Cyclones wrestlers finish 19th at weekend tournament
Saturday, the HCHS girls wrestling team came away with a 19th place finish out of 22 schools, finishing with 27 points, 169 behind the winner, Lewis Central.
“These girls are at the end of the season pretty much, and they’re still going out there and ready to go,” said Cyclone Head Coach Tarah Devlin-Lawler. “Just the amount of heart they’re showing is just incredible, and I’m extremely proud of them for continuing to work hard, get on the mat, compete, and do their thing.”
Elle Stephens, Kyrsten Madden, Danica Schwery, and Hallie Lopez competed for the Cyclones. Stephens went up against Maggie Dirkx of Carroll in a quarterfinals round and pinned her in 20 seconds.
“She goes out there and competes hard and kind of has an idea of what she wants to do and how she wants to do it,” Devlin-Lawler said of Stephens. “She goes out there with a great mindset and works really hard to get those pins. She’s doing amazing and that was a huge win.”
Madden picked up a victory over Liv Inman of Audubon pinning her at 4:36.
“Kyrsten is a lot of fun to watch, and this is the best we’ve seen her wrestle all year,” Devlin-Lawler said. “She was ready to go out there and she came out with a victory. It’s fun to watch her just because of her attitude and how well she wants to do.”
Schwery and Lopez were unable to pick up wins. Schwery got pinned in 19 seconds by Emily Foran from Audubon, and Lopez lost to Jalon Olson from Clarinda getting pinned as well in 2:45.
“They [Schwery & Lopez] worked really hard,” Devlin-Lawler added. “They got put up against some pretty tough competition early on. Just the fact that they went out and competed and we’re ready to go, it says a lot for these girls to be able to get into the right mindset to get back on the mat. All the girls come off when they lose and want to know how they can improve and do better. They’re super coachable. I really appreciate how much these girls want to continue to learn about this sport.”
The girls return to action Monday at Red Oak High School where they will be one of five schools in attendance. This will be their final tune-up before regionals Friday.
“I wanted them to have one more competition before we go into regionals,” Devlin-Lawler said. “This is something we did last year just to get them prepared and ready and get a few more matches under their belts before we compete at regionals.”
