North Allegheny grad Leyna Rumpler rolling in college wrestling debut season

Former North Allegheny wrestler Leyna Rumpler’s first year in college is starting to look a lot like her last year in high school.

The three-time Pennsylvania state finalist is off to a sizzling debut for the Baldwin Wallace women’s wrestling team, going 16-4 for the first-year Division III program with tournament titles at Tiffin (Ohio) and West Liberty (W.Va.).

“At the start of the season, I was definitely nervous because I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to just blow through people,” said Rumpler, a 35-2 state runner-up as a senior at North Allegheny. “I knew I was going to really have to focus on my matches. So far, it’s worked really well. Hopefully, it will keep rolling.”

Rumpler wasted no time showing she belonged. In her first event, she went 4-0 to win the 160-pound title at the Tiffin University Open on Nov. 2.

“She soaks everything up,” Baldwin Wallace coach Mia Rodriguez said. “Everything I tell her, whether it’s the smallest little critique or something big, she has been really good about focusing on the technique and trying to improve herself every day.”

In the Tiffin quarterfinals, Rumpler pinned Meghan Werbrich of Campbellsville (Ky.) in 54 seconds in a rematch of the 2024 Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, a 9-5 Rumpler loss.

“When I snapped and picked up the leg and took her down, it just kind of happened,” Rumpler said of the first-period pin. “I had no fear because I knew I was the underdog, and I had nothing to lose.

“Going into that first competition, I was really nervous. But once I was able to beat girls that are more experienced than me, it really gave me a confidence boost.”

Rumpler, who went 5-1 to win her weight class at the West Liberty Open on Jan. 12, will compete in the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships Region 4 tournament Feb. 22 at Tiffin. The top four in each weight class qualify for the national championships March 7-8 at Coralville, Iowa.

“I definitely want to qualify for nationals and win a match or two,” she said. “It’s definitely a dream to be an All-American, but I’ve got to focus on the smaller goals before I can achieve the bigger goals.”

Unlike many wrestlers who started the sport in grade school, Rumpler didn’t take the mat until her freshman year in high school. Even then, her wrestling career nearly ended before it ever started.

Prior to Rumpler’s ninth-grade year, coach Dan Heckert asked her if she would be interested in joining the school’s newly formed girls wrestling team for the 2020-21 season. Rumpler had tried many different sports over the years, but her brother, Luke, was a lifelong wrestler, so she said yes.

But suddenly the world turned upside down.

“I went to two practices, and then covid hit,” she said. “I really couldn’t do anything. But I really enjoyed it. So I kept in contact with coach Heckert, and I kept wrestling.”

After going 4-9 as a first-year wrestler — “I definitely was not good” — Rumpler placed second in the state as a sophomore and won the Pennsylvania title as a 148-pound junior. She took second at the PIAA Class 3A girls wrestling championships as a 155-pound senior, earning 2023-24 North Allegheny Female Athlete of the Year honors. In her final two seasons, she went a combined 72-4, and this summer she wrestled for Team Pennsylvania Blue, which won the 2024 Junior National Duals Championship in Tulsa, Okla.

Many wrestlers have more experience than Rumpler, but she makes up for lost time with fresh drive and passion.

“When I was recruiting her, until I talked to her a little bit more in-depth, I didn’t even know that she had barely started wrestling,” Rodriguez said. “That was a huge surprise for me. She is much more passionate about the sport and has less chance of being burnt out than other athletes who have been doing it since they were 4 (years old). That is good about her. She is still just very in love with the sport, and she really wants to do whatever she can to be her absolute best every single day.”