Five Ankeny girls captured individual titles on Thursday at the Nevada wrestling scramble.
Third-ranked Dana Cleveland at 135 pounds was among Ankeny’s champions. She raised her record to 22-3 on the season.
Other individual winners were Elyse Engebretson at 115 (19-5), Trudy Haag at 120 (19-4), Josie Bishop at 190 (19-12) and Melanie Martinez at 235 (23-5).
“Elyse and Dana both defeated ranked wrestlers on their way to championships,” said Ankeny coach Dustin Roland. “Trudy pretty much solidified herself as our 120-pounder with three wins on her way to a championship. Josie and Melanie both went 2-0 to win titles as well. Melanie is really looking solid.”
Placing second for Ankeny were Nora Bockes at 110 (25-5), Lily Hans at 130 (17-7) and Lauren Heimer at 170 (21-9).
Ella Hron took third at 105 (18-11), and so did Gia Blaser at 140 (23-8) and Mallorie McGuire at 155 (18-9).
“This was a great test for our girls,” Roland said. “I was very pleased with the competition at Nevada. Many of the girls took some beatings. They came back and wrestled hard after losing matches, which was great to see. This will be paramount when we get to regionals and have to fight our way back to a top-four finish.”
Ankeny has been assigned to Region 3 by the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union. It will compete against 24 other teams on Jan. 27 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.
Ankeny will be back in action on Tuesday with a CIML Conference dual at Southeast Polk, where it will battle Urbandale and the host Rams for the conference dual championship.
