Lakeland women's wrestling team lands one of the top recruits in the nation

DENMARK – Imagine one of the best high school basketball prospects in the nation committing to play for St. Norbert College.

Try to picture one of the country's most sought after football recruits deciding to play for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Lakeland University, an NCAA Division III school in Plymouth, doesn’t have to dream about something like that.

It became reality last week when Denmark High School senior Jayden Laurent, one of the top women’s wrestling recruits in the United States, became the first athlete to sign for its new program that will start competing next season.

Laurent is ranked No. 1 in the nation at 144 pounds by the National Girls High School Rankings, which was created by USA Wrestling, FloWrestling and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum.

“This is like getting a LeBron James to come to your college,” said Wrightstown wrestling coach Matt Verbeten, who also is Laurent’s club wrestling coach. “This is the No. 1-ranked girl. She is a Pan Am multiple champion. A Fargo (Junior Nationals) champion. That’s what it’s like landing this.

“For them to start out with that big of a cornerstone and that good of a girl, I think it’s just dynamite. It’s just going to cling and people are just going to draw to that having her there. That’s outstanding. That’s the best you can do.”

Her list of accomplishments the past two years has raised her profile and put her in the conversation to compete at the Olympics in either 2020 or 2024.

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Laurent’s most-recent headline victory came in June, when she traveled with Team USA to Lima, Peru, and won a gold medal at the Junior Pan Am.

How did it happen?

Although options for women wrestlers are growing, they're still limited at the college level. Lakeland became the 40th school to offer the sport when it announced the addition in late November, and it’s the only school in Wisconsin with women's wrestling.

A week after Lakeland’s announcement, Presbyterian College in South Carolina became the first Division I school to sponsor women’s wrestling.

Lakeland and Presbyterian are part of the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association, the national governing body. It includes several DII and DIII teams along with NAIA schools and junior colleges.

The sport is not sanctioned by the NCAA, but USA Wrestling helped lead the charge with other organizations in August to submit a proposal to the NCAA seeking "emerging sports" status for women’s wrestling to eventually be recognized.

In the meantime, Lakeland is permitted to give an athletic scholarship to Laurent because the team is grouped with DI and DII schools and competes against them.

Laurent talked with other programs such as Oklahoma City University and McKendree University in Illinois during her recruiting process.

But staying near home was a factor. She is an only child and wanted to be close to her parents and friends if possible, and Lakeland provided the best opportunity for that.

She also liked what she heard from Lakeland coach Ben Chapman and assistant coach Jared Schaaf.

“I just liked how they are so committed to me,” Laurent said. “They are willing to work just for me, and I just feel like I want to start a legacy here at Lakeland for other girls to come into.”

Chapman never thought he’d have the chance to attract a national star. There are established programs that would have rolled out the red carpet for her.

He thought it was a long shot at first but still was prepared with a recruiting pitch. Chapman told Laurent she would be the foundation of the program and that she could help create a legacy by essentially starting it.

“Myself and my coaching staff, that’s kind of how we looked at starting the program, too,” Chapman said. “We knew it was going to be tough, it was going to be a long road. A lot of late nights and long hours. But we embraced it, and I think Jayden embraces the same thing. The mentality that she knows it’s going to be a little more difficult than just stepping into a successful program already.

“That’s what drives her even more to be successful.”

It would be difficult to find a better overall athlete than Laurent, who is a rare four-sport high school star. She also plays volleyball, basketball and softball at Denmark.

Laurent stopped wrestling for a while as she got older both because the boys in her weight class were too strong and she also wanted to join her friends on the basketball team.

After two years away from the mat, one of her friends texted and asked if she wanted to give wrestling a try again.

Laurent did and immediately won titles at the USAW Girls Folkstyle Nationals in Oklahoma City and the Wisconsin Wrestling Federation Freestyle State Championships in Wisconsin Dells.

“I knew I had the talent because growing up I had a lot of success, but I wasn’t sure I would come back and win right away,” Laurent said. “But when I did, it was awesome.”

According to the National Collegiate Wrestling Association, about 15,000 girls wrestle in high school. They no longer are outsiders looking in.

“I think within two years, and now that you have Lakeland, where you have girls see there is an opportunity for them to go and wrestle,” Verbeten said, "when high school girls see that, I think we are going to have more and more girls.

“I think this springboards Wisconsin high school girls wrestling.”

Verbeten thinks it’s only a matter of time before there is a WIAA state girls tournament. He continues to have more girls join the high school and middle school programs in Wrightstown.

When he started 30 years ago, there weren’t many wrestling. His youngest sister was one who did, and he remembers how she was mistreated. He said she would sometimes be put in a closet with a bathroom scale to be weighed before an event.

Times finally have changed.

“Probably in the last 15 years, it has taken off,” said Verbeten, who had five girls at his wrestling club five years ago and now has 20 to 25. “Now there is that much more respect, with girls fighting through those barriers. I think it’s so much more respected nowadays.”

Laurent realizes there will be pressure on her to help get the Lakeland program off the ground, but she also thrives with so much put on her shoulders.

She also is showing young girls that there is no limit for them in the sport.

“It’s totally up to them what they want to do and how they look at it,” Laurent said. “I just hope they can look up to me. I want to be that good example for them.”