CORALVILLE — Ceanna White couldn’t see it before, but now it’s as clear as day.

The South Hardin-BCLUW junior will be the first girls wrestler in BCLUW history to put her podium picture up on the wall at the high school in Conrad, and she couldn’t believe it the moment it became a reality.

The look on her face said it all after she pinned Janesville’s Presley Pugh in their second-round consolation match on Thursday at the IGHSAU State Wrestling Tournament at Xtream Arena.

White, a 140-pound junior, went 2-1 during the opening day of Class 1A action and will find herself with a medal after Friday’s action is complete. For a split second following the referee’s slap of the mat, White wasn’t sure it was real.

“I was just really shocked that I’m able to become top eight, you know, and just being able to get that far,” she said after Thursday’s elimination round. “I know going into the high school and then seeing all those people on the podiums for getting top eight at state, I just know I wanted to be up there, and it didn’t really hit me until my second match that I have a chance at actually doing that, so that’s what I was going for.”

Having wrestled the entire regular season at 135 before making the move up a weight class in time for regionals, White (46-12) was only overmatched in her championship quarterfinal match by reigning state champion Teagan Carritt of Logan-Magnolia (43-0).

“I didn’t really put it on my head too much,” White said of the loss. “I knew that obviously she was seeded higher, so whatever happens happens. I just know I can work harder for the next few matches, so that’s what I did.”

White moved into the quarterfinals with a first-round win over Nevaeh Bloker of Nashua-Plainfield, pinning the Huskies senior in 2:54. Bloker scored the only takedown of the match with 16 seconds left in the first period, but White slipped out of the headlock to avoid further damage on the scoreboard.

Bloker (28-14) deferred the choice to White, who selected the top position and put it to good use in the second period.

White had the opportunity to try and turn Bloker with a chicken wing, but wasn’t sure it was tight enough to get the job done. She went to her trusty cross-face into a cradle and rocked Bloker to her back at the 2:54 mark, getting a quick slap of the mat.

In the quarterfinals, Carritt caught White in a headlock after a brief scramble on the mat. White fought off the pin for nearly a minute before succumbing to the powerful Panther in 1:30.

“It’s good to get into matches like that, because it can be hard for Ceanna to see herself as one of those higher-caliber wrestlers sometimes,” said her coach and father Mike White. “So when she gets out and does well against them, it helps to boost her motivation in what she’s doing.”

White bounced back so quickly from her loss to Carritt that she used her extra time to her advantage, getting a quick scouting report on Pugh since she was done wrestling after just one period.

She saw what she needed to see, finding a place in Pugh’s game to exploit an opportunity she knew would present itself.

With an ankle-pick for takedown in the first period, White put Pugh to the mat and had a cradle locked in just as the buzzer sounded. Pugh deferred the choice to White, who selected neutral and did it all again — only faster this time.

“That’s the takedown she’s adopted this year as her takedown,” Coach White said. “When she sees it and knows it’s there, she knows the girl’s going to her back and she just sets it up so well and can hit it and drop them to their bottom and come up over the top so quick. It’s awesome to see.”

Pugh walked right into another ankle-pick, got put on her backside and cradled for the pinfall in 3:12.

“Yeah, I knew it was there, but that is also my jam,” White said. “It is what I do, ankle-picks and cradles. But I saw from her second match there was another girl who did ankle-picks on her but wasn’t really completing it. So I knew if I was able to get that extra oomph in, then I thought I could do it.”

White will be back on the mats today with a third-round consolation bout against Macie Little, the ninth-ranked 135-pounder from North Mahaska. Little (44-3), the No. 5 seed, took the same route as White with a first-round win by fall, a second-round loss by fall, and a consolation pin to earn a place on the podium.

White can finish anywhere from third to eighth during Friday’s 1A session that runs from 9-11:30 a.m. back at Xtream Arena.

“It makes me so happy that I’m the first person in my school to be able to do it,” she said. “As a girl wrestler, it’s something that I really looked up to in middle school, knowing that girls wrestling wasn’t a thing, and now I’m able to make history for my school so I’m just excited.”

White is one of four Storm wrestlers to have qualified for state, but the only one from BCLUW. Three South Hardin preps — Khloe Neal, Taya Hollingsworth and Megyn Hollingsworth — took to the mats as well on Thursday.

Neal at 115 and Megyn at 170, both freshmen, fell twice in their respective brackets. Neal (35-23) was technical falled by Wapello’s top-seeded Clara Ball, 18-1, and pinned by Taryn Moore of Alburnett. Megyn (42-10) was pinned by fourth-seeded Danick Diedrick of Humboldt (4:53) and then lost a 7-0 decision to Iowa Valley’s Raelene Hawkins.

Taya, a three-time state qualifier, improved to 54-3 for her senior year with back-to-back pins at 155. She decked Carroll Kuemper’s Lucy Potthoff in 31 seconds, and then scored a pin over third-seeded Ryley Marcum of Missouri Valley in 4:59 to advance to Friday’s semifinals.