C-M’s Webster, Cook return to girls state wrestling tournament

COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo senior Emma Cook thought the Instagram post had a mistake. When she scrolled through the popular social media application after school last week, she saw her name listed No. 1 in Class 1A at 235 pounds.

“I was very surprised,” Cook said. “I just came home from school and was on Instagram. It popped up, and I thought it was wrong. I thought someone messed up. So I went and looked at the rankings, then I called my mom to see if she’d seen it.”

Cook wrestled liked the No. 1 ranked grappler in her weight class during the Class 1A Region 2 tournament on Friday.

Cook spent a whole 42 seconds on the mat during her run to the regional championship and will be joined at this week’s state tournament by 1A No. 5 Lily Webster, who also didn’t have much trouble in her bracket at 100 pounds.

Both Tigerhawks clinched their third state tournament berth and will wrestle in their fourth state meet overall. The duo combined to go 4-0 with four pins.

“This will be the fourth state tournament those two will participate in,” Colfax-Mingo head girls wrestling coach Erin Hume said. “And the goal as seniors is to go get a medal. They will work really hard Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and they deserve everything they get. They’re great kids.”

The season ended for the rest of the Tigerhawks and for a Baxter trio who competed at regionals.

Colfax-Mingo’s 12 wrestlers scored 102 points and finished sixth in the 19-team field. It was an up and down day, according to Hume.

“It was a great season,” Hume said. “We had a lot of great things go our way throughout the year. Some things today just didn’t. As a coach, that’s probably my fault. Maybe I didn’t have them ready enough. We competed well but some matches didn’t go our way.”

The top two finishers in each weight at each regional from around the state qualified for the 1A and 2A state tournament, which takes place at Xtream Arena starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday in Coralville. The 1A portion of the state meet kicks off at 4:30 p.m.

Colfax-Mingo’s Devan Chadwick and Baxter’s Malayla Hurd took third at their weights, while PCM freshman Hadley Millang won three matches for the Tigerhawk squad.

Baxter sisters Zoey Gliem and Johnelle Gliem both were 2-2 at 140 and 145, respectively.

Hurd (8-15) finished third at 235 after going 2-2 with two pins. She lost her first match of the day to Saydel’s Rylie Scott (8-20) but defeated Scott later in the third-place match and was rewarded with a wrestle back.

Hurd lost that state-qualifying bout though to Iowa Falls-Alden’s Rylee Robison (14-16).

“That was a shock. I have not seen her ever wrestle that well,” Baxter head girls wrestling coach Randi Gliem said about Hurd. “Something clicked today. We’ll get right to work, get after it all summer and start to improve before next season.

“I’m very proud of how the other two wrestled. They just came up short. It happens.”

Class 1A No. 5 Vinton-Shellsburg won the regional championship with 207 points. The rest of the top five included Woodward-Granger (161), Perry (139.5), Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center (138.5) and West Marshall (106).

Iowa Valley (88.5), Ogden (82), Grinnell (78.5) and Saydel (74.5) finished behind Colfax-Mingo to complete the top 10. Baxter was 16th with 28.5 points.

Cook (41-4) opened with a 22-second pin over Scott and then pinned Robison in the finals in 20 seconds.

“I just wanted to get out there and get it done,” Cook said.

Webster (41-4) joined Cook as the No. 1 seed in her bracket. She was 2-0 with two pins. Only one of those matches reached the second period.

An illness during last year’s state tournament limited her ability to make a deep run. Webster hopes for a big redemption story this time around.

“It feels pretty good. I hope it goes better than last year. I’m ready for a big comeback.”

Chadwick (43-10) dropped down to 105 to give herself a better chance at a state berth in her final season. But despite being the No. 2 seed in her bracket, Chadwick finished third after a 3-1 day. She won twice by fall but dropped a tough 18-15 decision to Ogden’s Sydney King.

“They wrestled really well,” Hume said about Chadwick and Millang. “Take away one match each, and they both had really good days.

“(Chadwick) is going to be missed. She’s a leader in the room and doesn’t miss practices. You just know she’ll work hard every day.”

The next two best finishers for C-M were PCM’s Jozlyn Wells and Millang. Wells (21-11) was 2-2 with two pins at 130 and Millang (41-16) finished 3-2 with one pin and two technical falls at 145.

PCM’s Emma Beyer and Allison Minteer both went 1-2 for the Tigerhawks, while Karmylia Snyder (125), Brianna Freerksen (130) and Lily Brenner (140) and PCM’s Addy Covington (120) and Samantha Wheeler (170) all finished 0-2 at their weights.

Minteer (18-14) was 1-2 with one pin at 110 and Beyer was 1-2 with one pin at 155. One of Minteer’s losses came against No. 7 and eventual regional champion Hannah Brandhorst of Woodward-Granger. Beyer lost to No. 4 Tara Hollingsworth of BCLUW, too.

