INDEPENDENCE — The Lady Spartans, with only eight wrestlers (due to injury and illness) placed 13th out of a 27-team field in Independence’s Girls Invitational Saturday, Nov. 23 with 154.0 team points. Osage took the team title with 369.5 points with Prairie, Cedar Rapids taking runner up with 341.5.
Kara VeDepo (105 lbs.) and McKenna Rogers (110 lbs.) improved to 10-0 records each as they swept the field for championships. VeDepo pinned East Buchanan’s Natalie Krum (2:43), Western Dubuque’s Elli Casey (0:49), New Hampton/Turkey Valley’s Taelynn Bass (0:36), Alburnett’s Josie McGraw (0:38), and Mason City’s Lila Sheehan (3:02). Rogers pinned Oelwein’s Devin Meyer (0:42), Denver’s Jules Neubauer (1:16), New Hampton’s Drey O’Brien (1:17), East Buc’s Valeria Torres (3:07), and Osage’s Alexis Kolbert (0:49).
Lucianna Miller (140 lbs.) placed sixth with a first round fall over Oelwein’s Emmah Hoveland (1:26) and a third round fall over Independence’s Kenleigh Trumblee (4:21) after a second round bye. She pinned Williamsburg’s Valerie Altenhofen in the quarterfinals (5:25) but fell to Waverly-Shell Rock’s Makena Miller in the semis (4:29) and dropped a 7-0 consolation round match to Prairie’s Claire Hynek before falling to East Buc’s Andelyn Cabalka in the fifth place match (0:50).
Alexis Anderson (135 lbs.) and Adlie Miller (190 lbs.) placed 12th in the tournament. Anderson pinned Cascade’s Carly Maternach in the first round (3:03) but fell to New Hampton’s Sophie Glasser in the third after a second round bye. Osage’s Annaliese Arciniega pinned Anderson in the first consolation round (3:47) but she bounced back to pin Mason City’s Madeline Hoover (5:27) and North Scott’s Bryn Stephens (3:12) to advance to the 11th place match. However, Oelwein’s Jaylynn Craun got the pin (3:25).
Miller fell to Denver’s Kennedy Burk in the third round after a pair of byes (0:17) and fell in the first consolation round to Osage’s Addison Schenker (0:34). Miller pinned Alburnett’s Bree McCusker (1:27) in the third consolation round to advance to the 11th place match where she fell to West Delaware’s Ella Geodken (0:36).
Makayla Keller (130 lbs.) placed 14th after falling to Osage’s Emma Evens in the third round (4:16) and to Mason City’s Isobella Villarreal in the first consolation round (1:23). She won a 4-0 decision over Waverly-Shell Rock’s Kierstyn Klein in the second consolation round but fell to Louisa-Muscatine’s Rylee Carter (5:24) in the third and lost a 6-3 decision to Osage’s Emmery Dodd in the 13th place match.
Jadlyn Huynh (120 lbs.) placed 15th after pinning Western Dubuque’s Ella Digmann (0:17) in the second round and falling to Waverly-Shell Rock’s Julia Sough (1:48) in the third. She fell to Western Dubuque’s Gracelynn Reiff (1:47) and Alburnett’s Natalie Krohse (3:45) in the first and second consolation rounds before pinning Vinton-Shellsburg’s Kaylee Cantrell (3:45) in the 15th place match.
Layla Knazze (110 lbs.) placed 18th after falling to Linn-Mar’s Adriana Garcia (1:59) and Vinton-Shellsburg’s Kaelynn Roster (2:28) in the first and second round. She pinned CCA’s Mckenna Sager (0:33) in the first consolation round and Waverly-Shell Rock’s Lydia Bluhm (1:05) in the second to advance to the 17th place match where Denver’s Jules Neubauer won by technical fall (16-0).
Tess Richards (115 lbs.) placed 23rd with a medical forfeit.
Comments from Coach Jake Munson
“Due to injury and a stomach bug going around our team, we were left with only eight (out of fourteen) varsity wrestlers in our lineup so we knew it wasn’t going to be our best showing in the team score race.
To finish in the top half of the tournament field (13th out of 27) with only half of a lineup speaks volumes about how our girls competed. Our two returning state place winners, Kara VeDepo (105) and McKenna Rogers (110), wrestled especially well, pinning their way through the tournament to titles. Lucy Miller (140 lbs.) has been wrestling well this early season, avenging a loss from Thursday night’s final to place in the top six on Saturday. We now have a twelve day break from competition to get healthy again before competing in the Dan Gable Donnybrook in early December.”
Independence Girls Invitational results
Team scores – 1, Osage, 369.5. 2, Prairie, Cedar Rapids, 341.5. 3, East Buchanan, 303.5. 4, Waverly-Shell Rock, 298.0. 5, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 257.0. 6, Linn-Mar, 250.5. 7, Mason City, 245.0. 8, Independence, 225.0. 9, Vinton-Shellsburg, 209.0. 10, West Delaware, 189.0. 11, Western Dubuque, 173.0. 12, Sumner-Fredericksburg, 163.0. 13, Solon, 154.0. 14, North Scott, 143.0. 15, New Hampton/Turkey Valley, 142.0. 16, Alburnett, 137.5. 17, Marion, 134.0. 18, Iowa City West, 130.0. 19, West Liberty, 114.5. 20, Williamsburg, 112.5. 21, Waterloo West, 100.0. 22, Clear Creek Amana, 91.0. 23, Denver, 62.5. 24, Oelwein, 52.0. 25, Louisa-Muscatine, 42.0. 26, Union Community, 21.0. 27, Cascade, 15.0.
Individual place winners
105 – Kara VeDepo, 1st place.
110 – McKenna Rogers, 1st place.
140 – Lucianna Miller, 6th place.
135 – Alexis Anderson, 12th place.
190 – Adlie Miller, 12th place.
130 – Makayla Keller, 14th place.
120 – Jadlyn Huynh, 15th place.
110 – Layla Knazze, 18th place.
115 – Tess Richards, 23rd place.