Girls state wrestling underway

CORALVILLE - There is a clue as to how quickly girls wrestling has grown at the high school level in Iowa. The Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association will host an unofficial state tournament for the third consecutive year, but for the first time, it will not be conducted at a high school. Waverly-Shell Rock had hosted the tourney the first two years. Today it will be conducted at Xtream Arena, 200 East Ninth St. in Coralville, but Waverly-Shell Rock is the host, joined this year by Iowa City West and Iowa City, City High.

Session 1 starts at 1:30 p.m. today on eight mats. Session 2 will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on eight mats. Session 3 will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday when places one through eight will be determined with IWCOA awards for individuals and teams.

The rapid growth is evident, especially for a sport that is not yet sanctioned by either the Iowa High School Athletic Association or the Iowa Girls High school Athletic Union. There were 93 wrestlers at the first tourney in 2019, 461 are entered for today's start, 16 from Union area schools, and three are currently ranked by IAWrestle.

Mt. Pleasant's Abby Blint is ranked sixth at 106 pounds and she has an 8-2 record this year. Mid-Prairie's Sarah Meader (20-2) is ranked fifth at 152 and teammate Bronwyn Brenneman (12-4) is ranked 10th at 126. Brenneman's ranking is the result of her success during her first year in the sport. She will meet Alexis Winkey (2-3) of Ames to start.

Brenneman's sister, Ellie Brenneman (7-13) also will compete at 126 along with Fairfield's Chloe Curtis (2-3) and 55 other wrestlers. Curtis faces Tanaya Turpin of Bettendorf (0-0) with the winner to meet top seed Emma Grimm of Osage.

Mid-Prairie's Abigail Grout (0-3), Highland's Mackenzie McFarland (3-5) and Angelina Roling (3-5) are some of the 49 in the 106 division. Roling's first-round match is Kim Meyer (3-6) of Oakland Riverside, with the winner facing Blint.

Other area wrestlers are Mt. Pleasant's Ella McNamee (2-7) and Mid-Prairie's Emil Harmston (0-18) wrestling at 113 with 52 others registered at that weight; Highland's Maddie Potter (3-5) with Mid-Prairie's Caitlyn Busch (9-10) and Marissa Cline (0-0) are three of 47 wrestlers at 138; Mid-Prairie's Mia Garvey (10-6), Brittney Pfeifer (4-14) and Madison Kelly (6-11) are among 40 at 145.

Blint knows the No. 1 seed at 106, Ella Schmitt of Bettendorf, having lost to her last season in this event. Schmitt is unbeaten wrestling boys this season and the defending girls champ in addition to finishing second in 2019.

Blint was seeded at 15 last year and went 3-2. Since Blint is on the lower side of the bracket, one of 11 to receive an opening-round bye, she would not face Schmitt until the finals.

Meader was seeded 27th at 152 last year. She lost in the opening round, won her next two matches by fall and advanced to Day 2. She then won two matches to advance to the medal rounds, but lost her next two matches, placing sixth. She had a 5-3 record in the tournament.

'There are a lot of mental parts to wrestling,” Meader said. 'My mentality will be much stronger this year.”

There are 35 wrestlers at 152. Meader's first opponent has a 1-8 record. A win could mean Clare Braun (14-4) of Waterloo West. Bella Porcelli of Southeast Polk, ranked second, is a possible fourth round match.

Scratches could potentially change the brackets. If wrestlers are seeded and scratch, seeds will be shifted and non-seeds will be redrawn. If a non-seed drops out and byes are uneven at that point, non-seeds will be redrawn.

Busch went 1-2 at this tournament and 'learned something at state last year and that is that I need to be a lot more aggressive.”

Garvey went 3-2 and Kelly 2-2 at this tourney last year. Mid-Prairie head coach Justin Garvey is Garvey's father. He won a state title when he was in high school. Mia Garvey, who will receive a bye, plans on using the knowledge she gained from competing in last year's tournament as well as her coach/father's knowledge.

'He gives me lots of pointers, but nothing that he ever said was his favorite move,” she said while noting she has a couple favorites, including, 'if I'm on bottom, I like to hit a sit out.”

It's a term for getting separation from the wrestler on top by moving a leg quickly, changing a stance on all fours to sitting down, but it's ironic as a wrestling move because the girls are no longer sitting out when it comes to wrestling.

USA Wrestling Girls High School Development Committee reports more than 15 states have officially sanctioned girls championships, and 61 colleges offer women wrestling programs. Texas and Hawaii had girls state tournaments in the late ‘90s, and that was before women's wrestling was added to the Olympics in 2004.