(Coralville, IA) — There were surprises and not-so surprises in Session Three Friday morning at the IGHSAU Girls Wrestling State Tournament. Haley Armstrong of Atlantic was surprised in the semifinals while it was a not so surprise that Molly Allen of Riverside is in the finals going for a four-peat.
It was not a good day to have an off-day but Armstrong came out against Kaylee De Jong of Boyden Hull Rock Valley and De Jong was able to get a headlock on Armstrong, bring her down to the mat and completed the pin in just 23 seconds. De Jong, a #4 seed, will face #6 Brooklyn Robinson of Humboldt in the 235 finals. Armstrong went into the consolation round but Emma Cook of Colfax Mingo pinned her again at 1:23. Armstrong is now 36-4 and will face Emma Daniels of Carroll again, this time for 5th place.
Allen, meanwhile, dominated her match against Karlie Kruse of Creston — she continued to set the pace with a takedown, near fall, then letting her opponent up and taking her down again. Allen pinned Kruse at 1:44 and moved to the finals where she will face Elle Stephens of Harlan. Stephens is only a freshman but the 6 seed took over her match against #2 Reese Berns of Central Elkader in the 2nd period and won 14-5.
Post match interview with Harlan’s Elle Stephens
SWAT will walk away with two medals at this year’s tournament — Ellen Gerlock would finish 8th at 190 and Jazz Christensen was 7th at 100. Gerlock lost in the consolation round to Kennedy Burk of Denver 10-7 and then lost the 7th place match by fall at 2:28 to Teagyn Hartz of West Branch — Gerlock finishes her season at 28-8. Christensen lost her first match of the day by tech fall but trailing to Molly Konechne of Central Lyon/GLR, she turned things a round with a reversal and pin at 5:11 to earn a 7th place medal and finished 39-11 on the season.
Post match interview with SWAT’s Jazz Christensen
Macy Rasmussen of Audubon won her first match on Friday, beating Brianna Kiger of Carroll 11-1 at 115 pounds. Rasmussen would lose to #3 Mariah Michels of St. Ansgar at 1:38 to move into the 5th place tonight against #4 Ellie Veets of Vinton Shellsburg. Also at 115, Kiger of Carroll lost to Katie Krause of Eddyville for 7th place 14-7. Kiger finishes her season 13-8.
Logan Magnolia/Woodbine will have two wrestlers in the finals — Teagan Carritt and Nancy Bowman. Carritt continued her great run at 140 pounds, pinning #4 Lucy Konechne at 5:14 after building a 12-0 lead. Carritt is now 45-4 and will face #3 Jalyiah Gardner of Keokuk in the finals who is 41-3. Bowman beat #9 Samantha Lyons of Fairfield by fall at 2:41 and will face #3 Brooklyn Graham who is 43-3. Also at 130 pounds, Jordan Buffum won in the consolation round by tech fall but ran into #1 Kaydence Boorn of Wilton in the consolation semis at 3:05. Buffum will wrestle for 5th place.
Emma Miller of Treynor had a disappointing Friday morning — the Senior lost in the semifinals 9-2 to #1 seed Violet Diaz of Denver at 105 pounds. Miller then lost at 3:19 to Kate Martin of Mount Vernon. Miller will wrestle for 5th place tonight.
For Creston, Envy Marlin got on a roll in the consolation round. The senior won 13-10 over #4 Amelia Wadsworth of Decorah and then pinned #14 Reece Logan at 1:30 to advance to the consolation finals — she’ll face #12 Sunshine Casey of Woodward Granger for 3rd place. At 125 pounds, Karlie Cruse lost to Allen in the semifinals and then lost in the consolation semis 12-4 to #4 Aileen Aragon of West Liberty. Kruse will wrestle for 5th place tonight.
Kyler Downey of Clarinda finished in 8th place, losing at 5:05 and 2:27 on Friday morning — her final record is 39-14. Lily Weinrich has one more match to go — she won both her matches Friday morning at 3:30 and 9-1 to move to the consolation finals at 140.
In Class 2A, Lewis Central will have two wrestlers going for championships tonight. Mahri Mantz will go for back-to-back titles after beating #12 Macie Graves of Cedar Falls 7-0 in the semis. Mantz will faceoff with #2 Skylar Smith of SE Polk who is 41-0. Avaeh Smith at 120 won 10-0 in the semifnals over #6 Trudy Haag of Ankeny will wrestle #1 Apryl Halsor (47-1) of Cedar Falls for the title. Emerson Gregg was upset in the semifinals by #5 Anna O’Rear of West Delaware at 3:42. Gregg would come back in the back end with a pin at 1:54 and will wrestle for 3rd place. At 135, Kassidy Fiala went 1-1 this morning and will go for 5th place. At 155, Kalen Jo Westerfield went 1-1 and will also go for 5th place. Likewise for Madison Wright at 190, going 1-1 and will go for 5th place tonight.
The Championship round starts at 6pm, coverage on KSOM.
