CCA, Liberty and West High girls wrestling teams compete in Highland Tournament

RIVERSIDE – Clear Creek Amana, Iowa City Liberty and Iowa City West hit the road on Friday to take part in the jam-packed Highland girls wrestling tournament.

Boasting dozens of schools and nearly 200 participants, the tournament was broken up into 50 brackets. Wrestlers competed in three matches to determine the bracket winners.

Clear Creek Amana

Rather than take it easy during winter break, Clippers head coach Adam Endres and his staff worked extensively with wrestlers to correct some of their issues from the first half of the season.

With the performance that Endres saw from them during the tournament, he said that he can already see the team improving.

"Over break, you get a lot of time to focus on the little things that need to be fixed,” Endres said. “Once we started to see improvement there, that is when we can work on getting better at the things that we are already good at. We saw that improvement in most of our girls tonight. For example, Marlie (McBride) pinned both girls, which was a spot she had trouble with. We fixed some things with Kaly (Thomas) and she came out here tonight with a bang and got three falls. Then Halle Bormann, one of our first-year girls, had her best match of the year so far. She has learned a lot and has put it all together.”

The confidence in the team is not just confined to the coaching staff. McBride, a junior, said that if the team can build on this showing, they should be set up nicely for the regional tournament that is just a few weeks away.

“We were not expecting this big of a tournament,” McBride said. “But we showed that we were ready to compete. So I think that we are going to do great.”

The Clippers had three wrestlers place second or better in their respective brackets: McBride finished first in the 10th bracket, Thomas was first in the 23rd bracket, and Bormann was second in the 31st bracket.

Iowa City Liberty

While competing in tournaments like Highland’s can provide a team with much-needed live reps, they can also be excruciatingly long.

Lightning head coach Derek Coorough acknowledged the strain that a lengthy event can have on a wrestler but also said that its value pays off in the long run.

“We got here at 3:30 p.m. and have been here past 11 p.m.,” Coorough said. “It is really mentally and physically draining to wrestle multiple matches with bumps and bruises, not feeling good, or taking a loss and then having to go back out and wrestle again. But it makes us tougher and teaches us a lot because it gives us a lot of experience.”

The tournament proved to be a turning point for freshman Taylor Cavanh, who admitted that she has had to overcome some mental blocks in her first year participating in the sport. She said experiencing that adversity has helped her to enjoy wins even more.

"When you start with your first match, you just go out there and give it your all,” Cavanh said. “After that, every match is a new match and it is a continuous mind game. So finally reaching the point where I had confidence in myself was a big breakthrough for me and it paid off in the tournament today because I kept telling myself that I could do it.”

The Lightning had four wrestlers place second or better in their respective brackets: Cavanh won the first bracket, Ruth Luyeye was first in the 12th bracket, Elizabeth Eggleston came in second in the 34th bracket, and Kenzi Steele was runner-up in the 43rd bracket.

Iowa City West

Leading a team of mostly inexperienced wrestlers is an exercise in patience for coaches as they try to teach their athletes the sport. A lot of pride comes from seeing those athletes grow and show constant progression.

That has been the case for Trojans head coach Elijah Sullivan, who said that the tournament was just the latest turning point his team has had in its inaugural season.

“All of them other than a couple are first-year wrestlers,” Sullivan said. “But seeing where they have come from the first time they stepped on the mat to this evening is a night-and-day difference. We are just trying to help build that self-confidence and that goes a long way in this sport.”

It helps to have senior Janell Avila on the roster, as she is one of the most accomplished and experienced wrestlers in eastern Iowa. After notching yet another tournament win, Avila said she takes the responsibility for being a leader for her younger teammates seriously.

"The girls are absolutely amazing and they always show me a lot of support," Avila said. "So I want to be there for them and show them that they can do more than where they are at right now. I want to be an example for them and if I can help them to be a better person on and off the mat, that is all I am really looking for."

The Trojans had seven wrestlers place second or higher:

• Natalia Gentiluomo came in second place in the 11th bracket.

• Trinity Meyer's won the 16th bracket.

• Sylvia Brofitt took first in the 22nd bracket.

• Helen Orszula was runner-up in the 25th bracket.

• Alexandria Held was second in the 26th bracket.

• Harper Chase finished second in the 32nd bracket.

• Jannell Avila won the 42nd bracket (3-0).

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: CCA, Liberty and West High compete in the Highland Girls' Wrestling Tournament