school. But if she gets too heavy for those weights, "they're just going to out-strength me," she said. Cierra said at that point, she'll still practice with the Post Falls team, "but I'm going to travel all over the United States and wrestle in girls tournaments," she said.

REARDON NOTED that, just one state to the west, Washington offers a state wrestling tournament just for girls.

"She's a girl that would really benefit from something like that, because it would give her the ability to compete on a level playing field with the same athletes that she is," Reardon said.

Not that wrestling boys in school matches hasn't helped.

"When she wrestles girls, she even has more of a leg up because she's wrestled boys for so long, that she's tough," Reardon said. "Some of those girls that come from states that have all-girls tournaments haven't wrestled boys like she has.

"It's not a thing that she's got it out ... she wants to beat boys," he said. "She just wants to be able to compete in the sport that she loves, and it just so happens that in Idaho this is the only format she has."

CIERRA ALSO plays soccer, in part to avoid burnout from wrestling. She was a captain for the Post Falls junior varsity team last fall.

She hopes to attend Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Simon Fraser offers women's wrestling, as well as soccer in the offseason.

Among her practice partners in the Post Falls wrestling room are her brother, Drake, as well as other Trojan varsity members including Lucas Bolster and T.J. Wolf.

"Anyone in the room, I'll get up and wrestle them," she said.

Heading into her first state high school tournament, Cierra Foster says her goal is to earn a medal.

The color of which is to be determined this weekend.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached by phone at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.