Two Tigerhawks clinch spots in girls wrestling tournament

DES MOINES — Emma Cook missed most of the season with an injury, Lily Webster’s arm was in a sling about 10 days ago and Devan Chadwick missed about a month with another injury.

Emmalyn Buchman also sustained an injury late in the season.

On top of that, the Colfax-Mingo girls’ wrestling team lost a pair of starters to transfer with about two weeks left in the season.

It’s been kind of a roller coaster year for the Tigerhawks, but their season was extended on Friday after both Cook and Webster clinched return trips to the state tournament.

“I’m grateful we were able to get to this point in the season,” C-M head girls’ wrestling coach Erin Hume said. “It’s been an up-and-down year. The weather hasn’t cooperated and we had some kids deal with injuries.

“It is only two wrestlers making it through, and we wanted more, but some teams wish they could even get two. I’m happy we got two girls through and they did what they needed to do.”

Both Webster and Cook were joined in the semifinals by the squad’s lone senior in Arlo Steck. Four Tigerhawks finished in the top six in all, but only the top four in each weight class at each regional advanced to this week’s state meet in Coralville.

For Colfax-Mingo, that will be Cook and Webster, who were second and third, respectively in their weights.

Cook, who finished fourth at 235 pounds last season, was 2-1 at that weight on Friday. She won her first two matches by pin in the first period before losing in the finals to a familiar opponent in sixth-ranked Reese Baxter (30-2) of Raccoon River Northwest.

“I have been working for this since I had surgery,” Cook said. “It feels good to get back there. I’m about where I expected to be after coming back, but I still have a ways to go.”

Webster (34-6) had one of the tougher brackets in Region 4. The 100-pound weight class featured top-ranked and defending state champion Katie Biscoglia (45-0) of Raccoon River Northwest and fifth-ranked Siera Becker (27-2) of Indianola.

Webster ended up third after going 3-1 with three pins. Two of those wins came against West Des Moines Valley’s McKenzie Brennecke, who Webster (34-6) pinned in the first period in both the quarterfinals and the third-place match.

The Tigerhawk junior lost in the semifinals to Becker, who then was pinned by Biscoglia in the finals.

“I’m really excited to be going back and to see all the hard work I put in pay off,” Webster said. “I worked on my top position and that definitely helped me out today. There’s still some work to do with my shots.”

The next best finisher was Steck, who finished fifth at 125. Steck finished 3-2 with two pins and a medical forfeit.

One loss came in the semifinals and then Steck (25-9) fell 6-5 in a consolation match. The medical forfeit came in the fifth-place match, but the Tigerhawk senior was not awarded a wrestle back.

Chadwick (19-16) finished sixth at 115 after going 3-3 with three pins. Her losses were 3-2 and 5-0.

Kaydence Andersen did not place in the top six but was 2-2 with two wins by decision at 190 and Cadence Linn and Buchman (22-9) both earned a win apiece at 130 and 170, respectively.

The other two Tigerhawks who competed were Brianna Freerksen and Lillie Jones, who both were 0-2 at 135 and 145, respectively.

“All of the girls wrestled really well today,” Hume said. “It just happened to be that Lily and Emma are the two who advanced.

“(Andersen) wrestled really well and helped us placed 10th. It was a good day. I’m happy.”

The nine Colfax-Mingo wrestlers scored 91 points, and the Tigerhawks finished 10th in the 25-team field. Region 4 was one of the tougher regionals in the state with Raccoon River Northwest and Southeast Polk, who finished first and second, respectively, with 269 and 251 points.

The rest of the top five included West Marshall (188.5), West Des Moines Valley (161), Anamosa (112) and Des Moines Public Schools (112).

Completing the top 10 were Mid-Prairie (110), Gilbert (100) and Indianola (92).

“I haven’t looked at the other regionals,” Hume said. “We had to show it up no matter where we went.

“For the most part, we wrestled well, wrestled hard and I’m happy with how we competed up and down our lineup.”

The second Iowa Girls High School State Wrestling Championships begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

Cook (5-4) will be the No. 6 seed in the 235-pound bracket. She will face 27th-seeded Amelia Sirola (13-13) of Okoboji/HMS in the opening round.

Webster is the 14th seed at 100. She opens the tournament with 19th-seeded Lauren Watson (36-8) of Ankeny. Watson defeated Webster 5-4 in the first tournament of the season back on November 18.

“The goal is to place like freshmen year and not get beat out in the blood round like last year,” Webster said.

Notes: It was unknown from the start of the season when and if Cook was going to be released to wrestle this winter. “From the doctor’s standpoint, I wasn’t supposed to be cleared,” Cook said. “We were able to move up some appointments and push it a long to be able to get back out there before the season ended.” … Webster said the arm injury she sustained late in the season still bothers her. “It hurt a little bit in the Becker match,” Webster said. “We’ll baby it this next week. It will hurt no matter what though.”