Kristin Nichols / Alligator
UF junior Kayte Susse grapples with Ricky Rieck, president of the UF Wrestling Club, during a club practice Monday. Susse is captain of the women's team.

They lift weights, run miles and count calories in order to cut weight. They practice half-nelsons and escape maneuvers twice a week during practice. Come competition day, they put on their uniform and knee pads.

And then they apply their lip gloss.

"I think when people think, 'female wrestler,' they think: masculine girl - kind of butch," said Kayte Susse, captain of the UF womens' wrestling team. "It couldn't be farther from the truth. I'm really girly. I wear makeup to wrestling tournaments."

An accomplished wrestler, Susse placed second in the women's state wrestling tournament in both her junior and senior years of high school and took eight place at the national tournament in 2003.

Don't let her "girly" exterior fool you, though. Susse pulls a Bruce Banner-Hulk transformation when she steps out on to the wrestling mat, competing not only against women, but against men as well.

She started wrestling in 1999 during her freshman year of high school. She, along with a friend, were the only two girls on the team.

"I've always really liked contact sports," she said. "I did karate for four years, and I've always kind of liked fighting, so it was right up my alley.

"I remember in high school, I didn't wrestle a girl until my second year. By the time I saw a girl, it was like I already stepped myself up because I was so used to these guys who were so big and fast."

However, her male opponents are not always accepting of the fact that they will be wrestling a woman.

In the Florida College Championship Wrestling Tournament at the University of South Florida on Nov. 19, Susse was supposed to wrestle the defending national champion in her weight class. Instead, the Pensacola Christian Academy star forfeited the match, claiming his religion prevented him from wrestling a female.

While Ricky Rieck, president of the UF wrestling club, has never had to wrestle a women in a match, he exhibits a different mentality about his female colleagues.

"At practice I just look at them as another wrestler," he said. "They work just as hard as everyone else does.

"Most guys think it's an easier win, but that's not the case. They can do really well and show some of these guys up, especially in the smaller weight classes."

Some people may view the womens' participation in the sport improper or inappropriate, but Susse just shrugs it off.

"I used to care a lot more what people thought in high school about the way I was supposed to act," she said. "But I don't really care anymore."

The womens' team, which boasts eight active members, consists of a wide variety of wrestlers, from the experienced to beginners.

Although she only began wrestling several months ago, it seems freshman Lexi Douglas was destined to wrestle. Her father wrestled in high school and college, and she used to be the head manager of her high school team.

But when she came to UF in the summer, she decided to stop being a spectator and get in on the action.

"I've been around it enough that I've seen the moves, and I could tell someone if they're doing the move properly," Douglas said. "But when I get on the mat and try to do the move, I can't watch myself do it, so I'm relearning the moves from my perspective."

She used to condition with the boys in high school, and even though it took a little time, they began to respect her abilities.

"Of course, the first week is always different because they're like, 'Oh, there's a girl,'" Douglas said. "But when you keep up with them with push-ups and sit-ups and you can outrun them on the track, then they start to think, 'Oh, wow, she's serious about this.'"

Because Douglas is only a novice, she has yet to wrestle a male in a match. Nevertheless, she is determined to get to an advanced skill level so that she can eventually go head-to-head with the men.

"I've been a tomboy and been around boys my entire life, so I'm definitely not intimidated by them," she said. "My mentality has always been the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Rieck has found the women's participation, both on and off the mat, invaluable to the club.

"Any task that we give these girls," he said, "they'll do it and not only do it, but do it well."