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Ames girls send five wrestlers to state. Ballard, Gilbert and Nevada each advance three.

joe randleman, ames tribune
·6 min read
Allison Metschke, seen her competing at the Northwest Girls Invite in Waukee Jan. 14, was one of five Ames girls to qualify for the girls state wrestling meet after placing third at 170 pounds during the Region 4 meet Friday at the Iowa Events Center in Des Monies.
Allison Metschke, seen her competing at the Northwest Girls Invite in Waukee Jan. 14, was one of five Ames girls to qualify for the girls state wrestling meet after placing third at 170 pounds during the Region 4 meet Friday at the Iowa Events Center in Des Monies.

A total of 14 individuals from the Ames Tribune area advanced to the girls state wrestling meet following the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union girls regional meets held Friday.

Ames advanced five wrestlers and Gilbert and Nevada three apiece from the IGHSAU Regional Qualifier 4 meet and Ballard moved three on from the Regional Qualifier 3 meet. Both regional meets were held at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.

The top four-place winners in each class moved on to state.

The five Ames wrestlers to advance from the Regional 4 meet were Greta Goodman at 100 pounds, Lexa Rozevink at 120, Alexis Winkey at 125, Leah Stagg at 145 and Allison Metschke at 170. Goodman took third with a 3-1 record, Rozevink third with a 4-1 mark, Winkey first with a 3-0 showing, Stagg third with a 3-1 record and Menschke third with a 5-1 mark.

Winkey, ranked ninth at 125, scored three falls during the Region 4 meet. She pinned Gilbert's Cecilia Bowers in 18 seconds during the quarterfinals, Southeast Polk's Aurora Brooks in 1:02 during the semifinals and Grinnell's Ali Woods in 33 seconds during the championship match to take a 25-5 record into state.

Metschke went to 21-6 on the season.

She pinned Urbandale's Jaela Wills in 18 seconds during the second round, lost by fall to Colfax-Mingo's Emmalyn Buchman in the quarterfinals and came back to pin Pella's Andie Branson in 38 seconds, Cardinal Community's Skyllar Welch in 32 seconds and Gilbert's Anna Steenhoek in 3:32 during the consolation rounds. In the third-place match Metschke downed Boone's Rori Cook in 4:28.

Rozevink improved her record to 29-3 with four pins.

She stuck West Des Moines Valley's Justus Buelow in 46 seconds during the second round and Perry's Isabella McDivitt in 1:30 during the quarterfinals, lost by fall to Chariton's Leah Chandler in the semifinals. Rozevink then came back to pin Urbandale's Sofiya Pollard in 18 seconds in the consolation semifinals and Southeast Polk's Addie Nelson in 1:55 during the third-place match.

Goodman went to 19-2 on the season.

Goodman pinned Perry's Hailey Peterson in 3:22 during the quarterfinals and lost by a 5-0 decision to Raccoon River-Northwest's in the semifinals. She bounced back to defeat Valley's McKenzie Brennecke by a 14-0 major decision in the consolation semis and top Carlisle's Riley Gach by a 9-5 decision in the third-place match.

Stagg pinned Carlisle's Elizabeth Peters in 2:55 in the quarterfinals and lost by fall to Perry's Lauren Rogers in the semifinals. She came back to pin Ogden's Lauren Mathews in 17 seconds during the consolation semifinals and Raccoon River Conference-Northwest's Addison Herrick in 1:32 in the third-place match to take a 24-5 record into state.

As a team Ames placed second out of 25 teams in Region 4 with 184 points. Southeast Polk won with 216 points.

Nevada placed fifth and Gilbert sixth in Region 4 with 139 and 137 points respectively.

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Mackenzie Arends, ranked fifth at 190, and Ashlyn Leslie (110) gave Nevada a pair of individual champions.

Arends was 3-0 with pins over Southeast Polk's Grace Ellsbery in 1:17, Pella's Elaine Babcock in 4:19 and Raccoon River-Northwest's Aleah Johnson in 2:57 to take a 33-2 record into state. Leslie will take a 32-9 record into state after pinning Pella's Isabella Smith in 1:23, Baxter's Johnelle Gliem in 21 seconds and Valley's Avery Buhr in 25 seconds.

Ashlyn's older sister and Gracie is also moving on to state after taking second at 130 to improve her season record to 39-12. Gracie pinned Martensdale St. Marys' Zoey Donehoo in 1:09, Urbandale's Magan Blades in 4:56 and Perry's Charity Mickles in 5:52 to reach the finals, where she fell to Saydel's Colbie Tenborg by fall in 5:54.

Alex Harswick, seen here competing at the Central Iowa Kickoff girls wrestling tournament in Nevada last November, was one of three Gilbert wrestlers to advance to the girls state wrestling tournament Friday at the Region 4 meet held at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.
Alex Harswick, seen here competing at the Central Iowa Kickoff girls wrestling tournament in Nevada last November, was one of three Gilbert wrestlers to advance to the girls state wrestling tournament Friday at the Region 4 meet held at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.

Alex Harswick (145), Cecilia Bowers (125) and Fern Neubauer (155) were the three Gilbert wrestlers to advance from Region 4.

Harswick placed second after pinning Valley's Danessa Valle in 1:42, edging Herrick by a 4-3 decision and losing by fall to Rogers as she'll take a 26-4 record into state. Bowers (20-13) placed third after pinning Panorama's Jacie Baker in 1:25, losing to Winkey then rebounding to edge Carlisle's Peighton Peacock, Nevada's Dakota Hastings and Perry's Ayden Erickson by respective 9-8, 3-2 and 7-4 decision then winning the third-place match over Raccoon River Northwest's Kealin Sutton by a 12-4 major decision.

Neubauer took third as well after going 4-1 during the tournament to take an 18-8 record into state. She pinned Ogden's Hannah Wells in 15 seconds and Cardinal Community's Ajaah Cox in 1:51, lost by fall to Southeast Polk's Skylar Slade and rebounded to win a rematch with Wells by fall in 59 seconds and pin South Tama County's Abigail Chyma in 49 seconds.

Ballard took ninth in Region 3 with 70 points. Cedar Falls easily won the team title with 275 points.

Noel Boettger, Caliegh Rhiner and Ally Baker were the three Bombers to advance to state.

Boettger placed first at 130. The Bomber senior, ranked No. 7, will take a 24-2 record into state after pinning Williamsburg's Shannon Finn in 5:09, Cedar Falls Anna Johnson in 5:01 and Dallas Center-Grimes' Asia Jahangir in 3:54.

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Rhiner took third with a 4-1 showing at 145 to take a 20-5 record into state.

Rhiner lost by a 4-3 decision to Newton's Brianna Aebischer then came back to pin Pleasantville's Addie Koenig in 1:11, West Marshall's Kylee Schuler in 4:40 and Ankeny's Mallorie McGuire in 2:50 to wrestle for third. In the third-place match Rhiner downed Cedar Falls' Mckayla Warren by a 5-1 decision.

Baker placed fourth at 120 with to put her season record at 15-5. She pinned Des Moines Public Schools' Avah Blakeman in 1:12, lost by an 8-3 decision to North Mahaska's Jalayna Shipley, pinned Cedar Falls' Destiny Hoeppner in 4:21 and lost by fall to Ankeny's Trudy Haag.

The girls state wrestling tournament takes place Thursday and Friday at the Xtreme Arena in Coralville. Competition will run from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. both days.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: 14 Ames-area girls are headed to the girls state wrestling meet