It was another busy week for the wrestling team last week. Lots of travel for these kids with trips to West Branch, Vinton, and Nashua this week. But, if you want to be the best, you have to find the best competition that you can, and we did.
The illness and injury bug also made its way through the squad this week. Normally we have a roster of 20 boys and girls competing. By the weekend we only had eight, but it is better to be sick this time of year than at the end of the year.
Girls Comments
We weren’t able to compete in our Thursday event, which was a huge disappointment for all of us. Illness and injuries limited the team to only taking two to Vinton-Shellsburg Girls Invitational. East Buchanan and Vinton-Shellsburg, along with Mid-Prairie are some of the stoutest competition in this part of the state. Most impressive is the coachability of these girls. We have thrown a lot of moves at them, but they keep absorbing it and finding ways to utilize them in real matches.
Both Ryanne Dunn and Kelsey Knief finished in seventh place in their respective weight classes.
Boys Comments
The boys squad was not immune to the illness bug. We were missing some major contributors who would have made a difference in the Maquoketa dual on Thursday. Saturday was probably the toughest tournament we will be in all season. A lot of quality opponents from throughout the state were competing there. Seth Smith walked away with a JV tournament title at Nashua-Plainfield.
Break-out performances
Ryanne Dunn is currently leading the team with 8 pins so far this season. In response to the boys’ “Pin Chain” award, the girls have their own “Piniara” that is awarded to the person who has secured the most recent pin. Adessa Leibfried and Kelsey round out the team pin leaders with 7 and 6 pins respectively
A huge performance for Jack Hiland this week as he racked up wins against the #2 and #12 ranked wrestlers in 1A and a narrow 3-2 loss to the #5 2A wrestler. This is probably the greatest individual performance since Mason Lyons run to place at state in 2018. Jack is currently sporting a 14-1 record which leads the team in wins and win percentage. While he is unranked at this moment, he will surely get the recognition he deserves very soon.
Upcoming schedule
· Both girls and boys will not have any dual meets this week but both will be taking part in the Central DeWitt Saber Invitational. The girls compete Friday night and the boys will wrestle on Saturday.
· Bellevue will host a unique event on December 20 when Wahlert Catholic comes to town. We will be hosting an elementary and middle school dual prior to a contest between Wahlert’s girls and boys teams competing. This is a great opportunity for our Shooting Stars wrestlers to see and understand how dual competition in high school wrestling works.
And then when we bring in one of the pioneering teams of girl’s wrestling in the state, and a Wahlert boys squad that we are evenly matched with, you should have a very fun night of wrestling. We are looking forward to hosting this first ever event for Bellevue.
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