Sports : Four Vikettes still in the medal hunt at Girls State wrestling

CORALVILLE - It was a day to remember, with another day to come.

A 10-woman contingent of Vinton-Shellburg Vikette wrestlers rolled into Coralville's shiny new Xtream Arena for the 2021 Iowa Wrestlers and Coaches Association Girls' State Wrestling Tournament, as four of the 10 remain alive going into Saturday morning's action.

Freshman 106-pounder Bree Swenson, junior 138-pounder Rachel Bane and senior 145-pounder Geordyn Webster are going to battling in the consolation round, while junior -- and returning State placewinner -- 145-pounder Bailey Weeks will kick off the day for the Black & Gold in the championship bracket quarterfinals.

And, to top it all off, the Vikettes go into Saturday's action in 10th-place out of over 200 teams entered in the tournament.

As I said, it was day to remember...with another day to come.

Weeks drew a first round bye, then made quick work of Ames's Leah Stagg in the second with a pin in 1:07. Weeks advanced to the quarterfinals when she pinned Sheldon's Jessica Beldt in 2:16. Bailey (13-4) will top-seeded Jannell Avila of Lisbon in today's quarterfinals.

Swenson drew a first round bye, then dropped Alexis Alexander of Chariton in 1:41 to move to the third round. There she met sixth-seeded Abby Blint of Mount Pleasant. After a wild first two periods that left things tied at 7-7, Swenson was attempting to turn the Panther when a fluke move put the scrappy frosh on her back for the pin in 4:21. But Swenson stayed in the medal hunt when she pinned Alix Oliver of Dubuque Wahlert, who'd beaten Bree 1-0 at the Independence Invitational last week. Bree (18-6) will face off with Isabelle Johnson of Bettendorf this morning in the consolation round.

Bane (7-7) opened the day with a 16-0 technical fall over Caitlyn Busch of Mid-Prairie, but was pinned in the second round by top seed Abby McIntrye of Glenwood in the second round. But from then on Rachel went on a tear. She pinned Ella Cook of East Buchanan in 2:29, then Kylan Green of Okoboji in 3:01, then wrapped up the day with a 6-2 decision over previously unbeaten Niah Smith of Davenport West. Rachel will take on Chole Etten of B-G-M in this morning's consolation round.

Webster (7-5) only needed 45 seconds to win her opener, pinning Madison Kelly of Mid-Prairie. In the second round Geordyn battled hard, but ended up falling to second-seeded freshman Naomi Simon in 3:19. But the first-year senior hung on, scoring three more falls -- over Waverly-Shell Rock's Addison Juhl in 2:54, over Pita Garcia-vasquez of West Liberty in 1:36, then over West Liberty's Isabel Morrison -- to stay alive in the consolations.

Senior 120-pounder Carly Williams dropped her first round match to Atlantic's Mia Trotter in 5:20, but bounced back to pin Julia May of St. Ansgar in 1:36, before being eliminated by Brinley Meier of Waverly-Shell Rock in 1:03.

Junior 160-pounder Emma McDaniel won her opener, pinning Allyah Heer of Cresco in 1:04, but was then pinned by Mya Lindauer of Western Dubuque in 3:34 and Gayle Robinson of Waverly-Shell Rock and was eliminated.

106-pounder Emma Gillen, and 138-pounders Anabelle Hernandez and Maci Goodell all dropped their first two bouts, but battled hard throughout. 126-pounder Alexis Rummelhart was leading in her first round match but was injured and had to default out of the tournament.

Going into this morning's action the Vikettes are in 10th-place with 49.5 points. Waverly-Shell Rock leads with 115 points, with Humboldt in second with 80 and Osage third with 76.

Friday's photos