The Mid-Prairie girls returned to competition after the winter break with a mega-tournament in Anamosa on Monday, January 3. 

There were 240 wrestlers from over 40 schools competing on three mats in front of a packed gymnasium. 

Three of the nine Golden Hawk wrestlers finished second out of four in their respective brackets, with three more taking third. 

While none of the Mid-Prairie wrestlers reached the top of the podium, they all gained valuable experience against some of the top wrestlers in the state. 

“This tournament was a great chance for our more experienced wrestlers to wrestle some higher level competition,” Mid-Prairie coach Dylan Walther said. “I thought we wrestled better than our record shows.”

Madison Kelly won her first two matches by 2-1 and 7-2 decisions, before falling in the first place match to Niah Smith of Davenport West. 

Marissa Cline was trailing 2-1 after giving up a reversal in the second period of her first-round match. Her opponent chose bottom for the third period and Cline took advantage, getting the pin with four seconds left. In the second round, she trailed just 1-0 before giving up a late pin, but she bounced back in the final round. 

“Marissa had a gritty come-from-behind win in the third round,” Walther said, “coming back from a 4-0 hole to win 6-5.”

Ainsley Lueck also had a second place finish after winning her final match by forfeit to finish the day 1-1. 

Grace Conway earned a 6-1 decision over Solon’s Olivia Bonnema in the second round, and had a 5-2 lead over City High’s Ani Wedemeyer after a reversal in the second period of her final match. But Wedemeyer came back to get the winning takedown with 15 seconds left. Conway finished 1-2. 

Bronwyn Brenneman and Mia Garvey faced two of the toughest brackets in the tournament. 

Brenneman opened the tournament with a 7-5 loss to Bettendorf’s Alexys Peterson. 

“Bronwyn wrestled the defending 126 pound champ and gave her a good match,” Walther said. “It was good to see that she is within a couple of points from the top level girls in the state.”

Brenneman also won a match by forfeit to finish 1-2. 

Mia Garvey faced the state tournament second and fourth place finishers at 152 pounds in her bracket, and lost tight 3-0 and 5-2 decisions. 

Vinton Shellsburg’s Bailey Weeks finished eighth at 145 last year and had a 7-0 lead over Garvey heading into the third period of their second round match. Garvey started the final period on top and turned her opponent about halfway through the period, finally earning the victory by pin with seven seconds remaining. 

“Overall, this was a good chance to learn about ourselves and test us in positions we aren’t as comfortable in,” Walther said. 

“This should help us refocus for the home stretch this last two-plus weeks before state.”