Girls wrestling tournament kicks off in Coralville

CORALVILLE — The state of Iowa is just a couple of nights away from crowning its first ever sanctioned girls state wrestling champions.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s first official state meet begins on Thursday morning, and the two-day event will be a historic one. The question is, how much history will Union area athletes make?

Earlier this week, area wrestlers were given their seeds in what will be a battle for gold in 14 weight classes, all of which will feature wrestlers from big schools to small schools, competing together.

The event begins on Thursday at 9 a.m., and ends on Friday night, where the first 14 sanctioned champions will be crowned.

Mid-Prairie junior Gabi Robertson is the lightest Union area qualifier at 100 pounds. She’ll be getting an early start as the No. 7 seed against freshman Wynter Morgan of Marion, ranked No. 26.

The Union area had two qualifiers at 105 pounds, and they’re right next to each other on the seeding chart. Mt. Pleasant senior Ella McNamee, the 13-seed, will take on 20th-seeded Grace Hoffman of Kuemper Catholic, and Fairfield freshman Alyvia Abbott, the 14 seed, goes against 19th-seeded Liv Halfpap of Raccoon River-Northwest.

WACO’s Rylee Rice is the No. 18 seed in the 110-pound bracket. The Warrior sophomore takes on freshman Morgan Krall of Independence in Round 1.

Highland’s Angelina Roling gets the No. 21 seed at 115. Rolling will get senior Ellie Weets of Vinton-Shellsburg in the opener.

The area has a couple qualifiers at 135 pounds. Mid-Prairie junior Ellie Brenneman, a 9 seed, will take on 24th-seededCarroll junior Averi Burke. 29th-seeded Lila Miller of Pekin, a freshman, takes on Ankeny junior, Dana Cleveland, who is seeded No. 4.

Mid-Prairie senior Grace Conway earned the No. 23 seed at 140 pounds. Conway draws 10th-seeded Alyssa Schnoor, a junior from Sheldon-South O’Brien.

Mia Garvey, a Mid-Prairie senior, gets the No. 20 seed in the 145-pound bracket. She will match up with sophomore Nancy Bowman of Logan-Magnolia, seeded No. 13.

Getting a No. 8 seed in the 155-pound bracket is senior Teegan Sulentich of Washington, and she’ll be going against a familiar foe in Keokuk’s Jalyiah Gardner, a sophomore seeded 25th.

At 170 pounds, Mid-Prairie freshman Ellie Callahan will wrestle from the No. 28 seed. She has unbeaten and fifth-seeded junior Averie Wittkop of West Marshall.

WACO senior Grace Fort will get her own No. 28 seed at 190 pounds. She’ll take on sophomore Ella Brown of Cedar Rapids Kennedy in the opening round.

Finally, WACO’s Bralyyn Wagler, a senior, gets the No. 15 seed at 235 pounds. Wagler draws Katelyn Brokus, the 18th-seeded junior from Dubuque Hempstead.

Thursday’s festivities will see matches from the first two rounds, as well as the first wrestleback in the morning. At 5 p.m., wrestlers will return for quarterfinals and second and third wrestlebacks, and the action will pick up on Friday morning at 9 a.m., with the semifinal round and further wrestlebacks.