Bo Geibe: All-American in a brave, new world of women's wrestling
Bo Geibe just got back from Colorado Springs the other day.
It’s a nice place, one where Geibe earned her spot. She was competing and training at the Olympic Training Center on the wrestling mats. Geibe was invited there as she finished her freshman collegiate year in seventh place for her weight class at the national tournament. The invitation alone helped prove to Geibe that she belongs with the best of the best.
Earlier this year, she competed in the U23 division at just 19 years of age. She became the first wrestler in Siena Heights University history to compete in the United States Marine Corps Women’s National Championships, where she took seventh to become the school’s first All-American on the mats. She wrestled at a pair of different divisions, both U23 and U20, where she totaled a record of 9-3 overall.
“My overall first-year experience for college was fantastic,” Geibe said. “Being a part of a first-year program had its challenges and everybody was re-starting as a freshman, so we didn’t really have that leadership. It was hard to navigate that, but I think we did a good job as a team of figuring that out.”
Geibe’s been competing on the wrestling circuit for a good portion of her life to this point, something that began when she was a youngster. She spent most of her matches wrestling against boys when she was younger, but the world of female wrestling has really taken on in the past few years.
This year's Siena Heights wrestling team was in its infancy as a first-year program.
“It’s gotten to be a lot easier being on a female team in college. It was much tougher when I was younger,” Geibe said about competing in what has been predominantly a men’s sport. “But the sport is growing like crazy, it’s really cool to be on an all-girls team.”
Geibe enrolled at Siena Heights mainly to be on the wrestling team. It was a decision she battled with for some time during her senior year of high school at Constantine, but ultimately a decision she was glad she made.
That senior year in Constantine was when female wrestling really took off. It finally became sanctioned by the MHSAA and continued to garner attention. Now, in just a handful of years, the girls are competing in their own state tournament where the finals are held in the same place as the boys – Ford Field in Detroit.
This past week in Colorado, Geibe said she had quite an experience. The competitors wrestled twice a day and participated in meals and classroom lessons in between time on the mats. The athletes were there to gain experience, connect with other athletes and also have a good time.
"We learned about nutrition, sports psychology and everything in between,” Geibe said.
Geibe was able to meet plenty of wrestlers with pedigrees and notoriety. At the top of that list were Adeline Gray and Sarah Hildebrandt, a pair of Olympic-medal winning wrestlers from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Back locally, Geibe drives to Mishawaka, Ind. three times a week for practice at Midwest Xtreme Wrestling (MXW). She spends her time lifting weights and doing cardio during the “off season” months when she’s not in Adrian. Geibe said she’s also training to run a half marathon coming up in October, so working to get better for both wrestling and the marathon takes up quite a bit of her time.
Geibe took a chance when she ultimately decided to go to Siena Heights. The Saints were starting up a brand-new all-women's wrestling program and her decision to join the team has provided great opportunities for her.
The original coach for the Saints, Dominic Adams, stepped down from the team just before Geibe was to head off to the national tournament. It was a big shock for Geibe, who was on her way to compete in the tournament.
“That part was a bit crazy,” she said. “I did some self-reflecting to see if this was really where I wanted to spend my time. I came to Siena Heights to wrestle for Dom, but I also came here to wrestle. The support system and friends I’ve made, plus the connections were just too good to let go. In the end, we got a new coach and it’s gonna be fine.”
The new coach, hired in early May, is Whitney Cox. She wrestled two years for Northern Michigan University before ending up at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where Geibe spent her time last week.
While Geibe had some hesitancy in heading to Colorado Springs, she is certainly glad she went. Training at a high altitude helped her understand more about how to push her body to another level.
“I had never wrestled or did anything super athletic while being at such a high altitude,” she said. “That was a really cool experience to see how my body reacted to all the elevation and altitude.”
Geibe said she wants to be an elementary school teacher upon her completion of college. She loves kids and wants to make an impact on as many lives as possible. Challenges are something Geibe writes down on a notepad and crosses off when she’s completed them. Everything standing in her way gets pushed aside when she’s done with it and she moves onto the next.
Being raised in Alaska might have something to do with it. She spent nearly a decade there growing up and spent time being home-schooled until she was in fifth grade. It’s part of the reason she wants to explore a career in the elementary school sector.
There is no down time, or time off, for Geibe. She knows that in the growing female wrestling world, her competition is looking to get better every day. She has achieved the ability to pursue opportunities to get better and she has taken them head-on, always looking to improve.
She’s a bug scout for local corn fields later on this summer as well, which will take up even more of her time moving forward. Busy Bo, it would seem, is just fine with that.
“’I’m in an in-between stage right now,” she said. “But that’s ok because I’m going to continue to keep myself busy.”
Earning All-America status as a freshman for an all-women's wrestling team is quite the accolade. Now Geibe wants to take all the experiences and training she has garnered and turn it into a multi-year accomplishment.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Bo Geibe: All-American in a brave, new world of women's wrestling
