(Atlantic, IA) — The girls wrestling tournament starts tomorrow and Atlantic will be sending three wrestlers to the Extreme Arena in Coralville, IA to compete.
At 235 pounds, Junior Haley Armstrong will be the #1 seed with a record of 34-2. She’ll face Freshman Rylee Robison of Iowa Falls Alden who is 14-16 in the first round. As a freshman, Armstrong finished in 8th place, last year she was only a 12 seed but finished in 3rd place. Now she is the favorite but Armstrong says it does not change her approach to the competition
At 155, Freshman Leiah Thomas is 21-10 and seeded 6th — she will face Sophomore Lilly Ness of Williamsburg who is 27-18 in the first round. On January 9th, Thomas had a record of 9-9 so making the state tournament might have been unrealistic, but she won 12 of her last 13 matches and pinned her way through regionals to make it to state. Thomas says she had to adjust her style of wrestling coming into her first year of varsity
At 115, Sophomore Cadence Kinzie enters her first state tournament as a 13 seed and a 29-8 record. She will face #4 Ellie Weets of Vinton Shellsburg in the first round who is 48-9. Kinzie is used to wrestling tough competition
Atlantic is a 1A school at girls state and their session starts Thursday at 4:30 pm with first round action, coverage on KSOM.
Complete Interview with Haley Armstrong
Complete Interview with Leiah Thomas
Complete Interview with Cadence Kinzie
