Minneapolis Edison's Reymie Keenan, top, wrestles Byron’s Madi Hamilton in the girls 235-pound final. Keenan won with a pin. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Girls wrestling is facing growing pains.

In its first few years as a sanctioned sport, girls postseason tournaments have been set up differently than boys tournaments. In boys wrestling, each section tournament includes a single section and sends two wrestlers to state from each weight class. But each girls section tournament combines two sections. The rub comes when the threshold for wrestlers traveling to state doesn’t increase — it stays at two per weight, despite two sections competing.

It was created that way because of the smaller number of girls wrestlers in the state, and it still works in certain places in the state. In northern Minnesota, where girls wrestling is popular and sections are packed full, it makes things complicated.

“Is it frustrating when some sections have eight girls and we have 30-some at a weight? Yeah,” said Badger/Greenbush-Middle River assistant coach Efrem Novacek, whose girls wrestlers compete in the combined Section 7 and Section 8 tournament for spots at state. “But you come in here to be the state champion, so …”

For more on high school girls wrestling, click here to read this story on startribune.com.