Mckinley’s Climb

IN THE “FIREMAN’S CARRY,” a wrestler hoists an opponent over their shoulders before flipping them to the mat. It sounds like a move favored by mountainous pros like the Rock or the Big Show, but it’s also the favorite of a freckle-faced 5’5” Terp who stands among the nation’s best female collegiate grapplers.

Then-freshman Mckinley Jovanovic won last year’s National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) Mideast regional tournament in the women’s 131-pound weight class—a first for a UMD woman in any class—and finished fifth in nationals to net All-American honors.

The Silver Spring, Md., native, who enrolled at UMD as the state’s top female wrestler in her weight division, has grappled with challenges off the mat, too: Women’s wrestling at the NCAA Division I level is a rarity—just six schools have teams—and Jovanovic is one of two women on UMD’s club team. After training with men all week, she enters independent women’s tournaments during weekends, when she can find them, and pays her own travel costs. The NCWA oversees female competitions only during the postseason tournament.

Jovanovic sees parallels between her athletic pursuits and her studies as a triple major in history, education and public policy; she gravitates toward U.S. history classes that celebrate unsung women who overcame 20th century adversity.

The 20-year-old hopes to finish No. 1 in her NCWA weight class this March, then try out for USA Wrestling’s under-23 women’s team, the first step to qualifying for the national squad that can enter the world tournament and Olympic trials. Despite the sport’s sometimes-bruising physicality, she says it’s the mental aspect that’s bred success: “The best thing about wrestling is that you can be down nine points and still come back to win if you keep persisting.”