“Hadley’s a freshman you’re glad you have on your team, and we’re glad we have three more chances with,” Hume said. “Hopefully the young girls can see the great season she had and we can build off this, and the eighth-graders will come out and give the sport a shot.”

Zoey Gliem (16-14) was 2-2 with one pin and one technical fall for the Bolts, while Johnelle Gliem (21-13) was 2-2 with two pins.

Coach Gliem said the Bolts had trouble with something they don’t teach in practice.

“We don’t teach headlocks,” Coach Gliem said. “So therefore we don’t know how to get out of them either. Seeing what other coach’s teach, we have no choice but to address that. I’m not a fan of headlocks. We got out of a couple of them but also got caught in a couple, too.”

Both Webster and Cook will be the No. 3 seed in their state brackets at 100 and 235.

Webster was 35-8 last season but went 1-2 at state after coming down with an illness. She was 34-10 as a sophomore after going 3-2 at state.

Webster placed eighth and finished 13-9 after a 3-3 weekend at the non-sanctioned state tournament her freshmen season.

Her first-round opponent is 14th-seeded Semiya Gill (25-10) of Maquoketa Valley. The second opponent will be either No. 6 ranked and sixth-seeded Mara Davis (37-9) of Algona or 11th-seeded Penelope Wearmouth (21-12) of Martensdale-St. Marys.

Webster could face fourth-ranked and second-seeded Kenadee Helscher (32-0) of Wapello in the semifinals.

“I definitely pushed myself to get back and place higher at state than last year,” Webster said. “I think top three would be really cool. I really want to make finals. I need to get my mind in the right state.”

Cook, who was recognized for her 100th career victory at regionals, was 14-3 as a freshman and went 1-2 at 220 in the non-sanctioned state tournament as a freshman.

She placed fourth after a 38-7 sophomore season and totaled a 6-2 record at state.

Cook returned just before regionals last season after sustaining a knee injury and only got 13 matches in total. She was 2-2 at the state tournament.

Her first-round opponent will be 14th-seeded Rylee Frye (22-21) of Pekin. Either ninth-ranked and sixth-seeded Brooklyn Robinson (39-6) of Humboldt or 11th-seeded Ava Trende (29-10) of New Hampton/Turkey Valley will be her second opponent.

Fourth-ranked and second-seeded Jocelyn Buffum (36-6) of Missouri Valley could be her semifinal opponent.

Cook’s No. 1 ranking doesn’t change how she will approach her final state tournament.

“My goal is to win it anyway. Things don’t change,” Cook said. “You have to go in and not be nervous and wrestle like it’s just any other tournament. Don’t think too hard about what it is.”

Tigerhawks win third straight SICL title

SIGOURNEY — Webster won her third straight conference title, five Tigerhawks won their brackets and Colfax-Mingo claimed its third consecutive South Iowa Cedar League championship on Jan. 27.

Colfax-Mingo edged BGM by single digits in each of the past two seasons but was the clear-cut winner this time around.

Backed by five champions and four runner-up finishes, the Tigerhawks scored 173 points at the top. BGM and North Mahaska tied for second with 100 points and the rest of the top five included host Sigourney/Keota (84.5) and Iowa Valley (83).

English Valleys (50) and Tri-County (27) completed the seven-team field. The Tigerhawks entered 15 wrestlers and no other team had more than eight.

Webster led five Tigerhawks as individual champions. She was 2-0 with two first-period pins against two opponents with winning records at 100 pounds. It was her third straight SICL title.

Minteer won her first SICL crown as she was 4-0 with four first-period pins at 105. She spent less than 3 minutes on the mat.

Chadwick secured her second conference title when she was 3-0 with three pins at 110. She was third last year and first as a sophomore.

The other champions were Cook, Millang and Alauna Wells.

Cook was 2-0 with two first-period pins against her younger sister Emily, while Millang was 3-0 with three pins at 145 and Wells finished 1-1 with one pin at 155.

It was the first conference titles for Millang and Wells. Emma Cook was second last year and first as a sophomore.

Jozlyn Wells, Brenner and Kinley Johannes all placed second at their weights.

Jozlyn Wells was 3-1 with three first-period pins at 135, Brenner finished 3-1 with three pins at 140 and Johannes was 0-2 at 190.

Freerksen and Beyer both were third at their weights, while Lily Anderson and Brooklynn Audas placed fourth and Covington took fifth.

Freerksen (130) and Beyer (170) were 0-2, Anderson was 1-3 with one pin at 135, Covington ended up 1-4 with one pin 125 and Audas was 0-3 at 145.

Colfax-Mingo edged BGM 120-119 at the top of last year’s SICL standings, and the Tigerhawks were nine points better two seasons ago.