Bonners wrestling coach guiding sisters to victories

Sandpoint sisters Anneliese and Lily DeAragon continue to make a name for themselves in the wrestling circles, each notching impressive results in recent tournaments.

Both are coached by Bonners Ferry’s Conrad Garner, who also coaches the Bonners Ferry High School wrestling team.

Anneliese, a junior wrestling at 145 pounds on the Sandpoint High School team, is ranked No. 3 in the nation among girls in her weight class. She finished third at the Pan American Championships in El Salvador this summer, where more than 15 countries competed.

She followed that up with a strong second-place showing at the Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D., becoming the first girl from Idaho ever to place in the tournament. Anneliese registered four pins and a tech fall to get into the finals, where she lost to a girl from Kansas who was two years her senior. She was also named an Honorable Mention All-American.

Lily, 12, managed to do her older sister one better, recently becoming the first Idaho girl ever to win a boys state tournament. At the Folkstyle state championships in Post Falls, Lily beat four boys to win the 91 pound state title, no small accomplishment according to her coach.

“That wasn’t easy for her, there was some tough competition,” Garner said. “She listened well and didn’t make any mistakes, and that took her to the championship.”

Lily also won 12 of 13 matches at the middle school level this year, joining with Breanna Buchmiller and Nicole Amillio on the Bullpups wrestling team. They were the only girls in the league, yet each managed to win multiple matches while competing against boys.

Garner says Lily is very aggressive and a battler, while Anneliese is a lot more about refined technique. He says girls can have more success at the younger ages, but it’s much tougher at the high school level, where boys begin to develop more natural strength.

While Anneliese can mow through a national girls bracket, as she did in North Dakota, it will be much tougher to notch wins as a varsity wrestler this year at Sandpoint. So be it, according to her mom.

“There’s no way for a girl to compete at the high school level at her weight,” said Pilar DeAragon. “We just said go out and compete and give 100 percent.”

Both sisters have no plans to start slowing down anytime soon. Anneliese has hopes of wrestling in college, and maybe even the Olympics some day, while Lily plans to follow her sister and wrestle at Sandpoint.

“They both fit outside the norm,” said Garner of the sisters, whom he calls great kids. “They’re not going to settle for that (getting discouraged by wrestling against boys). They say ‘I may get pounded by the boys, but when I wrestle girls …’”