TAMA — The Lady Spartan wrestlers placed third in South Tama’s Girls Invitational last Thursday (Nov. 21) with 156.5 team points behind champion Vinton-Shellsburg (215.5) and runner up South Tama (179.0).
Kara VeDepo and McKenna Rogers posted wins at 105 and 110 pounds. VeDepo went 5-0 on the night with a tech fall (16-0, 3:15) over Benton Community’s Kaebry Dixon before pinning Grinnell’s Piper Madren (0:52), Meskwaki Settlement’s Nahliya Pushetonequa (0:15), Vinton-Shellsburg’s Olivia Port (1:04), and South Tama’s Jayva Gomez (0:42). Rogers went 4-0 with a bye and pinning Benton’s Courtney Hlas (1:19), Williamsburg’s Anya Rivera (1:09), and Mount Vernon’s Kate Martin (4:32).
Lucianna Miller and Olivia Bonnema took second place at 140 and 145 pounds. Miller took a first round bye before pinning Meskwaki’s Rylee Roberts (0:43) and Grinnell’s Kiaya Shuey (1:12). She fell to Williamsburg’s Valerie Altenhofen in the championship round (2:48). Bonnema also received a first round bye and then pinned Grinnell’s Adriana Versendaal (0:51) and Mount Vernon’s Addi Whisner (4:00) before falling to Vinton-Shellsburg’s Chloe Sanders (0:46) in the finals.
Tess Richards took third place at 115 pounds. She received a first round bye then pinned Benton’s Kaitlynn Guldner (0:53) before dropping the semifinal match (3-1) to Mount Vernon’s Kiersten Swart. Richards won a 15-1 major decision over South Tama’s Ava Hendricks in the consolation semifinals before winning the third place match by injury default over BGM’s Amiah Lint.
Haiden Wolfe took fourth at 235 pounds with a first round bye and quarterfinal win by fall (1:19) over AP/GC’s Delaney Schafer. South Tama’s Emma Slifer pinned Wolfe in the semifinals (2:51) but Wolfe rebounded for a win by fall over Meskwaki’s Vawn Lesley (4:18) in the consolation semifinals before falling to Mount Vernon’s Josie Panos (1:37) in the third place match.
Jadlyn Huynh was fifth at 120 pounds. Huynh fell in the first round to South Tama’s London Jaennette (3:35) and had a bye in the first round of the consolation bracket before pinning BGM’s Daniela Pacheco (0:44) in the second round and Iowa Valley’s Kennedy Thiessen in the third (1:41). Grinnell’s Kyrie Chapman pinned Huynh in the consolation semifinals (0:49) and Huynh pinned Vinton’s Callie Nosbisch to win the fifth place match (1:41).
Makayla Keller placed seventh at 135 pounds. Keller fell to South Tama’s Maylee Rucker in the first round (0:56), pinned Union’s Willa Wolff in the first round of the consolation bracket (0:57) and South Tama’s Kyla Bessman in the second (1:05) but lost in sudden victory to South Tama’s Ava Perkins in the third round before pinning AGWSR’s Denver Miller to win the seventh place match (3:30).
Comments from Coach Jake Munson
“The girls wrestled well. This tournament field is tough and loaded with girls we’ll see later in the conference season. I thought it was a good showing for our team with many girls wrestling to above their seed. We’re happy to finish in the top three at South Tama as there are a lot of quality teams, but also knowing we aren’t that far away from being able to win this tournament.”
South Tama Girls Invitational results
Team scores – 1, Vinton-Shellsburg, 215.5. 2, South Tama, 179.0. 3, Solon, 156.5. 4, West Delaware, 132.5. 5, Benton Community, 126.0. 6, Mount Vernon, 115.0. 7, Williamsburg, 114.5. 8, Iowa Valley (Marengo), 82.0. 9, AP/GC, 78.0. 10, Center Point-Urbana, 72.0. 11, BGM, 63.0. 12, Grinnell, 57.0. 13, Ogden, 44.0. 14, BCLUW, 39.0. 15, AGWSR, 26.0. 16, Meskwaki Settlement, 18.0. 17, Union Community, 3.0.
Individual place winners
105 – Kara VeDepo, 1st place.
110 – McKenna Rogers, 1st place.
115 – Tess Richards, 3rd place.
120 – Jadlyn Huynh, 5th place.
135 – Makalya Keller, 7th place.
140 – Lucianna Miller, 2nd place.
145 – Olivia Bonnema, 2nd place.
235 – Haiden Wolfe, 4th place.