With the high school season underway and women’s college entering its second month of the season, it has been an exciting couple weeks for Iowa’s female wrestlers.

Senior Women:

At the senior level the Iowa women are preparing for competition at the U.S. Open, December 18-19 in Las Vegas.  The women will be battling to finish in the top seven of their weight class to earn a qualification to compete at the Olympic Team Trials to be held in Iowa City, April 8-10.  This is competition at the highest level and Iowans should be proud to have the following athletes competing:

Julie Carpenter Johnsen of Underwood, wrestled for Waldorf College in Forest City, IA from 2010-2014 and is currently training with Waldorf College.

Lauren Louive of Massilon, Ohio and currently residing in Iowa City, wrestled for University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, KY from 2008-2013. She is a 4-time WCWA All-American and current volunteer Assistant Wrestling Coach at Cornell College (Mount Vernon, IA).  Lauren is ranked 8^th at 63kg in the USA Wrestling Senior rankings (December 2^nd) and is training out of the Hawkeye Wrestling club in Iowa City.

Jasmine Bailey of Iowa City wrestled for Iowa City West high school and is currently a sophomore at McKendree University.  Jasmine was a 2015 WCWA All-American taking 8^th place at 136 pounds.  She also placed 4^th at 63kg in the UWW Junior Freestyle Nationals (Body Bar).  She is currently ranked 9^th at 136 pounds in the WCWA/Intermat rankings, (November 11^th).

Megan Black of Batavia wrestled for Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont high school and is currently a redshirt sophomore at McKendree University.   Megan was a 2014 WCWA All-American taking 7^th place at 130 pounds and is ranked 5^th at 123 pounds in the WCWA/Intermat rankings, (November 11^th).

Cassy Herkelman of Cedar Falls wrestled for Cedar Falls high school and is currently a sophomore at McKendree University.  Cassy was a 2015 WCWA All-American taking 5th place at 143 pounds.  She also placed 6th at 63kg in the 2015 Women’s University Nationals.  She is currently ranked 7^th at 143 pounds in the WCWA/Intermat rankings, (November 11^th).

Rachel Watters of Ankeny is a senior in high school on the Ballard wrestling team and has signed to wrestle for Oklahoma City University (OCU).  She is the current UWW Junior Freestyle National Champion (Body Bar) and UWW Junior World Team member at 72kg.  Rachel is also the USA Wrestling Junior Freestyle National Champion (Fargo) at 159 pounds and took 3^rd place in the U.S. Senior World Team Trials challenge tournament at 69kg in June.  Rachel is currently ranked 4^th at 69kg in the Takedown Wrestling Senior rankings (December 3^rd) and 8^th in the USA Wrestling Senior rankings (December 2^nd).  Rachel will represent the OCU Regional Training Center/Gator Wrestling Club.

 

College Women:

Anna Poyner of New Hartford and a sophomore at Missouri Valley College (Marshall, MO), took to the mats on December 5^th at the NAIA Invitational.  Poyner went 1-3 in the 123 pound weight class to extend her record to 6-7 for the season.

Waldorf College (Forest City), Iowa’s first and only college with a women’s wrestling program, traveled to Fremont, Nebraska on November 20^th to take on Midland University and the University of Jamestown in a pair of dual competitions.  They lost to Jamestown 35-8 and to Midland 27-20 to extend their dual meet record to 3-7.  Iowans Illiana Bartsch of Hampton and Justice Losee of St. Ansgar did not compete.  Waldorf’s next competition will come as they host the Waldorf College Open at 9:00 a.m., January 2^nd in Forest City.  This will be an excellent opportunity for fans to experience a collegiate-level women’s wrestling event.

 

High School Girls:

The high school season is in full force and the results are rolling in.  As mentioned in our last update, Iowa does not currently sanction girls wrestling at the high school level.  Those females interested in wrestling must do so by joining their male peers on the high school team.  As we have researched statistics for these updates, it has been encouraging to see female participation continuing to increase.  Prior to 2013, gender was not tracked at the high school level; however, listed below is the number of girls participating on high school teams in Iowa for the last three years:

 

2013-2014 Season: 36

2014-2015 Season: 41

2015-2016 Current Season: 63

 

In the past year alone, there was a 54% increase in the number of girls wrestling.  This year, there are 24 freshmen making up 38% of the total number of participants.  Freshmen and sophomores combined total 44 wrestlers, making up 70% of the total. That is a great trend and with continued growth, we may someday see the sanctioning of girls wrestling in Iowa as has occurred in California, Guam, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.

In our last update, we listed wrestlers by district.  This week’s update includes 26 additional wrestlers and we have them listed by weight class.  We have also included their varsity and JV records following the first week of competition.

Highlights of the week include the following varsity performances:

106:

Alanah Vetterick of Norwalk, who was ranked 10^th in the IAwrestle pre-season class 3-A rankings, picked up a 12-6 win and three pins to go 4-1 for the week.

Felicity Taylor of South Winneshiek had a first period pin and went 1-3 for the week.

126:

Kaia Graham of Oskaloosa also had a first period pin and went 1-2 for the week.

138:

McKinna Faulkenberry of OA-BCIG picked up two pins and a forfeit to go 3-3 for the week.

152:

Rachel Watters of Ballard went 4-2 for the week with four decisions including a 3-1 triple overtime victory.

