Junior High girls' wrestling meet
Central's Noel Steenhard went 1-1 for the day, including a major decision over a Waverly-Shellrock opponent.
Olivia Stevenson won her first match by fall.
November 19 saw Central host one of the first, if not the first, junior high girls’ wrestling meets in the state. A total of eight girls are out for junior high wrestling at Central. Besides Central, teams from Postville, Fennimore, Waverly-Shellrock Waukon, East Buchanan and MFL-Mar-Mac participated. The Central girls’ finished with these results:
Reese Berns went 2-1. She lost by major decision to Destiny Krum, East Buchanan, 16-8; won by decision against Kalysta Kerner, Waukon 6-4, and won by decision over Ayda Cook, East Buchanan, 8-5.
Alyssa Schmitt went 1-1, winning by fall over Ayda Cook, East Buchanan, in 0:47 seconds but later losing by major decision to Destiny Krum, East Buchanan, 17-7.
Kimberly Suhr went 0-3. She lost by fall to Olivia Marti, Waukon, in 1:30; lost by fall to Kysa Klein, Waverly Shellrock, in 1:59; and lost by fall to Emily Hendrickson-Troester, MFL, in 1:16.
Alexis Thiese went 0-3, losing by fall to Jayda Bushaw, Waukon, in 1:38; losing by fall to Addie Ashley-Juhl, Waverly Shellrock, in 0:43; and losing by fall to MacKenzie Bachman, MFL, in 0:23.
Noel Steenhard went 1-1. She won by major decision over Alexis Johnson, Waverly Shellrock, 13-3, and later lost by fall to Paige Jaster, South Winn, in 0:50.
Olivia Stevenson went 2-1, winning by fall over Megan Beisner, MFL, in 2:14; lost by fall to Arieanna McCullough, Waverly Shellrock, in 2:59; and won by fall over Alexis Johnson, Waverly Shellrock, in 1:18.
Coach Joe Koehn was excited about the meet. “I just started talking to a couple of the girls in the youth and got them to sign up for Girls AAU State last year,” he said. “There isn't much reporting on junior high girls wrestling because they are trying to build it up in the high schools, but I wanted to try and get a head start and build it up even younger. This is the first all-girls junior high meet that I've seen and I've done a bit of research, so I'm pretty positive that this is the first junior high girls meet in the state.”
“I do plan to try and keep this program going,” Coach Koehn continued. “I have four girls in the high school and eight in junior high, which are awesome numbers for a school our size. These girls are showing a tremendous amount of courage and fight to come out and try something new, and excel like they are. The majority of these girls have never wrestled before so coming out here and having this much success is very exciting!”
