FOUNTAIN CITY, Ind. — By now, everyone in Wayne County knows the name Heather Crull.
She is a two-time Tri-Eastern Conference champion, two-time sectional champion, regional champion and state qualifier. And she's done it all by competing—nay, dominating—the boys. Everyone in Wayne County also knows what Crull accomplished last summer. Not because he goes around telling them, but because he was on the world stage.
The 106-pound junior walks the halls of Northeastern High School with a bronze medal.
No, it's not an Olympic medal. Not yet at least.
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A star in the making
It started when Crull was in kindergarten.
“She and her sister came up to me one day and said, 'Hey, we want to wrestle,'” said Todd Krull, Heather's father.
Todd was a standout wrestler at Hagerstown High School, qualifying for state in 1998. Heather's uncle and cousins also wrestled, so it was only natural that she wanted to give him a chance. Todd started Heather in a local friendship league.
“You could definitely tell there was a difference between her and other kids her age from day one on the mat,” Todd said.
Heather started getting serious about sports in the third grade, and that's when her work ethic really shined. She would eventually earn accolades such as “She's the hardest worker I've ever met” from future high school coach Corey Baker and “She's always been one of the hardest workers in the room” from future teammate Jackson Ramsey-Neagle.
Todd saw it right away and knew Heather would benefit from going to Northeastern.
“I knew I was going to get better,” Heather said of her high school expectations. “We came here for better practice partners and people I knew better.”
Todd joined Baker's coaching staff at Northeastern when Heather started high school, and Baker immediately knew what was coming.
“We've been looking forward to it,” Baker said of Heather's arrival during the 2021-22 season, her first season. “We had the highest expectations for her. I knew she was an extremely talented wrestler, but I wanted to see what would happen when she started wrestling high school boys. Obviously, the results speak for themselves.”
Freshman phenomenon
Going into the TEC Tournament her freshman year, Crull had compiled a 32-2 freshman record, to say the least. One of those two losses came against Julianna Ocampo in the 106-pound championship match of the Indiana girls state finals. Baker said Crull looked solid throughout the race and it could easily have gone the other way.
Before the season, Northeastern wrestlers write their season goal on the chalkboard in their practice facility at the Williamsburg Community Center. If they reach that goal before the season ends, they update it with a new one. Crull's goal was to qualify for state, but after reaching the finals of the girls state competition, she didn't renew her goal. It wasn't the state tournament she had her eyes on.
“Definitely the boys state finals. That's where I want to be,” Crull said. “I just have to keep working as hard as I've been working.”
Crull won her weight class at the TEC Tournament. Two weeks later, he won the division. The week after that, he topped the regional podium. The next step was to achieve her goal.
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“Right now, we're focused on the road ahead of us, but we know we've done our work to put ourselves in the best position to reach our goal of getting to state,” Baker said after his regional 2022. “They are the right steps, but this is a small page in what is going to be a big story.”
There were 16 wrestlers in the New Castle semi-state that competed in the 106-pound weight class and only four of them would make it to state. If you won your first two matches, you were in.
Crull made quick work of her first opponent and was in control of the second. When the buzzer sounded, he had advanced to the semifinals and had officially qualified for the IHSAA state wrestling tournament. But you wouldn't know it from her reaction. She showed no emotion and still looked focused.
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“There was another race and more,” Crull said.
She lost her semi-final match but won her consolation match to finish in the semi-final in third place but had secured her spot. The next week, he was at Gainbridge Fieldhouse competing for a state title.
Crull ended up dropping her match in the first round to finish her season with a 45-4 record. Not too shabby for a freshman. Baker said he wasn't surprised by Crull's early success, but seeing her accomplish what she said firsthand was special.
“It's as much as I expected, but more than I hoped for,” Baker said of Crull's season. “I was very proud. Of course, I knew Heather was capable, but for her to do this was a super historic achievement. I was relieved, honestly. It was a long way to get it out of the way and be able to walk on this stage. He has earned it. I've had some kids in the past get there and it doesn't take anything away from them, nobody deserves it more than Heather.”
Sophomore
That meant a new goal is going up on that chalkboard. What was that;
“Boys' state place,” Krull said.
And how would he do that?
“Just more hard work, pushing myself, staying mentally ready and staying physically healthy.”
If you've been to a wrestling practice in the Northeast, you've seen what coaches, teammates and even opponents rave about Crull's work ethic. During the warm-up, she has her hood up, looking at the floor. If she lifts her head, it's only to look straight through the wall in front of her. During wrestling sessions, you can see in her eyes that she is locked in, focused only on improving her craft and her teammates. She's in her own little world.
“It doesn't stop for her when she walks out of that building,” Baker said. “What he has done is just the culmination of many years of work. She has been wrestling since she was 6 and I don't know anyone who works harder than her for what she has accomplished. It's kind of soulful for these younger kids, showing what effort and work really looks like.”
No one beat Crull to reach her new goal, and she was well on her way to achieving it as her sophomore season progressed. This time, she had only lost one game during the regular season, and again, it was at the hands of Ocampo in the girls state championship. She admitted there is a “mental block” forming around her friend and rival, but that didn't stop her from repeating at TEC and sectionals and reaching semi-state.
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It was in semi-state where Crull had a shocking first-round exit, finishing her season 41-3. Crull puts a lot of pressure on herself and with the goal she had, it was hard not to be disappointed, but winning 86 games while losing just seven through her first two years of high school is nothing to scoff at.
Olympic champion
The road to that bronze medal began last April at the United States Marine Corps Women's National Championships in Spokane, Washington.
Crull was one of 52 wrestlers in the 108-pound weight class and found herself in the championship match after not allowing a single point all tournament. Her last opponent was Harlee Hiller, the 2023 Illinois 105-pound state champion, but that didn't seem to matter. The championship was best-of-three, and Crull continued her shutout streak with 10-0 technical falls.
Just like that, Crull made Team USA.
From July 31 to August 6, Crull was in Istanbul, Turkey, as a member of Team USA 17U competing in the 109-pound weight class of the World Championships.
After a 10-0 technical victory over Turkey's Nil Aktas in the qualifiers and a 13-8 victory over Poland's Lucja Dorota Korcz in the quarterfinals, Crull found herself in a semi-final match against 2023 European champion Sviatlana Katenka. Krul lost that match 10-1, but came back with a 10-0 technical victory over Lonisa Reka of Kosovo in the consolation match to win a bronze medal.
When she arrived at Northeastern, Crull had dreams of going to the Olympics. She has Olympian phone numbers, and they keep her updated and give her advice. After her experience this summer, that dream is starting to look more realistic.
This long-term goal was intimidating at first for Baker. He admitted that there are many times during matches where he thinks about shouting an instruction, but holds back because he knows Crull already knows what to do.
“I've had wrestlers so talented that I'm afraid I don't have much to offer them,” Baker said, “but Heather has always been super coachable and very approachable. Todd's been training her her whole life, so I've always had this predisposition that I didn't have much to offer, but she listens. If it did bother me, it's gone by the wayside because it nulls and is super trainable. I couldn't ask for a better person, let alone a wrestler.”
Crull has a reserved personality and doesn't like to brag about her long list of accomplishments. She said she's “really proud” of herself and that the rest is “kind of hard to put into words.”
What she has down is the path she has carved out for herself. That boys state ranking goal is still on the board. After that, it will be college wrestling. From there, it will be the Olympics, and once again, no one will leave her behind.
Zach Piatt is a reporter for The Palladium-Item. Contact him at zpiatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @zachpiatt13.
