Regions 3 and 4 gathered in HyVee Hall at the Iowa Events Center and, over eight hours or near-continuous competition, figured out who was going to make it to the state tournament in Coralville.

Four area schools — Marshalltown, West Marshall and North Tama in Region 3 and South Tama County in Region 4 — were present Friday afternoon, and in all nine wrestlers from two schools advanced to next week’s main event.

Marshalltown failed to put a wrestler into the state tournament, but had two fifth-place finishers that ended the day with a win.

At 105 pounds, Alena “Ruby” Arana went 3-2 on the day and pinned two opponents in less than half a minute — defeating Maisy Davis of Clarke, Osceola/Murray in 19 seconds and Allie Blankenship of BGM in 25 seconds. In the fifth place match, she took down Anya Rivera of Williamsburg with a pin after 2:50. Rivera had beaten Arana in the quarterfinals earlier. Arana did this while battling an injured knee that forced her to change her style to compensate.

T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING - South Tama County’s Maeley Elsbury, top, tries to turn West Des Moines Valley’s Cadence Bushong during the 135-pound championship match at Friday’s Region 4 wrestling tournament at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. Elsbury beat Bushong by major decision, 14-2, to advance to the inaugural IGHSAU Girls State Wrestling Tournament next week in Coralville.

At 190 pounds, Meya Roberts also went 3-2. After losing a 3-1 decision to Emmalee Sharar of Cedar Falls in the semifinals, she pinned two straight opponents before coming up short in the consolation semis. In the fifth-place match, she rode out a tough challenge from Ankeny’s Melanie Martinez before pinning her in 5:30.

Head coach Luke Cross said he was proud of the duo for ending their seasons with victory, and proud of the whole team for its growth throughout the season.

“The girls that I have on our team, they literally knew nothing about the sport before joining,” Cross said. “To see where they’ve come, I’m proud of them. They should be proud, I’m happy for them. I know where I need to go back to the drawing board to make things better for next year, but they should be pleased with themselves.”

West Marshall had the most successful day of any area school with six individual qualifiers. Making history as West Marshall’s first-ever regional champion at 170 pounds was junior Averie Wittkop, who went 3-0 and defeated Newton’s Jessie Hutchinson (No. 10 in the state) in the finals with a 4-1 decision to claim the title. Wittkop, No. 9 in the state at 170 pounds, is now 27-0 on the year in her first-ever year of wrestling.

She said the season has been an exciting ride, and making it all the way to state is just the next step.

T-R PHOTOS BY NOAH ROHLFING - West Marshall’s Averie Wittkop, top, controls Newton’s Jessie Hutchinson during their 170-pound title bout in the Region 3 tournament. Wittkop won the match by decision, 4-1, to advance to next week’s state meet.

“I’m very excited,” Wittkop said. “It’s very cool to be like the first-ever [West Marshall] girls to go to state. It’s really cool.

“It was really hard in the beginning because I came in two weeks late, so I was behind. But I caught on to it really fast.”

Carli Pfantz finished second in the bracket at 125 pounds after going 3-1 on the day — including victories in the first three matches by pin. She fell short in the finals to Simone Standifer of Des Moines Public Schools in a very tight match, losing on a 3-2 decision late in the third period.

Two West Marshall girls qualified by finishing third and winning the consolation finals. At 140 pounds, No. 10 Cieanna Ficken took third after falling in the semifinals to BGM’s Chloe Etten in 3:06. She then pinned Zoey Vandevender of Creston to advance to the third-place match, an 8-4 decision over Gia Blaser of Ankeny.

Elizabeth Kalinay took third with a 4-1 day and a 2:16 pin of Indianola’s Lanie Frericks in the third-place match at 235 pounds.

T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING - South Tama’s Autumn Elsbury has her hand raised after defeating Anna Steenhoek of Gilbert in their 170-pound semifinal match on Friday at the Region 4 wrestling tournament in Des Moines.

