Baxter’s Johnelle Gliem punches ticket to girls state wrestling tournament

DES MOINES — Baxter freshman Johnelle Gliem came into the Region 4 girls’ wrestling tournament as the third-worst seed with a losing record.

She left the Iowa Events Center on Friday as a state tournament qualifier.

The Bolts brought three wrestlers to the regional tournament and Gliem represents the program’s first official state qualifier. She won her first two matches of the day and needed four wins to advance to state, but she will be a part of the 110-pound bracket this week at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“That’s amazing. That kid deserves to make the podium so much,” Baxter head girls wrestling coach Randi Gliem said. “She’s put so much hard work in this season. She has dropped 20 pounds on her own to get where she is.”

Gliem’s day included a 4-1 record with three pins. Her lone loss came to the eventual regional champion.

Zoey Gliem wrestled at 120 and was 1-2 for the day, while Hope Good finished 0-2 at 190. One of Zoey Gliem’s losses came against third-ranked Leah Chandler of Chariton.

Chandler (21-3) won the regional title, won all four of her matches by pin and spent less than 3 minutes on the mat.

Both of Good’s losses came by fall, but one of her defeats came against a grappler who qualified for state.

“Super proud of both of them,” Coach Gliem said. “They both wrestled well but made a couple of mistakes that cost them. We can learn from this. I think they were nervous, too.”

Johnelle Gliem advanced to state with a 10-11 record. Her first two wins were against opponents with winning records and she also defeated a grappler with a .500 mark.

Both Coach Gliem and Johnelle Gliem knew how important it was for the young grappler to win her first two matches.

“I had a better chance at that point,” Johnelle Gliem said. “I was nervous because I wasn’t sure I would have enough energy to win that match. But thank goodness I did.

“I definitely did a lot better than I expected especially because this is my first year of high school wrestling.”

Coach Gliem, Johnelle’s mother, thought her daughter could have made it to state even without winning her first two matches but the two early wins no doubt helped with confidence and put Johnelle Gliem in a favorable position to advance.

“That was huge. I think she could have made it anyway, but that gave her confidence,” Coach Gliem said. “On paper, she shouldn’t have ended up where she did, but that kid has such a strong work ethic.”

Baxter scored 27 points and finished 19th in the 25-team field. Southeast Polk won the tournament with 216 points. The rest of the top five included Ames (184), Perry (176), Raccoon River-Northwest (172.5) and Nevada (139).

Four of those programs entered 13 wrestlers and Perry had nine grapplers in the field.

Johnelle Gliem will be the No. 30 seed out of 32 for this week’s first-ever Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union sanctioned wrestling tournament. She’ll open with third-seeded Adyson Lundquist (30-1) of S.W.A.T.

The girls’ state wrestling tournament begins at 9 a.m. on Thursday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.