Expected to miss the rest of the girls wrestling season with a fractured sternum, Alice Scharp receives a ‘Christmas miracle’ and enters Friday’s sectional at Hobart as No. 1 seed at 140 pounds

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

For Chesterton sophomore Alice Scharp, Christmas came a day early when she received the best present anybody could have given her. It came from a doctor.
“Alice had a Christmas miracle,” was how her father, Will Scharp, Trojans assistant girls wrestling coach put it. “She had six weeks of healing in three weeks.”
Consequently, Alice will be wrestling as the No. 1 seed at 140 pounds in Friday’s sectional at Hobart. She received an X-ray on Christmas Eve and the doctor cleared her to resume wrestling after determining she was sufficiently healed from a fractured sternum suffered in a match on Dec. 6.
Scharp won the sectional title at 135 pounds last season, won her first regional match and lost her second, falling one win short of qualifying for the state meet.
“We went to the doctor on Christmas Eve and got another X-ray. They said it was like 90% healed so I could go back to wrestling,” Alice said. “I was really excited.”
Her excitement was shared by girls head coach Chris Richardson, boys coach Andrew Trevino, who oversees the girls program as well, and all of Alice’s teammates, including her sister MJ, a freshman.
“I was surprised,” MJ said. “I didn’t think she would be ready by now, but she is.”
MJ has wrestled at 120 pounds most of the season but after “losing weight naturally during the season,” shifted to 115 pounds, where she is seeded second.
Juniors Aubree Peters (106 pounds) and Ally Williams (125), who made it to the regional round last season, and Arti Haney (145) also have high seeds. Peters has been battling a knee injury. Senior Kiliegh Flynn, junior Stefany Lopez and freshman Sophia Lugo also are wrestling at the sectional Friday.
Alice Scharp resumed working on cardio and lower-body strength just two days after suffering her injury. She was ahead of schedule throughout her recovery, according to her father, who said doctors told him the fact that the fracture was horizontal hastened the recovery.
“I’m not as good as I was before the injury, but wrestling the past few days has helped get all the rust off,” Alice said. “It’ll help to get more practice between sectionals and regionals, so I can keep getting back at it.”
That assumes she qualifies out of sectionals, which she should barring any unforeseen health issue. Peters’ knee status is the biggest concern, but other than that, Alice said, “everybody’s ready to wrestle. Stefany, Kylie and Sophia aren’t top seeds, but they’re ready to go and give it their all.”