 

Here are this week’s complete results:

 

Wt	First	Last	Gr	School	Class	V	JV	Weekly Results
106	Morgan	Lawson	So	Ottumwa	3A		0-2
106	Alanah	Vetterick	So	Norwalk	3A	4-1		V wins by 12-6, F :52, F 2:47, F 1:33
106	Chloe	Krebsbach	Fr	Osage	2A		1-2	JV win by F 3:00
106	Maiah	Williams	Fr	Glenwood	2A
106	Brenna	Bohland	Fr	MFL MARMAC	1A
106	Felicity	Taylor	So	South Winneshiek	1A	1-3		V win by F 1:42
106	Corby	Webb	So	Hudson	1A	1-3		V win by forfeit
106	Rylee	Zobac	Fr	Starmont	1A	2-4	0-3	V wins by forfeit
113	Britany	Flockhart	Fr	Keokuk	3A	1-0	1-2	V win by forfeit, JV win by F :47
113	Myla	Mayo	So	Sioux City East	3A
113	Courtney	Six	Fr	Fort Madison	3A		0-3
113	Brooklyn	Taylor	So	Davenport North	3A
113	Shelby	Blake	Fr	Osage	2A	0-5
113	Mykenzi	Brinkman	Jr	Westwood	1A	2-0		V wins by forfeit
113	Emma	Cornelison	Fr	Nodaway Valley	1A	2-2	0-1	V wins by forfeit
113	Kendra	Felder	So	Panorama	1A	1-5		V win by forfeit
113	Makayla	Patterson	Jr	South Central Calhoun	1A	1-1		V win by forfeit
120	Keshara	James	So	Des Moines Roosevelt	3A
120	Grace	Massier	So	Des Moines Roosevelt	3A
120	Mercedez	Putney	Fr	Marshalltown	3A
120	Aubrey	McIntryre	Fr	Glenwood	2A		0-1
126	Amaya	Graham	Fr	Oskaloosa	3A
126	Kaia	Graham	Fr	Oskaloosa	3A	1-2		V win by F :59
126	Anne	Gadient	So	Cascade	2A	1-5		V win by forfeit
126	Athena	Moad	Jr	West Burlington/Notre Dame/Danville	2A	1-0	0-2	V win by forfeit
126	Dakota	Selby	Fr	Albia	2A
126	Soledad	Castaneda	Jr	Riverside	1A	0-3
126	Daphne	Hoefler	So	North Cedar	1A
126	Keagan	King	Fr	South Central Calhoun	1A	2-3		V wins by forfeit
126	Kaitlynn	Thoreson	Fr	Woodbine	1A	1-3		V win by forfeit
132	Karleigh	Shuff	Sr	Indianola	3A		0-5
132	Samantha	Back	Fr	Lisbon	1A
132	Abby	Crawford	Sr	Westwood	1A
132	Brittany	Shumate	So	Woodbine	1A	1-5		V win by forfeit
138	Laura	Arroyo-Ganona	Fr	Muscatine	3A		1-3	JV win by 12-10 OT
138	Jolynn	Harris	So	Des Moines Lincoln	3A		0-1
138	Alisha	Smith	So	Pleasant Valley	3A	0-4
138	Dominique	Mosier	Fr	Clear Creek-Amana	2A
138	Brooke	Silence	Sr	Shenandoah	2A
138	Nicole	Watters	So	Ballard	2A		0-1
138	McKinna	Faulkenberry	So	OA-BCIG	1A	3-3		V wins by F 1:46, F 4:47 and forfeit
145	Jesse	Lorano	So	Denison-Schleswig	3A		0-2
145	Tatum	Hardman	Jr	East Sac County	2A
145	Tammy	Vaughn	Sr	Columbus Community	2A
145	Alley	Gray	Fr	Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont	1A		0-2
145	Taylor	Jorgerson	So	Northwood-Kensett	1A
145	Larissa	Moore	Jr	North Cedar	1A	0-4
152	Ariel	Hellman	Jr	Sheldon/South O’Brien	2A
152	Tate	Hughes	Fr	Clarinda	2A		1-4	JV win by F 3:58
152	Ciana	Sonberg	So	Charles City	2A	0-2
152	Rachel	Watters	Sr	Ballard	2A	4-2		V wins by 6-2, 6-0, 13-9, 3-1 3OT
152	Julia	Eshelman	Fr	Nodaway Valley	1A
160	Jocelyn	Hemandez	Jr	LeMars	3A
160	Lexi	Williams	So	Iowa City West	3A
160	Margarita	Valenzuela	Fr	Hampton Dumont	2A
182	Haley	Snyder	So	Northeast Community	2A
182	Erica	Halferty	Jr	Wayne	1A
195	Melinda	Collins	Jr	Tipton	1A
220	Chelsea	Fishback	Fr	Carroll	3A
220	Sadie	Durnan	Fr	Oelwein	2A
220	Erica	Stoner	Jr	Grinnell	2A
220	Jade	Charron	Sr	Interstate 35	1A
285	Kali	Zufall	Jr	Estherville Lincoln Central	2A		0-1

 

This coming week looks to be a busy one for our high school wrestlers.  We look forward to bringing you the latest updates as the season progresses.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter: @watters_ia and @FEWTeamIowa

Do you know of missing female high school wrestling info? Email: matt@femaleelitewrestling.org.

Interested in the benefits of wrestling at any age level? Contact Charlotte Bailey of Female Elite Wrestling (FEW) at: coach@femaleelitewrestling.org to find out more.