A total of 14 people from the Ames Tribune area stepped up to the girls’ state wrestling meetup after the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s regional girls meetups held Friday.
Ames advanced five wrestlers and Gilbert and Nevada three each from the IGHSAU Regional Qualifier 4 meeting and Ballard advanced three from the Regional Qualifier 3 meeting. Both regional meetings were held at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
The top four-place finishers in each class moved to the state.
The five Ames wrestlers who emerged from the Regional 4 meeting were Greta Goodman at 100 pounds, Lexa Rozevink at 120, Alexis Winkey at 125, Leah Stagg at 145 and Allison Metschke at 170. Goodman finished third with a 3-1 record, Rozevink third 4-1, Winkey 3-0 first, Stagg 3-1 third and Menschke 5-1 third.
Winkey, in ninth place with 125, scored three falls during the Region 4 meeting. She pinned Gilbert’s Cecilia Bowers in 18 seconds in the quarterfinals, Southeast Polk’s Aurora Brooks in 1:02 in the semifinals, and Grinnell’s Ali Woods in 33 seconds during the championship game to set a 25-5 record.
Metschke started the season 21:6.
She pinned Urbandale’s Jaela Wills in 18 seconds into the second round, lost by fall to Colfax-Mingo’s Emmalyn Buchman in the quarterfinals and came back to Pella’s Andie Branson in 38 seconds, Cardinal Community’s Skyllar Welch in 32 seconds and Anna Steenhoek to be pinned by Gilbert in 3:32 during the consolation rounds. In the third place playoff, Metschke defeated Boone’s Rori Cook in 4:28.
Rozevink improved her record to 29-3 with four pins.
She beat West Des Moines Valley’s Justus Buelow by 46 seconds in the second round and Perry’s Isabella McDivitt by 1:30 in the quarterfinals, but lost by falling to Chariton’s Leah Chandler in the semifinals. Rozevink then came back to pin Urbandale’s Sofiya Pollard in 18 seconds in the consolation semifinals and Southeast Polk’s Addie Nelson in 1:55 during the third-place playoff.
Goodman went 19-2 on the season.
Goodman pinned Perry’s Hailey Peterson 3-22 in the quarterfinals and lost 5-0 to Raccoon River-Northwest in the semifinals. She rallied to defeat Valley’s McKenzie Brennecke with a 14-0 major decision in the consolation semifinals and defeat Carlisle’s Riley Gach with a 9-5 decision in the third-place playoff.
Stagg pinned Elizabeth Peters of Carlisle in 2:55 in the quarterfinals and lost by fall to Perry’s Lauren Rogers in the semifinals. She returned to pin Ogden’s Lauren Mathews in 17 seconds in the consolation semifinals and Raccoon River Conference-Northwest’s Addison Herrick in 1:32 in the third-place playoff to set a 24-5 record.
As a team, Ames finished second out of 25 teams in Region 4 with 184 points. Southeast Polk won with 216 points.
Nevada placed fifth in Region 4 with 139 and 137 points, respectively, and Gilbert placed sixth.
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Mackenzie Arends, in fifth place with a 190, and Ashlyn Leslie (110) gave Nevada two individual winners.
Arends was 3-0 with pins over Southeast Polk’s Grace Ellsbery in 1:17, Pella’s Elaine Babcock in 4:19 and Raccoon River-Northwest’s Aleah Johnson in 2:57 to set a 33-2 record. Leslie will set a 32-9 record after pinning Pella’s Isabella Smith in 1:23, Baxter’s Johnelle Gliem in 21 seconds and Valley’s Avery Buhr in 25 seconds.
Ashlyn’s older sister and Gracie are also moving on after finishing second at 130 to improve their season record to 39-12. Gracie pinned Martensdale St. Marys’ Zoey Donehoo in 1:09, Urbandale’s Magan Blades in 4:56 and Perry’s Charity Mickles in 5:52 to reach the final where they fell against Saydel’s Colbie Tenborg in 5th place in the fall :54 lost.
Alex Harswick (145), Cecilia Bowers (125) and Fern Neubauer (155) were the three Gilbert wrestlers who rose from Region 4.
Harswick ranked second after pinning Valley’s Danessa Valle in 1:42, beating Herrick by a 4-3 decision and losing to Rogers in the fall as she will bring a 26-4 record to the state. Bowers (20-13) finished third after pinning Panorama’s Jacie Baker in 1:25, losing to Winkey and then rebounding to defeat Carlisle’s Peighton Peacock, Nevada’s Dakota Hastings and Perry’s Ayden Erickson 9-8, 3-2 and He then won the third place game against Raccoon River Northwest’s Kealin Sutton by a 12-4 major decision.
Neubauer also finished third after winning 4-1 during the tournament to set an 18-8 record. She pinned Ogden’s Hannah Wells in 15 seconds and Cardinal Community’s Ajaah Cox in 1:51, lost in the fall to Southeast Polk’s Skylar Slade and recovered to win a rematch with Fall’s Wells in 59 seconds and Abigail Chyma of Pin South Tama County in 49 seconds.
Ballard finished ninth in Region 3 with 70 points. Cedar Falls easily won the team title with 275 points.
Noel Boettger, Caliegh Rhiner, and Ally Baker were the three bombers who invaded the state.
Boettger took first place with 130. The Bomber senior, ranked 7th, will have a 24-2 record after pinning Williamsburg’s Shannon Finn in 5:09, Cedar Falls Anna Johnson in 5:01 and Dallas Center-Grimes’ Asia Jahangir in 3:54 .
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Rhiner finished third with a 4-1 score at 145 to set a 20-5 record.
Rhiner lost by a 4-3 decision to Newton’s Brianna Aebischer, then came back to pin Pleasantville’s Addie Koenig in 1:11, West Marshall’s Kylee Schuler in 4:40 and Ankeny’s Mallorie McGuire in 2:50 to go around to wrestle for third place. In the third place playoff, Rhiner defeated Mckayla Warren of Cedar Falls 5-1.
Baker finished fourth at 120, setting her season record at 15-5. She pinned Des Moines Public Schools’ Avah Blakeman in 1:12, lost by an 8-3 decision to North Mahaska’s Jalayna Shipley, pinned Cedar Falls’ Destiny Hoeppner in 4:21 and lost by fall to Ankeny’s Trudy Haag .
The girls’ state wrestling tournament is taking place this Thursday and Friday at the Xtreme Arena in Coralville. The competition will take place on both days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.