Two Panthers return to state

GLENWOOD — Creston’s first, and possibly only foray into Class 2A girls tournament wrestling resulted in two repeat trips to state Friday night.

Senior Grace Keeler (135-pound Region 2 champion) and junior Alainah Galanakis (130-pound runner-up) qualified for the Class 1A state tournament last year. Their performances Friday in Glenwood earned spots in this year’s Class 2A field, which begins at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

Enrollment differences

Creston head coach Maggie Arnold, noting the number of large urban schools combining for one girls wrestling program, and Creston’s status as the second-smallest school in 2A, said the two Panther state qualifiers proved themselves in a deep field of talent Friday.

“Only one team, Benton (Community), which has two less kids in school than us, is a smaller school than us in 2A,” Arnold said. “Ankeny, Ankeny Centennial and Bondurant takes away three schools larger than us because they’re all one team. Valley and Dowling are together. All of the Des Moines public schools are together. Johnston, Urbandale and Des Moines Christian are together as one 2A team. Our enrollment will go down next year and we’ll be back in 1A. We really didn’t know what to expect today, so I’m not going to be greedy or disappointed with what we got. These are programs here that fill every weight class and have great competition in the practice room.”

Senior Sydney Hoffman (115) and freshman Eva Chesnut (100) were hoping to contend as No. 4 seeds in their weight classes, but were sidelined from the coveted finals spots with losses in the semifinal round and consolation brackets. Chesnut placed fourth.

“I was really hoping we would get Sydney and Eva through as well,” Arnold said. “But, Alainah and Grace have kind of led us through the standings all year and were able to get good enough seeds to help them here today. Those two took care of business. We will really miss Sydney, and Eva will miss her tremendously. It’s been really fun to watch them work together every night in the room. They couldn’t be more different, but they worked really well together in the room and always went 100 miles an hour.”

Coming off a third-place finish at the Atlantic Invitational a week earlier, freshman Kora Lohoff contended for a state spot at 155 pounds on Friday. Lohoff won by fall in the consolation semifinals, and earned a chance to wrestle back for second place after winning by fall in the consolation finals. She was defeated by Ashtyn Jahagir of Dallas Center-Grimes for the second state qualifying spot behind region champion Halle Mosaquites of Hinton/Sergeant Bluff-Luton.

“Kora really turned a corner on Saturday in Atlantic,” Arnold said. “She got beat a ranked girl and got third. She has finally figured out a way to control her strength and use it to her advantage. She’s using moves we’ve been practicing and getting better angles. That win over the LC girl was a big one today.”

Sophomore Lydia Williams (170) and freshman Ella Pryor (105) won consolation matches Friday as the Panthers placed seventh in the 10-team field with 84.5 points. Ankeny, including former Panther Karlie Kruse as the 125-pound champion, had the highest team score of 249 points.

State bound

Keeler entered the tournament as the second seed at 135 pounds behind Glenwood’s Maya Rivas, who topped Keeler at Atlantic six days earlier. Keeler got revenge Friday when it counted, beating Rivas by fall in the finals. Keeler also won by fall in the semifinals over Malia McHugh of Hinton/Sergeant Bluff-Luton, who brought a 35-10 record into the match.

“Grace knew she would have had the one seed with an easier road to the finals today had she won that match last Saturday,” Arnold said. “I thought she looked pretty sharp today. She learned. The Glenwood girl tried to do the same thing to her that caught her on Saturday, and she figured it out. I was very proud of her for that.”

Keeler said she’d been anxiously awaiting Friday’s opportunity to make amends.

“I came in today with anger, instead of sadness over a loss,” Keeler said. “I was beating her (Rivas) last week 5-0 and she threw me to my back. She chin-whipped me. She just tried it again tonight but I caught myself. Today I didn’t just hammer my shots. I kind of slowed myself down and let the match roll out. She tried to throw me again and I countered to get the takedown.”

Avoiding the same type of big scoring move also proved to be a strategy for Galanakis, who earned a chance to wrestle back for second place against Kaelynn Boston of Ankeny. In the semifinals Galanakis was pinned by defending state champion Avaeh Smith of Lewis Central, who remained undefeated.

Galanakis dominated the state-qualifying wrestleback in a 17-1 technical fall completed in 3:13.

“I was kind of watching her matches all night and I saw that she threw a lot of headlocks,” Galanakis said. “I knew that I needed to circle out of that, keep my defense strong, and work on my offense to not get in that situation where I would get thrown to my back.”

Her first big scoring move was a counter of Boston’s upper body attack.

“She went to throw me, I circled around and it just gave me the setup for my own headlock, so I kind of went with it,” Galanakis said. “I hadn’t thrown one all year. It’s make it or break it. You gotta do what you have to do to come out on top of those situations.”

Arnold said Galanakis wrestled smart in her second straight year of state qualifying through a second-place wrestleback bout.

“After that girl’s shot, the head and arm were there, so she took it,” Arnold said. “I was really glad to see that final takedown to clinch it, because you just never know in those wrestlebacks. Both wrestlers are trying to do everything they can to get that last state tournament spot.”

State seedings

Keeler (44-6) is the No. 6 seed in the 2A state field at 135 pounds, drawing 11th seed Ava Perkins (39-12) of South Tama County in the opening round. Third-seeded Addie Nelson of Southeast Polk (39-2) or No. 14 seed Kenadi Montgomery of Pella (39-11) would be the quarterfinal opponent. The first day includes two rounds of matches on the winner’s side of the bracket and two on the consolation side. All other matches will be held in the 1 p.m. session on Friday.

Galanakis (38-13) is seeded 13th at 130 pounds and opens against No. 4 seed Cate Erickson (39-3) of Perry. Her quarterfinal opponent with a win would be either No. 5 seed Arabella Varvel (24-6) of Southeast Polk or South Tama County’s Brooklyn Mitchell (38-16), seeded 12th.

“I thought those seeds were fair for the season the girls had,” Arnold said. “The four and five seed in Grace’s bracket were both placewinners last year, so six is a good spot for her. Wrestling to her seed should be her goal. I like Alainah’s first-round matchup. We have seen her this year, so we know what to expect.”

Class 1A qualifier

Advancing to the Class 1A opening round at state at 10 a.m. Thursday is region 145-pound champion Kenzie Maeder of Southwest Valley. Maeder (48-3) is seeded third and faces 14th seed Addie Koenig (30-14) of Pleasantville in the opener.

CLASS 2A REGION 2

Team scoring — 1. Ankeny 249; 2. Dallas Center-Grimes 166; 3. Hinton-Sergeant Bluff-Luton 163; 4. Lewis Central 150; 5. Glenwood 88; 6. Norwalk 86; 7. Creston 84.5; 8. Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln 62; 9. Winterset 47; 10. Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson 26.

Creston placewinners — Grace Keeler (135), first; Alainah Galanakis (130), second; Kora Lohoff (155), third; Eva Chesnut (100), fourth.