The Highland and Mid-Prairie wrestling teams took the trek down to Colfax last Saturday to compete in the Colfax-Mingo Girls Tournament. 

As the regular season comes to a close, this tournament proved to be a great opportunity for wrestlers to gain momentum and confidence before districts, which are just around the corner. When the tournament was all said and done, both schools were able to finish with wrestlers on the podium.

Highland Results 

The Huskies finished at the 15 spot out of 22 teams with 32 team points. Angelina Roling at 115lbs finished third and Lily Barre at 120 lbs finished at fifth for Highland. 

Barre began the tournament with a win by fall over Nevada’s Katie Spalding in just 30 seconds. In the quarterfinal round she engaged in a tough battle against West Fork, Sheffield’s Preslee Dickman and in a close match Barre lost by decision, 9-8.

Not letting the loss discourage her, Barre was able to pick up another win in the tournament with her second victory by fall, this time at 1:29 against Osage’s Kara Theis. After winning her next match, by fall again in 59 seconds, Barre was able to participate in the fifth place match.

In the fifth place match Barre emerged victorious by pinning her opponent, Colfax-Mingo’s Amelia Strickland, in 1:23. Overall she earned 15 team points for Highland. 

“I thought we wrestled well, you know this is a tough tournament,” Highland coach Dylan Stewart said after the tournament. “Lily got in a tough match in the quarters, but really battled back on the back side of the bracket, which is good to see. Overall really impressed with how we wrestled today, we grew a lot. We got to learn how to stay alive in these tournaments and stay alive on the backside.”  

Roling received a bye for her first round match. In the quarterfinal round she was matched up against Colfax-Mingo’s Devan Chadwick. The match was settled in 4:34 when Roling was able to secure a win by fall over Chadwick. 

The semifinal round saw Roling being defeated by fall in 59 seconds against Osage’s Maddie Swenson. Still having eyes on third place, Roling was able to win by decision, 5-2, in the third place match against Newton’s Stella Cupples. Overall she earned 15 team points for Highland. 

“We got [Roling] on the podium again. This is the second time in two weeks. So, she’s really catching momentum. She wrestled an awesome place match, was really in control and did a lot of good stuff up top, really sealed the deal for her. It’s exciting to see we’re starting to peak at the right time with districts around the corner,” Stewart said.

 Mid-Prairie Results 

The Golden Hawks took third place overall with 112.5 team points. Ellie Brenneman at 135lbs, Gabi Robertson at 100lbs, and Grace Conway at 140lbs all finished in second place for Mid-Prairie. There was also a third place finish for Mid-Prairie courtesy of Ashlee Farrier at 125lbs. 

“I think overall we had a really good day, especially in those early rounds, getting girls through on the front side to pick up points,” Mid-Prairie coach Dylan Walther said after the tournament. “There’s a lot of tough girls here. It was pretty top heavy if you look through the rankings. I think there was at least one girl ranked at every weight. A lot of tough competition so getting three girls to the finals is a pretty good accomplishment for the day.” 

Brenneman entered this tournament leading her team in wins this season, 29, and in the first round she continued to do just that, win. She captured her first victory of the tournament by fall in 1:38 over BGM, Brooklyn’s Taytin Chamberlin Then in the quarter final round she won by fall with an even faster time of 1:11 over Ballard’s Liberty Boettger. 

Excitement was in store for Brenneman’s semifinal match against Osage’s Annaliese Arciniega. The match ended in Brenneman’s favor via sudden victory. 

“Ellie Brenneman’s match was probably the match of the day; it was pretty wild,” Walther said about the semifinal match. “She’s down 6-2 with about 15 seconds left and I thought she was awarded three back points at the end but they only gave her two. So it went into overtime and I think she got a little but discouraged at that but she refocused. We’ve got a situation where I thought she was gonna get a take down there and it looked like we were going to give it up but then she did some funky bridge and flipped over to get her points on there. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before.”

After that wild win Brenneman advanced to the first place match. Not being able to escape the pining attempt of Valley, West Des Moines’ Cadence Bushong Brenneman was defeated by fall in 56 seconds in the title match. With her second place finish she earned 22 team points for Mid-Prairie. 

Robertson, a ranked wrestler, received a bye in the first round of the tournament. In her first actual match she won by fall in 2:35 over Raccoon River-Northwest’s Quincy Cooper. 

The semifinal match saw Roberston build up an early lead and not relinquish any points. This led to a win by decision, 6-0, over Colfax-Mingo’s Lily Webster. 

After those two wins she qualified for the first place match. Coming up short, Roberston was defeated by fall in 2:59 against Raccoon River-Northwest’s Katie Biscoglia. Overall she earned 20 team points for Mid-Prairie with her runner-up finish. 

“Gabby Robertson, we’re kind of looking at [the schedule] a couple weeks ago knowing that this was going to be a big day for her moving towards the state tournament,” Walther said. “She had a really good match against the Colfax-Mingo girl. A 6-0, almost an 8-0, win is a pretty great accomplishment for her.”

Winning three of her four matches of the tournament Conway won her first match via a quick pin of 29 seconds over Colfax-Mingo’s Lily Brenner. In the quarterfinal she won by fall again, this time in 1:24 over Raccoon River-Northwest’s Naomi Templeman.

Continuing to win by fall, Conway put her semifinal opponent, Ballard’s Caliegh Rhiner, in a headlock early and would not let go. Rhiner could only struggle and squirm to try to escape but it was evident she wasn’t going anywhere. The referee awarded Conway the pin at the 1:02 mark and she officially advanced to the first place match.

Almost lasting as long as her semifinal match, Conway was defeated by fall in 1:07 to BGM, Brooklyn’s Chloe Etten. With the loss she became the runner-up and  Conway earned a team high, 24 team points for Mid-Prairie. 

“Grace Conaway, she battled hard. She came into this as a six seed. Beat some girls with some pretty good records,” Walther said. “The girl she had in the semifinals was 15-3 and she pinned her, I think it was under a minute. So she is kind of coming into her own here at the right time of the year, kind of peaking right at the end.”