First Girls Wrestling Meet of the Year
By Alanna McKeown
Saturday, December 2, the girls wrestling team had their first wrestling meet of the year in O’Neill, and putting in hard work all day the girls came up at third place.
Pierce finished the day with eight medalists in varsity competition. Senior Maggie Painter (125) ended her day with a first place medal. Icis Sackville (100), Angeline Skrdla (135) and Isabelle Kuehler (155) also paced the way for the Lady Jays by finishing in second place.
Kuehler, a sophomore, states, “For being the first meet, we all did very well and we all have improvements to make. I feel like [I have] a good chance this season. I think some of the freshmen have a pretty good chance at getting far if they keep working hard and pushing through.”
Starting off at JV 120, Isabelle Streff got first place pinning Nelly Hoche from Ainsworth, winning in a 5-1 decision over Keily Hurtado from Grand Island, and finally pinning Evelyn Skrdla from Pierce making her record 3-0 for the day.
Then finishing in second in the same class was Evelyn Skrdla, pinning Keily Hurtado from Grand Island, Nelly Hoche from Ainsworth, and finally losing to her teammate, Streff.
Karina Willits, at JV 135, placed first by pinning Alexis Wetjen of Blue River and Londyn Dunbar of Ainsworth.
In JV 145, Cailynn Gardner earned third place by pinning Chelbi Pruitt from Crofton/Bloomfield. She then fell to Braelyn Rudnick from Ainsworth, and Jessi Hasenkamp from Blue River. Gardner rebounded and pinned Addison Bohaty from Blue River.
Finally, Shaylee Gardner (JV170) ended in first place, pinning Jasmine Reyes from Crofton/Bloomfield, Miranda Phares from Ainsworth, and defeating Jessica Bauers from the Blue River team in a 9-8 decision.
Now for varsity, starting at the lowest weight class of 100 pounds was I. Sackville who earned second winning by fall over Yulissa Figueroa-Lopez from Ralston in the quarterfinals, then pinning Josey Werner from Chadron in :19 in the semifinals. I. Sackville fell to Mishayla Slaymaker from Boone Central. Sackville scored the team 18 points.
At 105 Lauren Delka wrestled against Savannah Potrzeba from Grand Island and Maria Bochnicek from Ralston and lost by fall in both matches.
Wrestling at 115 was Hadleigh Collison, who placed third, scoring the team 16 team points. Collison pinned Taylor Bergman of Ralston in her quarterfinal round, then fell to Jolyn Pozehl of Ainsworth in the semifinals. Collison bounced back and pinned Pamela Dennis of Crofton/Bloomfield in the consolation semifinals and later pinned Amber Gomez of Grand Island in the 3rd place match.
Jayan Sackville, also at 115, fell to both Gomez from Grand Island and Dennis from Crofton/Bloomfield.
At 120 was Samantha Painter who fell to Kim Gonzalez from Grand Island and lost in an 8-5 decision to Felycia Kerkman from West Holt.
Senior M. Painter (125) claimed first place scoring 22 team points. M. Painter pinned Chloe Wattier of Battle Creek and Grace Drueke of O’Neill in her quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. Then in the finals round, M. Painter won 3-1 in sudden victory - 1 over Payton Becker from Boone Central.
Fellow senior A. Skrdla (135) nabbed second and scored 16 team points with a 10-8 win over Jessalyn Fay from Valentine. In the finals round, A. Skrdla fell to Ashlyn Coreas from Ralston.
Also at 135, senior Hayle DeBoer finished in fourth place, pinning Nevaeh Martinez from Blue River in the quarterfinals, then falling to Ashlyn Coreas from Ralston in the semifinals. During the consolation semifinals, DeBoer won in an 8-0 major decision over Payton Peter from O’Neill. Jersey Titman of Grand Island won by fall over DeBoer in the 3rd place match.
Lainey Jensen (140) placed fourth after pinning Brinley Kerkman from West Holt then losing three of her matches to Madison Davis from West Holt, Avery Hawke from Grand Island, and finally in a 14-2 major decision to Megan Jones from Ainsworth. Jensen scored the team six points.
Wrestling at 145 was Jessa Kraft who lost her first match against Fia Rasmussen from Chadron. Then Kraft pinned Sage Woster from Chamberlain. Finally, Kraft fell to Cladis Lucas-Escobar from Grand Island, Scoring the three points for the Lady Jays.
At 155 Isabelle Kuehler ended in second place, scoring the team 22 points. Kuehler won three matches, her first against Morgan Schaaf from West Holt in a :10 pin. Kuehler went on to pin Kaitlyn Hinrichs of O’Neill and Laylani Kasik from Blue River. In the first place match Kuehler fell to Anyia Roberts of Grand Island.
Scoring four team points, Candace Miller (170) pinned Marlee Lloyd from Wilber-Clatonia fell to Fabiola Cortez Carcamo from Grand Island and Grace Eickmeier from Blue River.
Last but not least, at 190 was Lauren Ueding who placed fourth, scoring six points. Ueding fell to Libby Evans of Elgin Public-Pope John, Paola Vergara from O’Neill, and Dezeray Baker from Ralston. Ueding won her final match by pinning Taylor Shelton from Blue River.
Head coach Les Painter states, “It was a tough tournament, and I thought our girls did exceptional for the first meet, but they all have a lot to work on.”
Join the Lady Jays as they venture to West Point-Beemer on Saturday, December 9 at 9 a.m.
