Valkyries capture team silver at Atlantic Invite

ATLANTIC — The SWAT Valkyries motored to a second-place finish among 19 scoring teams Saturday at the Atlantic Trojan Invitational.

The Trojans hosted a busy tournament featuring four mats of action, and the Valkyries felt they handled the late-season test well. SWAT will return to the same gymnasium Friday for its regional meet, though head coach Tyler South said he did not view the weekend tournament as a direct tuneup.

“I felt there was a lot of good competition there with some tough teams — Raccoon River is tough, and South Central Calhoun is pretty tough, too,” South said. “There’s some other competition that’s going to be at regionals. We have to go out and see how we stack up, but to have three in the finals, I was happy with that.”

Bailey Lillard (145 pounds), Stella Beattie (170) and Megan Gerlock (190) were the three Valkyries to reach the finals. Beattie improved her record to 26-1 on the season, capturing gold with four falls on the day. Lillard and Gerlock both went 3-1 to finish second.

Of SWAT’s matches, only three ended in something other than a pin.

“We keep talking to the girls about wrestling offensively — going after points, not giving up on takedowns or waiting for them to shoot,” South said. “When you get the opportunity to turn them, use that pinning combination, put them on their back, get back points, settle in and work for that fall.”

One of the Valkyries’ best bouts of the day came from Gerlock, who is now 20-8 on the season. She pinned Clarinda’s Jaiden Olson, who entered the match with a 22-5 record, at the 4:58 mark of their semifinal.

“She hadn’t wrestled Jaiden before, but we knew she was a good wrestler,” South said. “That was a good one, and Megan came out on top with the fall. Erin South also had a tough match with Alainah Galanakis. She’s seen her a couple of times this year, and that one went the full six minutes. Bailey and Stella are settled into their groove right now — they’re on an upswing and wrestling very well and very hard.”

Other SWAT placewinners included Nadia South (105), third; Destiny Fry (120), fifth; and Jelina Gutierrez (125), sixth.

Raccoon River Northwest won the team title with 296.5 points, followed by SWAT with 127.5. South Central Calhoun finished a half-point behind the Valkyries.

Also of note, Raccoon River Northwest’s Katie Biscoglia became the second Iowa girl to reach 200 career wins.

At Friday’s regional meet, the Valkyries will face wrestlers from Atlantic, Audubon, Clarinda, East Mills, Griswold, Logan-Magnolia, Missouri Valley, Red Oak, Riverside, Shenandoah, Sidney, Treynor, Tri-Center, West Central Valley, West Monona and Woodward-Granger. The top two finishers at each weight class advance to the state tournament, set for Feb. 5-6 at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“We’re just going to spend this week making sure everybody stays healthy,” South said. “We’ll take care of any bumps, bruises or sprains so we’re at the top of our performance Friday night. We’ll also work on whatever the girls feel they need — if there’s a weakness or something they want extra work on, we’ll address it.”