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Miller earns bronze at girls’ state wrestling
Mid-Prairie senior shines; Lyons, Pedrick, Callahan take 6th
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CORALVILLE — True determination can often be found when one has their back against the wall. This weekend at the 2026 Iowa High School Girls’ Wrestling Tournament, Mid-Prairie senior Sophie Miller showed exactly that.
After getting pinned by Southwest Valley’s Kenzie Maeder in the second round of the Class 1A 145-pound bracket, Miller fought all the way back, winning her next four matches to earn third place on the podium, her best finish ever at the state meet.
“It’s pretty amazing to see what you’re capable of when you have it all on the line,” Miller said. “It’s knowing it’s like, life or death. You know you’re done if you don’t give it your all.”
Miller earned a pin fall in each of her four wins on the left side of the bracket, and five pins overall in the tournament.
Miller pinned Lisbon’s Emma Dietsch in the first round, then dropped Kuemper Catholic’s Cara Schutte, Sumner-Fredricksburg’s Jamie Jones and fellow Union area competitor Hailey Pedrick of Pekin to earn a spot in the third place match. In that third place competition, Miller pinned Emmetsburg’s Paytn Haack in 2 minutes and 18 seconds, earning third place, and even beating out Maeder, who wound up fifth.
“It’s awesome,” said Miller. “I love representing my school, and it’s really great doing it with my friend Ellie (Callahan), and it’s just an awesome experience for both of us.”
Much like Miller, Callahan went 1-1 in the winner’s bracket, pinning Ogden’s Grace Hammer before falling in the second round to Denver’s Kennedy Burk.
Callahan would go on to win her next two matches to earn a spot in the consolation semifinals. Those wins were over Reese Buschbom of West Marshall, and Chloe Sexton of Highland, who she shared the podium with at 190 pounds.
“I had some really long matches, and it was really a mental game at that point,” said Callahan, who went four minutes or over in five of her six matches. “I had a few really good ones, and some that I wish I could have back.”
Fairfield’s Samantha Lyons finished out in sixth place after falling in an extremely competitive semifinal match against eventual champion Gracie Pinckney of Mt. Vernon. Pinckney beat Lyons 3-1 after Lyons earned two pins in her first two matches to get to that point.
Lyons would fall in her two consolation bouts, including a fifth-place loss to Anamosa’s Izzy Taylor. It’s the second year in a row Lyons has landed on the podium, getting fifth, and now sixth, two years in a row at 170 pounds.
“Placing two years in a row kind of builds my confidence,” Lyons said. “Yeah, I placed a little lower, and didn’t have the best tournament this year, but I believe that anyone can win on any given day.”
Lyons was dedicating her performance to friend Emmelia Miller, the daughter of head coach Steve Miller, who passed away last month. Miller had been a big part of the wrestling team, often helping our Lyons and the other wrestlers.
“She was my close friend,” Lyons said. “She was the girl who would do my hair. She took my pictures. She was always there if I needed someone to talk to, and always the person I could lean my head on if I needed someone.”
Also getting sixth was Pekin’s Pedrick, who, like Lyons, was in the semifinal round on Friday morning. Pedrick fell to eventual state champion Tayla Stiefel, as well as both Miller of Mid-Prairie and Maeder of Southwest Valley.
Pedrick rolled into the semifinals with two big wins on Thursday. She had two long matches, one against Schuette of Kuemper Catholic and one against Haack of Emmetsburg, but won both via pin fall in the third period.
Highland had two wrestlers finish on the podium. Chloe Sexton was seventh, at 190 pounds, and Adley Sweeting took eighth, at 120.
Sexton lost her first match but went 3-1 from that point forward, picking up three pins on the left side of the bracket, including one over Colfax-Mingo’s Kennedy Phillips for seventh place.
Sweeting won her opener against Logan-Magnolia-woodbine’s Gracyn Stone, and also picked up a victory over Ivy Christensen of Osage, beating her in 26 seconds in her first consolation match.
Sweeting was one of two Union area freshman to end up on the podium. The other was Van Buren County’s Brystol Wiley, who finished eighth at 100 pounds.
Wiley had two wins on the weekend. She won by technical fall in her opener against Alburnett’s Josie McGraw, and then beat South Central Calhoun’s Goldie Davis in a 12-11 thriller to earn a spot on the podium.
Wrestlers who competed but did not finish on the podium included Fairfield’s Kendra Allison, Van Buren County’s Armony Adams, Sigourney-Keota’s Kia Montgomery and Sadie Clarahan, Pekin’s Lila Miller and Lexa Nelson, and Highland’s Maiya Singbeil.
