Eating, sleeping and shining on national stage

For 10 days in late June, all Cierra Foster did was eat, sleep and wrestle.

Once she got to the Pan-American Cadet Championships in Lima, Peru, all she did was dominate.

FOSTER QUALIFIED for Team USA for the Pan-American Cadet Championships, held July 1-3. After coming up short twice in her attempt to make the team, she earned a spot on the team in the spring.

“It was a great feeling,” Foster said. “I’ve been working so hard for so many years. Just to make it to Peru, I was happy. My thought process once I got there was to go out and try as hard as I could.”

First things first though, as Foster participated in a training camp in Georgia with the rest of her teammates.

“We worked out four times a day, so there wasn’t a lot of downtime,” Foster said. “Workouts involved going as hard as you could, and when you had free time, you slept. There was also a grocery store a few miles away that we walked to, but most of the time we were resting.”

Foster and her teammates competed on July 2 in Lima. With the format, if a wrestler lost in their first match, they had to wrestle back and hope that the wrestler they lost to advanced to the finals to remain in contention for a medal. Should they lose, they’d end up in the bronze medal match, or completely out of medal contention.

“It didn’t really creep up on me,” said Foster of the event. “I had to figure out how they ran the tournament. I had to figure all that out, but it wasn’t a big deal.”

The biggest difference, Foster added, was the language barrier.

“It was a really cool experience,” Foster said of visiting Peru. “I got a chance to see a lot of the country and everyone was super nice. The language barrier was hard to pick up at first, but it was a cool experience in general.”

AS IT turned out, Foster didn’t have to worry about that at all. Competing at 123 pounds, she pinned all three of her opponents, and was eventually being named wrestler of the tournament.

“I’ve usually had a little bit of a (mental) blockage and nerves,” Foster said. “I got really nervous the day of the match because I didn’t want to let anyone down.”

Foster pinned Kinley Link of Canada in 14 seconds and Maite Cortez Quinonez of Ecuador in 1 minute, 38 seconds to win gold medal at the tournament.

“I didn’t have anything to lose and that was how I approached it,” Foster said. “That camp I went to in Georgia, I really got a ton better from it. The biggest thing that came from that camp was that you’re tougher than you think and you can push yourself past your breaking point. Now, I know I can keep going and going.”

When Foster received her medal, they played the national anthem while raising the American flag behind her.

“It was such a cool experience to be on the podium for that,” Foster said. “It was really cool to wrestle and have it reflect well on the United States.”

After the event had concluded, her coaches had to get her to return to the podium to receive the top wrestler award.

“I didn’t even realize that I’d been named outstanding wrestler,” Foster said. “My coaches had to tell me a few different times that I’d won and to go back. I wasn’t thinking about winning it, but just trying to do my best.”

This year in Rio, women’s wrestling will appear at the Olympic Games for the fourth time, after making its debut in 2004.

Haley Augello (106 pounds), Helen Maroulis (117 pounds), Elena Pirozhkova (139 pounds) and Adeline Gray (165 pounds) are the lone U.S. qualifiers in Rio.

“We only have four people from the U.S. that made it to the Olympics this year,” Foster said. “It’s hard to grow the sport when they show it at 4 a.m., and some don’t really know about the sport. But it’s getting better and better.”

Foster, who will be a senior at Post Falls High in the fall, has verbally committed to wrestle at NAIA Oklahoma City University. Oklahoma City, a four-time national champion, finished runner-up in 2016.

“They’ve got a really strong program and I’m looking forward to going there,” said Foster, who as a freshman at Post Falls wrestling against boys, placed third at state — the top finish ever for a girl in Idaho. “They brought in a lot of good recruits and are one of the top teams in the nation.”

Foster also wrestled for the high school team as a sophomore, but has competed solely in girls’ tournaments since.

AS FOR now, Foster will turn her attention to the Post Falls High soccer team, where she’s been named a team captain for the upcoming season.

She’ll also honor some other Team USA commitments, traveling to a 10-day camp before competing in an international competition in Sweden as well as the Body Bar national meet next May in Dallas. She was runner-up at the national meet this year, which earned her a spot on the U.S. team for the Pan-American Cadet Championships.

She’ll continue training with the Post Falls High wrestling team during the winter, but since Idaho does not offer girls high school wrestling, she can compete in up to 15 tournaments in Washington.

“I’ve got another year, and I’m really looking forward to it,” Foster said. “Committing early really helps me focus on my schooling and the classes I want to take this year. Most kids, they’ll take their senior year off, but I want to challenge myself.”

If the last month is any indication, she’ll be up for it, wherever that challenge might take her.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.