Girls Wrestling Places Sixth at West Point-Beemer
By Emma Risinger
On Saturday, December 9, Pierce girls wrestling competed at Battle at the Point, hosted by West Point-Beemer. The team totaled 75 points for sixth place out of 25 schools.
“I thought the girls wrestled well. We showed we have a lot of work to do,” said Les Painter, head girls wrestling coach. “But, we wrestled five girls varsity, so I’m not going to complain where we ended up as a team.”
In the varsity division, wrestling at 105, Icis Sackville, who is now 6-2, won by fall in :19 in the first round over Anna Kiser of O’Neill. In the second round, Sackville again pinned her opponent, McKenzie Daniel of Stanton. Sackville took a loss by falling in the third round to Kimberly Pena from West Point-Beemer. In the fourth round, Sackville pinned Raegan Maas from Wayne. In her final match of the day, Sackville claimed the win by pinning Day Way Paw of Madison. Sackville placed third in her bracket and gained her team 22 points.
“I feel as though our team did well this weekend,” remarks Sackville. “There is some stuff we need to work on, but we wrestled really good.”
Hadleigh Collison, who is 6-3, competed at 115 and had a bye in the first round. Collison lost by a 7-3 decision to Amber Gomez from Grand Island in the second match. Collision then pinned Hailee Cox of Norfolk; Collision again pinned the fourth match over Kari Gonzalez from Madison. In the fifth match, Collison won by fall over Cloe Mandel from West Point-Beemer. In her final match, Collison fell to Lenora Kester of Summerland for a fourth place finish overall and claimed 16 team points.
In the 120 bracket, Evelyn Skrdla fell in her first round to Savannah Gallagher from Summerland. During the second round, Skrdla received a bye, and third, she fell to Aubrey Jensen of Viborg-Hurlry.
Maggie Painter, whose record is 5-2, wrestled at 125. Painter received a bye in her first round. She won in the second round pinning Micheli Fisher of Norfolk Catholic. In the third round Painter lost by major decision, 13-3, to Grace Drueke from O’Neill. Painter then fell to Fernanda Perea from Grand Island. Painter pinned her opponent, Elaina Fletcher from Bellevue East in her fifth and final match of the day, placing Painter fifth with 13 points.
At 135, Angeline Skrdla lost by injury to Mia Gutierrez of Madison. Skrdla lost by medical forfeit in the second round against Serenity Stice of Elkhorn.
Isabelle Kuehler (155) placed second for the Lady Jays, by pinning Kylie Painter from Elkhorn in the first round. In the second match, Kuehler claimed victory by pinning Ashlynn Whitley of Lyons-Decatur Northeast. Kuehler won by medical forfeit over Kristen Schellenberg of Scribner-Snyder in the third round. During the fourth round, Kuehler lost in a tiebreaker - 1to Anyia Roberts from Grand Island. Kuehler came in second in her bracket with 24 points.
In the JV division, in the 110 JV A bracket, Lauren Delka pinned Noemi Lopez of South Sioux City and Lily Ross of Bellevue East. Delka came in first in her bracket.
In 115 JV A, Isabelle Streff pinned all three of her opponents, Ashlyn Galvin of Summerland Alexa Suing of Crofton-Bloomfield and Kira Mabry of Bellevue East. Steff was first place in her bracket.
Samantha Painter (120) took the victory in the first round by pinning Paris Plough from Bellevue East. In S. Painter’s second match, she fell to Macy Wilson of Wayne. In the third round, S. Painter pinned Beatriz Milkem of Summerland Girls :16, placing S. Painter second in the bracket.
Wrestling at 120 JV C, Jayan Sackville pinned Hannah Burris from Wayne in the first round, and then in the second round, J. Sackville won by forfeit over Kaelyn Herrick from Weeping Water.
Karina Willits (135 JV A), in the first round, fell to Rory Vrbsky of Norfolk. Willits rebounded in the second round, pinning Angel Lerma from Bellevue East. Willits, in the third round, pinned Valery Navarro-Ardiano of South Sioux City, which placed Willits in second.
Hayle DeBoer wrestled at 135 JV B, and in her first round, she won by a 5-2 decision over Casey Koch from Norfolk. DeBoer then continued in her next two rounds, pinning CJ Struzik of Bellevue East and Hodhan Mohammed of South Sioux City, placing DeBoer first.
At 140 JV A, Cailynn Gardner took a loss in her first match by falling to Payton Peter of O'Neill. In the second match, C. Gardner pinned Diane Reyes of West Point-Beemer, which placed Gardner second.
Lainey Jensen, wrestling at 145 JV A, won by pinning Nora Hirsch from South Sioux City and Baeli Phommavong from South Sioux City. Jensen placed first.
Finally, Shaylee Gardner, who has a 5-0 record, wrestled at 170 JV A. In the first match S. Gardner pinned Taylor Whiteley from Elkhorn. During the second match, S. Gardner pinned Danica Sheppard from Battle Creek.
“Our girls that we wrestled JV did awesome,” L. Painter continued. “Our ones on the varsity [team] did a great job, we just found out, hey we got a lot of work to do, so I’m excited for this week. We have our own home tournament. We have duals against O’Neill and Elkhorn on Thursday. I think the girls are excited; they get two pounds. I’m just excited for where we’re going because we are getting better every week.”
Girls wrestling will compete again on Thursday, December 14, at their home girls varsity dual meet against Battle Creek, Elkhorn Valley, and O’Neill.
