MENTOR — When first confronted with the significance of what she had accomplished at Saturday’s Division II sectional wrestling tournament, Ashley Keenan tried to steer the spotlight, and the conversation, away from herself.

But there was no escaping the magnitude of the Edgewood High School junior’s achievement. For, with her victory in a consolation semifinal match at 112 pounds, Keenan became the first girl from Ashtabula County, if not the entire area, to qualify for the district tournament based solely on her own performance. She ended up fourth in the Lake Catholic sectional to reach the district at Akron Firestone High School, which begins Friday afternoon.

“I’m getting to go to district!” Keenan said in a hushed tone with a slight, but exultant, smile pursing her lips. “It’s exciting that I made it.”

She preferred to shift the attention to her coaches and teammates.

“I wouldn’t have made it without my teammates and my coaches,” Keenan said. “There’s a lot of hard work that has been put into this.”

Coaxed a bit to think about the significance of what she had done, Keenan began to warm up to the subject a little.

“I guess it’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” the daughter of Krisia Keenan said. “But I was just worried about wrestling the best I could.”

The importance of what Keenan had achieved was left to others to assess in greater detail. Fortunately, her coach, veteran Greg Stolfer, understood the price that Keenan has paid in continuing on into her third season on the Edgewood varsity despite all the ridicule and the headshaking she has encountered on her quest just to be a good wrestler and a good teammate.

“There have been a lot of people who have been pulling for Ashley and a lot of people who have been against her,” he said. “But what it comes down to is, what she does, she does very well. You know, she’s won more than 20 matches all three years she’s wrestled for us.”

Ironically, the person who probably understood best what it has been like for Keenan to persevere and prosper in a guy’s sport happened to be around at Lake Catholic on Friday and Saturday to see it unfold. Even though she had to watch it all from a stance of outward neutrality, referee Karen Conklin from Youngstown was cheering on the inside for Keenan.

Because Conklin has had to deal with the naysayers throughout her 16-year career as a wrestling official. She has cleared all sorts of barriers and is still the only active female wrestling referee in Ohio.

“I was so impressed with (Keenan),” she said. “Obviously, I couldn’t say or do anything because of my position, but I was amazed at her. And she’s so good! I was so pleased to see her do well. I give her so much credit.”

Keenan had her eye on Conklin, too. The wrestler seemed more impressed with the official than her own accomplishment.

“She’s the only female wrestling official in Ohio!” Keenan said, her eyes growing wide while expressing the thought. “That is so cool!”

Conklin was confronted by opposition from the outset when she began her pursuit of gaining varsity officiating status. She did it because she developed a love for the sport from watching her two sons, Zachary and Adam Yankush, wrestling at Youngstown’s Ursuline High School. Zachary also wrestled at Mount Union College.

“I really learned to love the sport and I didn’t really like what I was seeing in officiating, so I decided I wanted to get involved,” Conklin said.

It wasn’t that tough a decision for Conklin, who was already accustomed to being in a position of control, serving as the administrator for the Lake-to-River Girls Scout Council at the time. But she knew she needed to put some work in to experience just what a wrestler goes through before entering into the world of officiating.

“I actually wrestled a little bit with my sons, just to learn where the pressure points are and to learn more about what a wrestler faces,” Conklin said.

Only then did she decide it was time to take whatever steps were necessary to become a registered official. She recalled the first officials meeting she attended to begin moving toward that goal.

“I was a single mother at the time,” she said. “I went into the meeting and I was dressed in a business suit and heels. When I walked into the room, the man that was running it said, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, but I think you’re in the wrong room.’ I assured him I was there for their meeting.”

That meeting encountered up other doors for Conklin. The man who questioned her presence there has since become her husband of 10 years. She and Gary Offerdahl were both working the Lake Catholic sectional, just on different mats. She has earned the respect of her officiating colleagues.

Conklin still maintains a busy life outside wrestling. She is now serving as the chief executive officer for the Summit County Humane Society.

“I guess you could say I’ve gone from the Girl Scouts to the dogs,” she said with a laugh.