Two more finished fourth to clinch their spots — at 100 pounds Sabrina Johnston went 2-2 and won with a no-contest in the fourth place wrestleback, while at 105 pounds Brooklyn Rudkin went 2-2 and took fourth place in part due to her win over fifth-place Arana in the consolation semifinals.

Head coach Dan Lovell was more than proud of the team (which finished fourth in the regional at 160 points) for its performance.

“It’s been a learning process,” Lovell said. “They learned a lot, and it all came together today. That’s what you kind of hope for as a coach.”

South Tama had the second-best day with three qualifiers. At 135 pounds, junior Maeley Elsbury — ranked No. 3 in the state — came home with a regional title, winning all three matches. In the quarterfinals and semis, she pinned her opponents in less than two minutes before going up against West Des Moines Valley’s Cadence Bushong in the finals. She was in control from start to finish, wrapping up the title with a 14-2 major decision.

STC Co-head coach Jason Arp said Maeley’s improvement has been substantial from year to year.

T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING - West Marshall’s Cieanna Ficken searches for control against Emily Henigan of Dallas Center-Grimes during their 140-pound quarterfinal match at Friday’s Region 3 wrestling tournament in Des Moines.

“We’re extremely proud of them, they worked hard all season to get to this point,” Arp said. “They worked their tails off to get through.”

Her younger sister Autumn was the runner-up at 170 pounds after going 3-1 on the day. She pinned two opponents in less than a minute on her way to the finals as a freshman.

Abigail Chyma, who was in her second year as a wrestler and first year at 155 pounds, finished fourth to take her spot at state. After losing her opening match she won four straight consolation bracket matches — all of them via pin — until the third-place match against Fern Neubauer of Gilbert.

Co-head coach Danny Elsbury was very proud of the effort put forth by the Trojans.

“We wrestled well,” Danny said. “The ones that didn’t make it, they’re all first-year wrestlers. Work this summer, come back next year, I think they can go. I’m very happy with the way things turned out.”

North Tama had two wrestlers on Friday and neither made state, but Jadyn Rausch at 125 pounds and Addison Hochstetler at 135 pounds put together 2-2 days and made the consolation quarterfinals before their seasons came to an end.

Rausch, a senior, ended her one and only season of high school wrestling at 18-10, while the freshman Hochstetler finished 21-9.

Head coach Andrew Knaack said despite the defeats he was more than pleased with Rausch and Hochstetler’s development this season.

“We competed, we were right there with all of them,” Knaack said. “They’re grinders, they work their butts off. They’re scrappers and they hate to lose. I wouldn’t change this season for anything and the girls worked their butts off and they deserved the recognition they got going 2-2.”

The girls’ wrestling state tournament will take place at the Xtream Arena in Coralville on Thursday and Friday. The first session begins Thursday at 9 a.m.

Hollingsworth to represent Storm

DECORAH — South Hardin-BCLUW freshman Taya Hollingsworth finished third in the 140-pound bracket at Friday’s Region 8 meet at Luther College to qualify for the inaugural IGHSAU Girls State Wrestling Tournament next week in Coralville.

Hollingsworth went 4-1 on the day, suffering only a semifinal loss to Katelynn Huebsch of Osage. Huebsch won a 7-5 decision, but Hollingsworth rebounded with back-to-back pins on the back side of the bracket to earn third place.

Hollingsworth’s four wins all came by fall, the first three of them in the first period. The last, in the third-place match, was a fall in 3:34 over Keira Myers of New Hampton/Turkey Valley.

SH-BCLUW freshman Jaelynn Poage was 3-3 on her way to sixth place at 125, and she was the team’s only other medalist. Lelia Wedgewood, Alaynah Salazar, Kynnedy Gundereson and Kailan McEwen also competed for the Storm.

South Hardin-BCLUW placed 16th out of 20 teams in the regional with 58 points. Osage won with 243 points, Crestwood was second (165) and Charles City was third (153).

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