The Nevada Girls Wrestling Team brought three wrestlers to the Girls State Wrestling Tournament from Region 4, meeting Friday at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.
The Cub girls crowned two champions and another wrestler took second place at the meet. They finished fifth out of 25 teams with 139 points.
The Nevada boys’ wrestling team went 0-3 in a square duel on January 26 in Story City. The Cubs fell to Iowa Falls-Alden (48-18), Roland-Story (54-18) and Ogden (62-12).
The Nevada boys’ basketball team lost at home to Gilbert in a non-conference game on January 23 (72-70) and at West Marshall in the Heart of Iowa Conference game on January 24 (60-54). The Cubs slipped in three games Friday with a 60-56 conference win to improve to 10-6 overall and 8-3 in the HOIC.
The Nevada girls basketball team suffered a 48-22 loss to Gilbert and put up a good fight with 3A No. 4 West Marshall before falling 57-48. The Cub Girls then upset 2A No. 11 South Hamilton, 56-40 to cap off a win of the season against the Hawks.
The Colo-NESCO boys’ basketball team continued their six-game winning streak with wins over GMG (64-39) at home on Jan. 24 and BCLUW (65-48) on Friday in Conrad to level their record at 10-7 overall and 7- to improve. 4 in the South Division of the Iowa Star Conference. The Royal Girls fell behind against GMG (54-30) and BCLUW (52-18), falling to 2-14 in the season and 2-10 at ISC South.
Here’s what we learned from this week’s Nevada Journal high school sports action.
Sisters Mackenzie Arends and Leslie made their way into Girls State Wrestling
Mackenzie Arends and Gracie Leslie are returning to the Girls State Wrestling tournament, bringing along teammate Ashlyn Leslie after all three qualified for Nevada at Friday’s Region 4 Girls Wrestling Meet.
Arends, who is fifth at 190 pounds, is returning to the state where she placed second as a freshman a year ago. The sophomore Cub won a regional title Friday by going 3-0, extending their season record to 33-2 and heading to the state.
All three of Arends’ victories at the regional meet came in the fall. She pinned Southeast Polk’s Grace Ellsbury in 1:17 in the quarterfinals, Pella’s Elaine Babcock in 4:19 in the semis, and Raccoon River-Northwest’s Aleah Johnson in 2:57 in the finals.
Ashlyn Leslie also won a regional title to earn her first trip to the state. The Cub freshman went 3-0 at 110 to record a 32-9 in the state tournament.
Ashlyn pinned Pella’s Isabelle Smith in 1:23, Baxter’s Johnelle Gliem in 21 seconds in the semifinals, and West Des Moines Valley’s Avery Buhr in 25 seconds in the finals.
Gracie Leslie is returning to the state where she wrestled for Collins-Maxwell a year ago after finishing second at the Region 4 meet with 130 for Nevada.
Gracie went 3-1 at the regional meet to bring the state a 39-12 record. She pinned Urbandale’s Magan Blades in 4:56 in the quarterfinals and Perry’s Charity Mickles in 5:52 in the semifinals before losing to Saydel’s Colbie Tenborg in the championship game.
Miah Huff went 3-3 with three falls and placed sixth at 105 for Nevada. Emma Lennie was 2-2 at 115, Katie Spalding 2-2 with two pins at 120, Dakota Hastings 1-2 at 125, Mia Reichart 3-3 with three pins in sixth place at 135, Kennedy Long 0-2 at 140 , Gracie Schiller 0-2 at 145, Krystal Rickman 1-2 with a fall at 155, Haley Jones 0-2 at 170 and Grayce Coree 0-2 at 235.
The girls’ state wrestling tournament takes place on Thursdays and Fridays at the Xtreme Arena in Coralville. The competition starts at 9:00 a.m. on both days and ends at 9:00 p.m.
Guys from Nevada get three pins on the Roland-Story Quad Dual
The Nevada boys’ wrestling team finished the Roland story square duel with three wins by fall and five wins by surrender.
In the IFA loss, the Cubs’ Carson Reed pinned the Cadets’ Grant McElmuray at 195 in 24 seconds. Nevada’s Dakota Davis (220) and Tate Olsen (285) received losses.
Jaden Grimm conceded a fall against Roland-Story for Nevada. Grimm pinned Reece Fulton at 126 in 53 seconds.
Nevada also picked up losing wins from Isaac Williams at 145 and Payton Mosinski at 160 against the Northmen.
Williams earned Nevada’s only on-mat win over Ogden by scoring a fall over the Bulldogs’ Lukas Schellenberg in 2:26. Reed added a win by loss to Ogden.
Nevada girls use fast start to upset South Hamilton
The Nevada girls basketball team went 15-3 after the first quarter in their upset win over South Hamilton.