Hers is an example Keenan might follow, although for now the Warrior junior is concentrating on being the best student and the best wrestler she can be. She did admit eventually becoming a wrestling official did have some appeal after some thought on the subject.

“I’m more interested in biology,” Keenan said at first. “But, you know, it might be fun to become an official someday.”

Such a development probably would be least surprising to her coaches. They know Keenan is willing to put in the work.

“I don’t treat her any differently than any of the boys on the team,” Stolfer said. “And Ashley’s willing to work hard.”

One of the concessions Keenan has not made is cutting her long hair. She has to keep it wrapped up in a hair net that fits under her head gear for practices and matches. She usually has to readjust it at least once a match.

The Edgewood coaching staff doesn’t cut her any slack.

“I’m supposed to wear (the hair net) at practice, but I keep forgetting it,” Keenan said with another shy smile. “My coach (assistant coach Wes Cleveland) makes me do 100 pushups with my legs up on a (cafeteria) chair after practice. I’ve done a lot of pushups.”

Doing the pushups with her legs raised increases their difficulty and works muscle groups that are key for a wrestler. Stolfer suspects Keenan forgets the hair net by design.

“I think she does it on purpose,” he said with a laugh. “I think she likes those pushups. I think it may have even helped her get a little bit stronger.”

Such a regimen certainly hasn’t hurt Keenan, especially with her move up from 103 pounds in her freshman and sophomore seasons to 112 this year. Just moving up one weight class pits her against opponents that are a bit older than her old 103 foes and are also a bit stronger.

Keenan said she moved up a weight class because it was best for the team.

“I wanted to do whatever I could to help out the team,” she said. “I knew (freshman) Travis (Dickey) was going to be coming up to the high school this year and I wanted him to be able to get into the varsity lineup.”

Moving up has provided some additional dividends for Keenan, though.

“I’m a lot more comfortable at 112,” she said. “I probably haven’t weighed more than 120 when I ran cross country and played soccer this fall. I only have to make 115 now, and that’s not too hard. I really don’t have to cut weight.”

She doesn’t shy away from heavier wrestlers as her practice partners, either.

“I usually wrestle against Cory Hague, who’s a 152, or Alex English, who’s about 135, in practice,” Keenan said. “I’m able to hit a lot more moves now, too.”

But even when she is faced by wrestlers her own size in competition, and even though they’re generally heavier, Stolfer said Keenan is able to hold her own. He said she has other gifts any wrestler would love to possess.

“Ashley is pretty strong, but the thing about her is that she’s very, very, very flexible,” he said. “Being flexible is every bit as important as being strong to a wrestler. Ashley very rarely gets pinned. She knows what she’s doing out there, too.”

That is shown by the fact, in addition to competing as a distance and middle distance runner in track, Keenan also pole vaults, the ultimate flexibility event.

It’s pretty apparent she is gifted with what football coaches describe as a “motor,” too. She keeps plugging away tirelessly, as evidenced by competing in both soccer during the week and cross country on the weekends this past fall.

But she’s not invincible.

“(Doing both) kind of wore me down and I got pneumonia at the start of wrestling season,” Keenan said. “It set me back for the first couple weeks. I really didn’t start feeling comfortable again until the Wheeling Tournament (just before New Year’s).”

There was a bit of an adjustment period for Keenan when she first started wrestling at Edgewood. She probably has taken the stares, the nasty comments and the negative attitudes of her opponents better than her coaches think.

“When Ashley started out, you had a lot of boys that either wanted to pin her and get it over as soon as possible or would forfeit their match instead of wrestling her,” Stolfer said. “Their parents didn’t like it, either. It was tough for a long time on her.”

Keenan believes she’s won most people over to the concept of competing with the boys by now.

“People are so nice to me now,” she said. “I think most of my opponents respect me now as a wrestler.”

She has little time to process her achievement before concentrating on the next step on the tournament trail. Basking in the glow of her accomplishment will come later.

“I suppose I should be proud of myself,” Keenan said with another smile... and without a trace of arrogance.