TUTTLE — Cushing junior Jarrod Patterson will go after his third state wrestling championship next week, but he has another big assignment here today, in a Class 3A regional.
He'll try to beat a girl — the girl who beat him the only time they've wrestled, in a grade school kids tournament in Tulsa.
"She's pretty good,” said Patterson, who has a three-year high school record of 113-1 and has pinned both of his regional opponents. "I lost once to her in youth wrestling. She was really good as a girl.”
Joey Renee Miller still is a girl — a senior at Woodward High School. And she will shake hands with Patterson tonight in the 119-pound finals. The third-seeded Miller won her first regional match 10-0, then beat second-seeded Cramer Benson of Tuttle 4-2 in the semifinals.
"I beat him (Patterson), but it was several, several years ago, when we were 7 years old,” Miller said. "I haven't wrestled him in a long time.”
Miller, who has signed a national letter of intent to wrestle for Oklahoma City University, will take a 21-5 season record into tonight's bout.
"I have nothing to lose,” Miller said of meeting Patterson again. "I mean, if I lose, it's just, ‘Hey, he's really good.' But if I win, it's an upset.”
Miller, who had shoulder surgery last May, is already assured of making the state tournament for the second time; she finished fourth as a freshman but finished fifth in regionals the past two years.
"The doctor didn't even think I'd be able to wrestle boys this year,” Miller said. "But I healed faster than he thought I would.”
Miller and El Reno 103-pounder Hannah Martin are the only females in Oklahoma high school wrestling this year.
"Joey was the first girl to go to our state wrestling tournament,” her father, Jerry Miller, said, "and she's been the only girl to place in the tournament. Because of the surgery, she couldnt even wrestle until Christmas time, so we didn't know if she'd be here or not.”
And now comes the rematch between the boy who has won two state titles and the girl who whipped him about a decade ago, in a battle of 37-pounders.
"I don't really enjoy wrestling girls,” Patterson said. "It's just different.”