The Cubs were never threatened after that, leading by nine at halftime and maintaining that advantage through the fourth quarter when they pulled away on a 13-6 run. Nevada kept South Hamilton on 32.6% shooting and forced 18 turnovers, helping them easily overcome a 35-30 rebound deficit.
Bridget Cahill had her best game of the season for Nevada with the win. Cahill picked up 25 points after hitting 4 of 10 3-pointers and all five of her free throw attempts, and she also pulled off four rebounds.
Avery Hinson added 10 points, Emma Strottman added 9 points and eight rebounds, and Isabelle Nelson added 5 points and 13 rebounds for the Cubs.
Nevada went into the game against South Hamilton with some momentum after narrowly losing to a strong West Marshall team. The Cubs led the Trojans 21-19 at halftime but couldn’t overcome a 24-13 run by West Marshall in the third quarter.
Hinson had 12 points, Strottman had 10 points and nine rebounds, and Nelson had 7 points and 12 boards against the Trojans. Cahill added 7 points and six rebounds and Cinamon Hazlitt added 5 points for the Cubs.
All-State forward Katy Reyerson led West Marshall with 20 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
The Nevada girls couldn’t buy themselves a basket for their out-of-conference loss to Gilbert. The Cubs shot just 18.2% from the field and scored just seven points in the first half to dig themselves into a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
Nelson had 12 points and seven rebounds and Strottman had 3 points and eight boards against the Tigers.
Cub Boys stop losing streak
The Nevada boys’ basketball team did just enough to get past South Hamilton on Friday.
The Cubs led by eight points after three quarters and retained the final eight minutes to re-enter the victory column. Statistics for the game were not yet available at the time of writing.
Nevada couldn’t shake a poor second half during their loss to West Marshall. The Cubs were outplayed 29-20 in the last two quarters.
Nevada was hurt by 21 turnovers in the loss to the Trojans. Easton Gray hit four 3-pointers for 14 points, Carson Rhodes had 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, Jacob Khounsourath had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Alec Higgins had 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Cubs went up in flames against Gilbert and took an early lead. But Brody Hague’s shooting, Alex Ruba’s aggressiveness and Billy Terrones’ playstyle proved too much to overcome.
But Nevada head coach Tyler Struck was pleased with how his team finished the game. Gilbert held a 61-52 lead with 6:42 in the fourth quarter and Nevada rallied to tie the game with two Rhodes free throws with 30 seconds left before Terrones hit the winning foul shots in the closing seconds.
“At the end of the day I’m happy with how we fought,” said Struck. “If they had made it to nine in the fourth quarter, earlier this year we would have lost 10, 11 or 12 points. I’m really proud of how our kids fought to find a way to come back.”
Gray hit six 3-pointers and led Nevada by 18 points. Higgins had 11 points and six rebounds, Rhodes had 10 points, eight rebounds and four blocks, John Nelson had 10 points and eight rebounds, and Khounsourath had 7 points, six assists and three steals.
Ruba led Gilbert with 20 points and seven rebounds and Hague added 17 points.
The guys from Colo-NESCO keep winning
The Colo-NESCO boys basketball team continued their hot game with crucial victories over GMG and BCLUW.
In defeating GMG, the Royals took a 22-5 lead and rolled to victory. They overcame a poor 6-of-22 shooting performance at the foul line by making a solid 47.4% of their field goals and keeping the Wolverines off the field on 24% of shots.
Lucas Frohwein had 24 points and 10 rebounds, Spencer Hansen had 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals, and Drew Banks had 10 points and five rebounds against GMG.
Colo-NESCO shot 51.1% from the field in his win over BCLUW. The Royals led 28-20 at halftime and finished the game on a 19-10 run.
Frohwein had 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists and Hansen had 14 points and four rebounds against the Comets. Breckin Clatt added 12 assists and 7 points, Gannon Short added 9 points and five rebounds, and Banks added 7 points.
Royal Girls offensively fight Wolverines, Comets
The Colo-NESCO girls’ basketball team continued to struggle to get the ball in the basket while losing to GMG and BCLUW.
The Royal Girls shot just 20.4% from the field and had 26 turnovers in the loss to GMG. Jessica Duran rose with 14 points and six rebounds, Gemma Bower had 4 points and 10 boards, and Callie Kohlwes had 3 points, seven rebounds and three assists for the Royals in a loss.
Colo-NESCO suffered six field goals and 14.6% shooting in the loss to BCLUW. Jasmine Johannes had 5 points, Bower had 4 points and three steals, Hannah Matteson had 4 points, Duran had 3 points, and Kohlwes had 2 points and three rebounds against the Comets.