Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – West Branch brought just three wrestlers to the girls’ regional meet.

Two proved to be among the best in their weight class and extended their season another week.

“I am just going to go out and do my stuff,” West Branch senior Emmersen Thomas said after placing second at 110 pounds Friday at Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids. “Do what I know I am going to do. Since it is my last year, I have got one goal in mind. To place.”

The top-four place winners at each weight in each of eight regional meets across the state qualify for the first-ever state meet sanctioned by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.

After competing at unsanctioned meets and falling one match short of placing and winning a medal in each of the past two seasons, Thomas is thankful for the opportunity to cap her senior season of wrestling as a member of this historic first group of sanctioned state meet competitors.

“It is definitely really cool since my last two years, (you) just kind of show up and you really don’t earn anything,” Thomas said. “Everyone gets to go, so it is kind of cool being able to say, ‘I earned my spot in the state tournament.”

Thomas (25-4) earned her spot with a quarterfinal pin and a semifinal decision before falling to Bree Swenson of Vinton-Shellsburg in the 110-pound championship match by decision, 4-0. Considering she lost to Swenson earlier in the season by fall, progress was made.

This is just the third season of wrestling for Thomas, though she has a strong support system in her father Mike, who wrestled alongside his brother growing up and taught Emmersen’s younger brother to do the same.

As the junior high wrestling coach in West Branch, Mike Thomas often invited Emmersen to come to practice and roll around on the mat.

Once Emmersen was a high school sophomore and West Branch hired a new wrestling coach, she was quickly summoned onto the team.

“He kind of just didn’t give me a choice,” Emmersen Thomas said with a laugh. “He said, ‘You’re going to be on the varsity team.’”

The success that followed was immediate.

“I had a pretty good first season,” Emmersen Thomas said. “I had a lot of success, so that kind of made me excited to see where I could be if I continued.”

Thomas will be joined at the state meet by sophomore Teagyn Hartz (20-7), who won three matches, including two by fall, before losing the championship match at 170 pounds to Brooklyn Graham of East Buchanan.

“I just went out there with a good mindset,” Hartz said. “Knowing that I would win.”

Incredibly, this is Hartz’s first season as a wrestler.

But much like Thomas, there is plenty of family pedigree from which to learn.

Her older sister, Madelyn Hartz, placed seventh at 285 pounds in last year’s unsanctioned state meet and she also has two brothers, Morgan and Cooper, that wrestle for West Branch.

“She really enjoyed it and I thought my whole life I have been around it with my brothers and stuff, so I thought I would give it a shot myself,” Teagyn Hartz said.

The state meet is Thursday and Friday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“It feels pretty good that I made it this far,” Teagyn Hartz said.

Region 6 Meet

At Alliant Energy PowerHouse

Team scores – 1. Waverly-Shell Rock 254; 2. East Buchanan 241; 3. Cedar Rapids Prairie 166; 4. Vinton-Shellsburg 161; 5. Solon 136; 6. Iowa Valley 107; 7. Liberty High 92; 8. Clinton 86; 9. Wilton 81; 10. Marion 78; 11. Pleasant Valley 77; 12. Clear Creek Amana 75; 13. Central DeWitt 66; 14. Louisa-Muscatine 65; 15. West High 54; 16. West Branch 50; 17. Muscatine 38; 17. Pekin 38; 19. Keokuk 25; 20. English Valleys-Tri County 13; 21. Columbus 12; 22. Cedar Rapids Washington 9; 22. Burlington Notre Dame 9

Championship matches; state qualifiers  

100 – 1. Mya Rausch (CRP) dec. Amber Hoth (W-SR) 3-2; 3. Wynter Morgan (MAR); 4. Taylor Cavanh (ICL)

105 – 1. McKenna Rogers (SOL) pinned Macy Tiedt (W-SR) 1:51; 3. Valeria Torres (EB); 4. Emma Gillen (V-S)

110 – 1. Bree Swenson (V-S) dec. Emmersen Thomas (WB) 4-0; 3. Kara VeDepo (SOL); 4. Marlie McBride (CCA)

115 – 1. Caitlin Reiter (PV) dec. Ellie Weets (V-S) 5-1; 3. Natalie Hedlund (MAR); 4. Callia Logan (CLI)

120 – 1. Abigail Meyrer (PV) pinned Brinley Meier (W-SR) 1:26; 3. Emma Descourouez (CCA); 4. Grace Patterson (CD)

125 – 1. Mackenzie Childers (CRP) pinned Hannah Rogers (WIL) 1:59; 3. Eva Heise (W-SR); 4. Kily Castillo (MUS)

130 – 1. Chloe Sanders (V-S) major dec. Destiny Krum (EB) 9-0; 3. Lilly Stouh (W-SR); 4. Kaly Thomas (CCA)

135 – 1. Miley Walz (EB) pinned Kiley Langley (WIL) 2:54; 3. Olivia Bonnema (SOL); 4. Lila Miller (PEK)

140 – 1. Kiara Djoumessi (W-SR) pinned Andelyn Cabalka (EB) 1:24; 3. Kaydence Boorn (WIL); 4. Jade Hynek (CRP)

145 – 1. Emma Peach (IV) pinned Haidyn Snyder (W-SR) 2:29; 3. Tayla Stiefel (EB); 4. Evelyn Eggleston (ICL)

155 – 1. Keeley Kehrli (EB) dec. Jannell Avila (ICW) 2-0; 3. Erika Brokovich (CRP); 4. Jalyiah Gardner (KEO)

170 – 1. Brooklyn Graham (EB) pinned Teagyn Hartz (WB) 5:09; 3. Karissa Oldenburger (W-SR); 4. Justyce Dominick (V-S)

190 – 1. Breanna Peach (IV) pinned Alyson Krum (EB) 3:22; 3. Chloe Heefner (CRP); 4. Arie Russell (CLI)

235 – 1. Madison Hinrichs (W-SR) pinned Averyia Binnion (CD) 2:50; 3. Cambrie Mcloyd (CLI); 4. Molly Bramble (L-M)

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