Cerna’s pin pushes Newton girls past rival Pella

When Johana Cerna walked to the mat against Pella on Thursday, the foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic didn’t necessarily know she needed as many bonus points as possible to give the Newton girls wrestling team the victory over the Lady Dutch.

But Newton head girls wrestling coach Chad Garvis figured if Cerna won her match it would be by pin since that’s how she’s won all of her matches so far this season.

“All of her wins have been by pin so I figured if she won it would be by pin,” Garvis said. “She has that judo background and loves to throw. She’s tough. I was confident she would win.”

Cerna faced Pella’s Khloe Camden during the Cardinal Invitational a few days prior to Thursday and pinned her in 33 seconds.

She needed a few more ticks the second time around, but her 42-second pin over Camden propelled the Cardinals to a 41-39 home win on Senior Night.

The dual was truly back and forth as the two teams split their 10 contested matches and each squad accepted two forfeits.

Newton and Pella also had four pins each. The difference came with the fifth win as the Cardinals got a technical fall from Class 2A No. 4 Kylee Adams (5-0) at 110 pounds and Jeralys Casanova kept Pella’s Kenadi Montgomery from earning bonus points at 130.

“We have a bunch of new girls. We are trying to get them to be tough and physical, but I’m super excited for this team,” Garvis said. “We’re going to get good pretty quick. I truly believe that. We can be good this year, but we have a lot of young girls who will help us in the future, too.”

Casanova was one of six seniors recognized before the dual. That group also included Stella Cupples, Ella Machin, Kylee Ashley, Alexis Kephart and manager Jana Sevenbergen.

Pella (1-3, 0-1 in the conference) won the first two matches of the dual at 145 and 155.

Machin made her season debut and put the Cardinals on the board with a 40-second pin at 170. That started a string of three straight for the hosts as Class 2A No. 7 Ashlyn Van Manen (6-1) and Isabel Talley (6-3) each accepted forfeits at 190 and 235, respectively, to put the Cardinals (2-0, 2-0) in front 18-12.

“While I was pinning her, I was just thinking ‘thank you Jesus,’” Machin said. “I was just grateful I was able to win in front of my home crowd. I have never had a home match with a sanctioned team. It was always a forfeit or someone didn’t make weight or something. It was so fun and to hear the crowd cheer was awesome. I think I got 20 hugs from my teammates afterwards, too.”

Pella’s two forfeit wins came at 100 and 105 as the Lady Dutch regained the lead at 24-18.

Adams’ 22-6 technical fall victory at 110 closed Newton’s gap to 24-23, but Pella extended the margin to 30-23 with a pin at 115.

The next two matches went to Newton and back-to-back pins from Julianna Maldonado-Hidalgo (7-3) and Alivia Conley at 120 and 125, respectively, pushed the Cardinals in front 35-30.

Conley pinned former Newton Cardinal Bri Shannon a few days after Shannon defeated her, 11-1, at the Cardinal Classic last weekend.

“My mindset changed for sure. I went into Saturday’s match pretty nervous,” said Conley, who’s in her first season of wrestling. “I didn’t let my nerves overcome me this time, and I knew what I was here for.

“That one felt good. I knew she used to go here, and I know she’s a good athlete.”

Montgomery’s 16-9 win over Casanova at 130 came after Conley’s pin and Pella got another win by fall at 135 to go in front 39-35.

That set up Cerna (7-2) to be the hero. And she had no trouble delivering the victory for her squad.

“She’s a team captain, she shows up every day and the fact that she’s still learning the sport and doing what she’s doing is impressive,” said Machin about Cerna. “She’s so humble. She’s just happy to be here, is so much fun and brings so much to this team.

“And for Monday’s practice we are giving her the aux cord and letting her play music from the country she’s from. We’re excited for that.”

Cerna is new to wrestling but practiced judo from first grade until eighth grade in the Czech Republic. The two sports do have some similarities, which makes Cerna strong with throws and headlocks.

“You can choke someone in judo so I can’t do that here,” Cerna said. “I really like wrestling, and the girls are really nice. I love them.”

Notes: There were six rematches from Saturday’s tournament and the only one that netted a different result was Conley’s victory over Shannon. “The big match that made a difference was Alivia Conley beating Shannon,” Garvis said. “That was huge for us.” … The Cardinals were without Kamiya Lepley, who is the starter at 155. Lepley missed the meet due to an illness. … Machin was making her season debut because she missed weight for the season opener and couldn’t attend the two most recent events because of her brother’s wedding. “When you get it taken away from you, you realize how much of a blessing it is,” Machin said. “And when you don’t make weight, are injured or can’t wrestle it’s tough. But being back on the mat took away some of the anxiety. You realize wrestling is just wrestling.” … Cerna is enjoying her time in America as a foreign exchange student. There’s only one thing she’s having trouble adjusting to. “It’s really fun here and the people are nice, but the food is really bad,” Cerna said. “When I came here, I was five pounds lighter. I’m doing practice every day right now, and I’m eating healthy but I’m still over my weight. Even the vegetables aren’t really healthy.”