In the “fireman’s carry,” a wrestler hoists an opponent over their shoulders before flipping them to the mat. It sounds like a move favored by mountainous pros like the Rock or the Big Show, but it’s also the favorite of a freckle-faced 5’5” Terp who stands among the nation’s best female collegiate grapplers.
Then-freshman Mckinley Jovanovic, who is a Public Leadership scholar, won last year’s National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) Mideast regional tournament in the women’s 131-pound weight class—a first for a UMD woman in any class—and finished fifth in nationals to net All-American honors.