Cook, Chadwick lead C-M girls to fourth at home tournament

COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo’s Emma Cook placed fourth in the state two seasons ago. But she just might be performing even better on the mat this season for the Tigerhawks.

Cook looked every bit the part of the third-ranked wrestler in Class 1A at 235 pounds at the Tigerhawks’ home tournament on Saturday.

She improved to 37-4 on the season following three first-period pins and a first-place finish at her weight.

It was just one of the many highlights for Colfax-Mingo from its home tournament as the Tigerhawks placed fourth in the 21-team field.

“I think today went great,” Colfax-Mingo head girls wrestling coach Erin Hume said. “I don’t think we wrestled to our potential on Tuesday or Thursday so it was really refreshing to see six in the top six, four in the finals and fourth as a team. I’m very happy and proud of the way they wrestled today. I will take it.”

Devan Chadwick joined Cook at the top of the podium and Lily Webster and Hadley Millang both finished second as the Tigerhawks scored 128 points with their nine wrestlers.

Newton entered nine wrestlers, too, and the Cardinals placed ninth with 83 points. They were headlined by Class 2A No. 5 Kylee Adams, who was the runner-up at 105 pounds.

“It’s been a rough month,” Newton head girls wrestling coach Chad Garvis said. “We’ve got a lot of injuries and some girls have been sick. It’s been a little bit of everything. We wrestled well. I think we’ve gotten better as the season has moved along, but everyone else gets better, too.”

The 21-team field featured 2A No. 1 Raccoon River-Northwest, whose lineup features 10 ranked wrestlers. The tournament included 26 ranked individuals and a few more who did not participate.

Raccoon River-NW won the tournament title with 305.5 points. It crowned six champions and placed 11 of its 13 wrestlers in the top three.

Ames (156), Pella (139), Colfax-Mingo (128) and Iowa Valley (98) completed the top five. The next group featured the Ankeny junior varsity (96), Boone (90), West Des Moines Valley (87), Newton (83) and Saydel (80).

Colfax-Mingo was the only other team to crown multiple champions, but Ames placed three in the top three.

Ankeny’s varsity, which was not in the tournament, is the second ranked team in 2A with 10 ranked individual wrestlers.

Cook was about as dominant as a wrestler can be during her three matches at 235. She was 3-0 with three first-period pins.

Her only four losses this season came against 2A No. 1 Ella Brown of Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 2A No. 2 Mackenzie Arends of Nevada and 1A No. 10 Ella Ray of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.

Cook did not get the chance to wrestle Raccoon River-Northwest’s Reese Baxter on Saturday. Baxter is ranked fifth in 2A but was not entered in the tournament.

Class 1A No. 3 Cook missed most of last season with an injury but won her home tournament as a sophomore, too.

“I was hoping to wrestle her, but there’s not much I can do about it,” Cook said about Baxter. “It feels good to win the home tournament. I’ve put in a lot of work in the room and shown up for practices. I was just patient today. I need to perfect the little things. If I can make the little things work, I should be good.”

Chadwick (37-9) was 3-0 with two pins at 110. She advanced to the finals after 2A No. 12 Avery Buhr of West Des Moines Valley left the tournament early due to an illness.

Chadwick won her eighth straight match when she pinned Pella’s Jenna VanWyk in the finals. VanWyk advanced to the finals after beating No. 2 seed Quincy Cooper of Raccoon River-NW in the semifinals.

“I have wrestled her before. I won in overtime last time. That was a tough match. She’s so strong,” Chadwick said about VanWyk. “I was ready. I really wanted to win my home tournament. There are some good teams and wrestlers here. I felt the nerves at first but whatever I do, and whatever my mindset is, that’s how I will wrestle.”

It was Chadwick’s first tournament victory since she won the conference tournament her sophomore season.

“I’ve been so confident this year,” Chadwick said. “My coaches have helped me in every situation I’m in, too. I’m always asking questions and they’ve helped me with my confidence. I’m ready for conference and regionals. I’m excited.”

Class 1A No. 5 Webster (37-4) finished second at 100 after going 2-1 with two pins. Her lone loss came against 2A No. 3 Cassidy McCallister of Raccoon River-NW in the finals.

Millang (35-14) also finished second at 145. She was 2-1 with one pin and her only loss came in the finals against Raccoon River-NW’s Bella Bruins.

The next best finishers for C-M were Lily Brenner and Emma Beyer, who both were sixth in their brackets.

Brenner (13-10) was 1-3 at 140 and one of her losses came against 2A No. 4 Naomi Templeman of Raccoon River-NW.

Beyer (16-16) was 2-3 at 155. She lost two close matches, falling 7-6 in TB-1 to Saydel’s Justus Buelow in the quarterfinals and losing 2-0 to Sigourney/Keota’s Karley Greiner in the fifth-place match.

The other three Tigerhawks in the field were Brianna Freerksen, Karoxia Snyder and Samantha Wheeler.

Emmalyn Buchman was not available at 190, but Hume hopes have to her back for the postseason.

Freerksen (24-19) was 2-2 with two pins at 130, while Wheeler (11-8) won a match at 170.

Newton’s Adams, who is ranked fifth in 2A at 105, led the Cardinals with a runner-up finish. She was 1-1 with a 4-3 win over 2A No. 11 Poppy Malone of Boone.

Adams (22-4) lost in the finals to 2A No. 1 Katie Biscoglia of Raccoon River-NW. Biscoglia won the 100-pound state title last season.

Stella Cupples finished fourth at 110 after a 3-2 day. She posted three wins by pin and lost twice to ranked foes.

