A 16-year-old Dormont girl is hoping to raise enough money by July 15 to compete nationally in a sport in which she's broken her collar bone, hurt her shoulder and damaged her ribs, but loves nonetheless: wrestling.

On June 12, Reneta Kaethler finished runner-up in freestyle wrestling in the women's junior division of the Pennsylvania Amateur Wrestling Federation championship at Lock Haven University.

That win qualified the 5-foot, 4-inch, 125-pound Keystone Oaks student to compete in the junior nationals July 24-30 in Fargo, N.D.

Each wrestler must raise $750 for the trip.

At last week's school board meeting, Reneta asked directors for personal contributions. She also has sent letters to businesses and solicited money from family members. She's raised $325.

Reneta's foray into male-dominated sports began during her "little bit of a tomboy phase" when she played wide receiver on the eighth-grade football team.

While she and about 20 other girls signed on next for wrestling, three stuck it out for the year. The next two years, she was the lone girl on both the junior varsity and varsity teams.

She won about half of her junior varsity matches.

This past year, minor surgery, a tonsillectomy, interrupted her progress and she lost the few varsity matches she competed in.

Because none of the opposing, mostly South Hills, high school teams has female members, Reneta wrestles boys in her weight class. During practices, she wrestles team members of all weight classes except heavyweight.

She said wrestling differs from high school cross-country, tennis and track, in which she competes, in that every muscle and a multitude of skills are involved.

"She's very focused and she takes it seriously," said Dave Colley, who has coached her the past three years at Keystone Oaks.

"She's not all giddy about the boys.

"She takes her femininity and puts it in her locker and comes to practice and does what everyone else does," Colley said.

He attributes her success to a strong will, her no-excuses attitude and a keen awareness of her body's movement.

To improve her skills and to wrestle in the girls division, she joined the Angry Fish Wrestling Club at North Allegheny High School this spring, which led to her competing in last month's championship.

To prepare for the North Dakota tournament, in which she will wrestle freestyle, she has been practicing two to three hours four days a week.

Reneta, who enters 11th grade in the fall, called freestyle wrestling "a lot more brutal" than the high school style, which emphasizes control. Freestyle involves more throwing, with the pinned wrestler taking a beating.

Reneta said she tries to stay "looking as a girl" when she is not wrestling. She also has to switch demeanor from friendly to mean "once on the mat," she said.

Her mother, Cecelia Kaethler, called watching her daughter wrestle boys "terrifying," and wishes there were local girl wrestlers of the same physique she could wrestle.

That would turn a very good sport into a great one, she said.

For more information, or to help out, write to Reneta Kaethler at 2639 Voelkel Ave. Pittsburgh 15216.