Fourth-place finish for Panthers at Clarinda

CLARINDA — The home team took the win Saturday, Clarinda posting a score of 156.5 at their girls wrestling tournament, but the Panthers came away with an impressive fourth-place finish, scoring 116.5, in the 19-team field.

East Union and Southwest Valley finished eighth and ninth, respectively, while Mount Ayr placed 12th.

Creston was led by Grace Keeler who won the 135-pound bracket, scoring 30 team points. Other top-three finishers for the Panthers were Eva Chesnut in second at 105, Sydney Hoffman in third at 115 and Alainah Galanakis in third at 130.

Keeler (25-3) had a perfect day, coming in the one seed and pinning her way to victory. She defeated all four opponents with first-period pins, on the mat for less than six minutes at the tournament.

The newest IAWrestle rankings place Keeler eighth at 135 in Class 2A after the Panthers were bumped up from 1A in the offseason. She is now Creston’s only ranked female wrestler.

Despite falling off the rankings, Chesnut (19-6) had another good showing Saturday, making it to the championship match before falling to the one-seed, undefeated Sophia Hazen of ATU.

In the semifinals, Chesnut faced the two-seed, East Union’s Quynn Foster, a senior with state meet experience. But it was the Creston freshman who came out on top in a late pin.

Chesnut was down 5-1 after the first period, Foster earning points for a takedown and a short nearfall. After going down 7-1 early in the second period, Chesnut finally made her move, scoring 10 points on a reversal and two 4-point nearfalls in the final 30 seconds of the period. In the final two minutes, Chesnut scored on a reversal before earning the pin with just 11 seconds left in the bout.

In 1A, Foster is ranked 11th at 105.

At 115, Hoffman (19-8) came in the two-seed, but fell to third after a semifinals loss to Kambry Gordon (15-6) of Clarinda. Hoffman started the scoring, coming out on top 4-2 after the first period, but Gordon scored eight unanswered in the second period, coming away with the 10-4 decision.

In the third-place match, Hoffman earned a quick victory with a 1:38 pin over Ashley Hardy of Shenandoah.

Galanakis, a returning state qualifier, had a tough bracket at 130. No. 11 Sadie Smith (19-3) of Kuemper Catholic came in the one seed. At the second spot was Willow Ray (24-2) of West Central Valley.

Galanakis fell to Ray in the semifinals in a second-period pin after going down 9-1. Ray came away with the title after defeating Smith in an 11-3 major decision in the championships.

In the third-place bout, Galanakis faced Charlotte Johnston (21-12) of Winterset, winning in an 8-4 decision. In order to make it to that match, Galanakis pinned two opponents in the consolation bracket.

Also placing and scoring for the Panthers were Lydia Williams (170) and Christina Strand (190), finishing in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Williams faced the two-seed, senior Ellie Hutton of Interstate 35 in the semifinals. Hutton is ranked 11th in Class 1A at 190, jumping down a weight class in this tournament. Hutton won the bout in a 3:00 pin.

In the consolations, Williams was down 13-10 to Kaylie Wolterman of Kuemper Catholic when she was able to take control and earn a pin with less than a minute left to wrestle. This earned her a spot in the third-place match.

In that match, she fell to Brylee Schwebach of Mount Ayr in a 3:47 pin, placing fourth.

With just six wrestlers, the 190-pound bracket was round robin, Strand placing fifth after pinning Elyzah Olson of West Central Valley.

Creston is back in action tonight at the Panorama Wrestling Invite. Saturday they compete in Stuart at the West Central Valley Invite.