photos by Christy Casey
(Coralville, IA) — In only its 2nd year of girls wrestling, Atlantic has a state champion. Haley Armstrong won at 235 pounds by fall at 2:00. Most of the first period was a stare down between Armstrong and Rose Niewoehner of Crestwood. And then out of nowhere, Armstrong found an opening and did a double leg shoot and took Niewoehner down for 3 points. Both wrestlers were close to going out of bounds and Armstrong kept dancing around the edge of the circle. The Trojan 235 pounder finally got a chicken wing and yanked hard on Niewoehner pulling her to the mat. It was a race between Armstrong and the end of the period as the clock ticked. In the end, Armstrong beat the end of the first period by a millisecond and won by fall.
Not once in the tournament did Armstrong wrestle in the 2nd period — she won by falls of :44, :51, and 1:55 before the championship. Niewoehner had upset the #1 seed Kaylee DeJong of Boyden Hull Rock Valley in just 17 seconds and like Armstrong, had pinned her way to the finals but finishes with a record 46-8.
Armstrong leaves a strong legacy in Atlantic with 4 medals — the first two were 8th place and 3rd place finishes with SWAT — and her junior year was a 5th place medal. Armstrong finishes her senior season with an untarnished 42-0 record.