Cupples (28-10) fell to 1A No. 1 Reanah Utterback of Sigourney/Keota in the semifinals and then lost to 2A No. 4 Natalie Keller of Raccoon River-NW in the third-place match.

Utterback (46-0) was named Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament after winning all four of her matches by fall and spending a little more than 4 minutes on the mat.

Kamiya Lepley (19-15) was fourth at 145 for the Cardinals. She was 2-2, including a 7-6 loss to Millang in the semifinals.

Julianna Maldonado-Hidalgo (15-12) finished fifth at 120 after a 3-2 day. She registered three first-period pins.

Class 2A No. 10 Ashlyn Van Manen (23-11) was injured with the lead in the semifinals and did not wrestle again. She was sixth at 190 after going 1-3 with one pin. Two of those losses were by medical forfeit though.

Garvis is not sure about the extent of Van Manen’s injury but expects Ella Machin to not return this season because of an injury.

The Cardinals also did not have Grace Guy at 170 or Johana Cerna at 135. Guy was unavailable due to an illness and Cerna is working her way back from an injury.

The rest of Newton’s Saturday lineup featured Rosa Borja at 110, Alivia Conley at 125, Naomi Cervantes at 140 and Heather Hanson at 155. All four wrestlers were 0-2 but Conley medically forfeited twice.

“I think our girls are looking better right now than they have all year, which is what you want,” Garvis said. “Wins or losses aren’t what matters for some of our younger girls. They just need to keep getting better.”

Tigerhawks win twice on Senior Night

COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo overcame another slow start with a pair of wins during a home quadrangular on Tuesday.

The Tigerhawks fell in their opening dual to Albia but rebounded with dual wins over Ogden and Martensdale-St. Marys on Senior Night.

“That’s usually how our dual nights go,” Hume said. “We start slow, get frustrated with how we wrestled and then show up in the final two duals. That’s what happened tonight.

“You can say we are missing one wrestler at 135, and we were, but we just got beat in positions we shouldn’t have gotten beat in. We just got beat. Credit to Albia. They are a well coached team. We won the positions we normally do in the final two duals.”

The Tigerhawks defeated Ogden 72-6 after losing 45-30 to Albia. They finished the night with a 57-18 win over Martensdale-St. Marys.

Colfax-Mingo was 6-0 in contested matches against Ogden. Webster, Allison Minteer (105), Chadwick, Beyer, Wheeler and Buchman all won by fall. Snyder, Lily Anderson (135), Brenner, Millang and Cook all won by forfeit.

Chadwick and Beyer both won by fall and Webster scored a 4-0 win against Martensdale-St. Marys as Colfax-Mingo was 3-2 in contested matches.

Minteer, Freerksen, Anderson, Brenner, Millang, Buchman and Cook all accepted forfeits.

Brenner had the only contested win against Albia. Webster, Wheeler, Buchman and Cook all accepted forfeits.

Webster was 3-0 for the day to lead C-M, while Cook was 3-0 with three forfeits and Brenner and Buchman were 3-0 with two forfeits.

Minteer, Chadwick and Wheeler all finished 2-1, Beyer was 2-1 with two pins and Freerksen, Anderson and Millang were 2-1 with two forfeits.

Chadwick’s loss was 9-2 against Albia.

“I got in my head a little bit. I always get nervous for the home meets,” Chadwick said. “It was my first match. After that match, I did my best to forget about it and move on.

“The first girl I wrestled was who placed third at regionals when I got fourth my sophomore year. I have to take everything and put it all out on that mat. I can’t hold back at this point.”

The Tigerhawks recognized Cook, Chadwick, Webster and Karmylia Snyder for Senior Night.

“Those girls are great,” Hume said. “They are great leaders on and off the mat. If you listened to the advice they’d give to teammates, be involved, do the right things, be at practice. They lead by example. I’m going to miss them, I love them and I hope they know what they mean to Colfax-Mingo girls wrestling.”

The foursome and the coaches wore special T-shirts ordered on amazon.com by Hume throughout the night.

“They called us into the coach’s office after school, and we thought we were in trouble,” Chadwick said. “They were surprising us with the shirts.”

Notes: Webster decided to wrestle despite battling through an injury. “Lily Webster is battling a little injury and could have easily just said I’m not wrestling until it matters,” Hume said. “And everyone would have understood. She wanted to wrestle. She wasn’t 100 percent at state last year, and you never know when you have to just battle through something. That slowed her down in that last match some, but she chose to push through it.”

Colfax-Mingo downs pair of opponents at road quadrangular

STATE CENTER — The Tigerhawks struggled in contested matches but a plethora of forfeits helped them score two more dual wins on Thursday.

Colfax-Mingo defeated BCLUW-South Hardin 48-29 and downed Pleasantville 42-23 but finished a combined 2-7 in contested matches. The Tigerhawks lost to host West Marshall, 53-24, after going 2-8 in contested matches.

Cook was 3-0 with three forfeits at 235, Webster was 3-0 with two forfeits and one 30-second pin at 100 and Chadwick finished 3-0 with two pins at 110.

Freerksen also went 2-1 at 130 and Jozlyn Wells was 2-1 with two forfeits at 135. Wells was not available for the home dual on Tuesday due to Illness.

Chadwick and Freerksen scored first-period pins in the win over BCLUW-SH and the two contested wins against West Marshall came by fall from Webster and Chadwick.

Buchman was injured in her match against 1A No. 5 Elizabeth Kalinay of West Marshall. Brenner and Beyer also lost to state-ranked wrestlers in the dual against the Trojans.