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While the Olympics are long over, Petersburg wrestler Alenna Nilsen hasn't stopped following O'Donnell. In fact, she'd like to retrace O'Donnell's footsteps all the way to the world stage.

"It was great to see women out there competing in a sport that I think we're equal in," said Nilsen, who is a senior captain on this year's Vikings wrestling team. "Watching Tela O'Donnell was really exciting. I got to watch her wrestle (four years ago during) my brother's senior year, at state, when I went to watch him. She's my idol. I thought she was awesome."

No matter what happens, Nilsen will end her high school career as the most decorated female wrestler ever in Southeast - three years after she nearly gave up the sport.

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Nilsen started wrestling in fourth grade, when club wrestling came to Petersburg. Her brother Mike, who is four years older, also was a wrestler.

Nilsen competed through middle school, but hit a wall once she reached high school. She wrestled just eight matches her freshman year - and got pinned each time.

"I was working really hard but I was never winning, and I wasn't fitting in with the team very much," Nilsen said. "I felt very alone and discouraged. I wasn't going to wrestle my sophomore year. I was going to quit."

Two weeks into the next season - after she had started practicing with the cheerleading squad - Nilsen had a change of heart.

"I kept seeing the wrestling room and seeing my teammates and I couldn't stay away because I loved it and just felt empty without it," she said.

Petersburg coach Tom Cox, then starting his first season with the Vikings, said he had heard that Nilsen wrestled, but that she wouldn't be going out for the team.

"A girl walked into my room two days into school and asked if she could be manager," Cox said. "I heard it was Alenna, and said, 'You're not going to be my manager. You're going to be my 103.'"

That season Nilsen felt comfortable with the team - and it showed on the mat. She finished third in the region at 103 pounds and became the first Petersburg girl to qualify for the state meet. Juneau's Amanda Krafft was the first Southeast girl to reach state, in 2001.

Last year, as a junior, Nilsen finished second in Southeast at 112 pounds - she lost to Craig's Bryan Westfall in the championship match - and again qualified for state. Nilsen did not place in either state trip.

This season, Nilsen met one longtime goal - being selected as a team captain - and has set goals of winning a region title at 112 pounds and placing top-three at state. At last weekend's Brandon Pilot Invitational - which drew most Southeast teams - she finished second to Juneau's Gerry Carrillo, a defending state champ who competes at the Class 4A level.

"She's really tough and aggressive," said Carrillo, who has faced Nilsen in matches since middle school. While some might dismiss a female wrestler, Carrillo said "with Alenna it's a different story. She's incredibly strong and gives 110 percent every time."

The bumps and bruises of that extra effort are evident when she heads back to school after a meet.

"My friends get a little shocked sometimes and go, 'Lena, what are you doing?'" Nilsen said. "But they're all pretty used to me being pretty bruised up during wrestling season."

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After high school, Nilsen - who also participates in track, drama and debate in Petersburg - wants to continue wrestling in college as she pursues a career in physical education or exercise science. She's hoping to get a scholarship to Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. - one of the few universities in the United States with a women's wrestling program, and also O'Donnell's alma mater.

Earlier this season, Sitka wrestling coach Steve Gillaspie - who used to live on the Kenai Peninsula and housed O'Donnell for a year while she wrestled for Nikiski High School - presented Nilsen with an autographed poster of O'Donnell, who finished sixth at the state tournament in 2000.

"We've both had to wrestle against boys all of our lives, and I think she really went up to state and proved herself to be an equal amongst the guys," Nilsen said.

Nilsen said she wants to wrestle at the Olympics, and looks forward to the next step in pursuing that goal.

"I can't wait to get to college and look into the future," she said. "It will be a relief to go wrestle women and see how I compete against them, because I've never gotten to before. I'm excited for my future, to see where it goes."

Looking back, Nilsen said she is proud to have wrestled for the Vikings - a team so close she calls them her family - and proud about the strides she's made to date as a female wrestler in a male-dominated sport.

"I like to think of myself as just a wrestler," she said. "I like to be equal to the guys. I don't like when people treat me like a girl out on the mat or off the mat.

"But it is nice because coach says I've opened a door for girls in our town for wrestling, because they've seen me and look up to me."

• Andrew Krueger can be reached at andrew.krueger@juneauempire.com.