Gigi Bragg, Charli Raymond and Caley Graber are at the forefront of Minnesota girls wrestling

High school girls wrestling is relatively new in Minnesota.

The Minnesota State High School League sanctioned the sport for the 2021-22 season and 44 girls qualified for the first girls individual state tournament. Twelve of them became the first set of girls state champions.

Last year, more than 1,500 girls competed at the high school level in Minnesota, more than double the number of participants in the 2022-23 season, and 104 qualified for the individual tournament. Official numbers for the 2024-25 season are not yet available but are expected to reflect a similar growth.

In just a few years, three wrestlers — Northfield's Caley Graber, Simley's Charli Raymond and Anoka's Gigi Bragg — have emerged as the top girls wrestlers in Minnesota. Interestingly, all wrestle around the same weight class.

All three have developed a different barometer for individual success, but each recognize they're more than just wrestlers. They are trailblazers in Minnesota.

"I definitely think I'm helping girls wrestling," said Raymond, who in 2022 became Minnesota's first girls wrestling state champion. At the time, she was a seventh-grader in the 100-pound division. Now a sophomore, she ranks second in the 118-pound class for girls behind Graber.

"I like to think some of those younger girls look up to me," Raymond said.

In 2024, Graber, a junior, became the first girl to win a match in the Minnesota boys wrestling individual state tournament. She won three times on the way to a fifth-place finish in Class 3A's 107-pound division.

"I hope that someday the younger girls will look up to me the way I looked up to girls when I was in youth wrestling," Graber said.

Bragg, a senior, ranks sixth among all high schoolers in the 107-pound division in Class 3A, according to theguillotine.com.

"There are women wrestling at such a high level. It's insane," Bragg said. "It's so competitive. I like to think I have paved the way."

'I want to win a boys state title'

Before it was a sanctioned sport, girls often competed against boys. When the MSHSL sanctioned the girls state tournament in 2021, most girls migrated to their own gender.

Not Bragg.

She's wrestled at 114 pounds for the Anoka boys but is dropping to 107 pounds in the final stages of the season.

"It wasn't something I wanted to tell people before, but now I'm not afraid to say it … I want to win boys state at 107," Bragg said.

Anoka coach Todd Springer believes she can pull it off.

"One thing I would never do is bet against her," he said.

Beating boys on the big stage is not a pipe dream. Raymond, a sophomore, did so as an eighth-grader when she won a match at 106 pounds in team competition in Simley's run to the Class 2A team title.

And, of course, there was Graber's 2024 individual tournament performance. Raymond applauds Graber for earning a consolation medal at the boys state meet.

"She's a trailblazer in girls wrestling," Raymond said.

Graber didn't initially view the moment as a big deal. She'd wrestled and defeated boys since she was young. Younger girls showed her its impact.

"Five little girls came up to me and told me good job and asked for my autograph," Graber said. "Their parents said they'd been following me all season. That was big. It wasn't just because of something that happened at the meet."

While Bragg is committed to wrestling against boys for the remainder of the season and Raymond has carried the torch for the girls individual tournament, Graber finds herself straddling the line. She's wrestled against boys for most of the season but also competed against girls in an early-season tournament at which she routed the competition.

She's unsure which section tournament she'll compete in this year.

"I think that's a little bit of a gray area for her right now," said her coach, Jules Doliscar. "But what I do know is that she's in the [wrestling] room every day, putting in the work."

Proving it can be done

Bragg and her parents searched for a beacon in Minnesota's new world of girls wrestling. What they learned is girls who wanted to excel had to go outside the state. In sixth grade, she wrestled for a team in Michigan, an offseason connection she maintains to this day.

"I would have expected Minnesota girls to have better leadership," said Bragg, who suggested past leadership was fractured and self-serving, with little interest in building the sport.

For Raymond, there was a blueprint to follow. Her older brothers, Cash and Skyler, are accomplished wrestlers. Cash, her role model, wrestles for Augustana University in Sioux Falls.

"I'm pretty proud of him," Raymond said.

Raymond owns three girls individual titles and could become the second wrestler in state history to win six individual state championships. Apple Valley's Mark Hall won six between 2011 and 2016.

For now, Raymond is focused on training.

"There are more really good girls wrestling now, so I know I have to work even harder just to stay at the top of the podium," Raymond said.

Bragg started wrestling when she was 6 years old. While other girls her age were tumbling in gyms, skating in oversized hockey jerseys or playing make-believe, she preferred holds and hand fighting.

Today, Bragg's aspirations go beyond the high school level. She's thinking Olympic medals and world championships.

Wrestling against boys will help reach those goals, she said.

"I was told by a lot of people that when I got to middle school I would have a harder time competing against boys and high school boys would be too big and too strong," she said. "Personally, I had never thought about that, but I use it as fuel to work harder."