winner a season ago. She was fifth at 120 and posted a 24-15 overall record. Heaberlin was right behind Springer with 26
victories on the season and she was sixth at 140 at regionals. “This group of returning girls
we have, I think they can all be really good,” Graves said. “If Makenna hadn’t hurt her knee, I think she had a really good shot to get to state last year. Tatum has put in the most work over the summer and she has ex- pectations for herself to be at state this year.” Graves doesn’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility to see four or more Tigers advance to the big stage in Coralville come February. But advancing through regionals and on to state won’t be easy. In fact, it may be tougher this season. For the first time, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has adopted two classes for girls wrestling. Gilbert will have to tangle with the heavyweights, so to speak, as a member of Class 2A. The Tigers sit 47th in enrollment; at the top of the class are seven programs with enrollment figures that top 2,000 students when you factor in sharing agreements. Whether you agree with it or not, Graves says complaining won’t do any good. All he and his wrestlers can do is prepare to the best of their abilities and take it one match at a time. “When you go back and look at last year’s (individual) state champs when everyone was in one class, how many came from small schools? Probably about half,” Graves said. “So it will probably have a bigger im-
Wt Name
Gr So So
100 Sydney Jones 115 Aubrey Shannon 120 Emma Britcher 125 Breonna Iddings 125 Cecilia Bowers 125 Memphis Iddings
Jr Fr Jr
pact at regionals than it does at state and until we know who’s at our regional, we won’t know the impact. But the state will need to do a good job of bal- ancing the regionals.” Eight of the 14 individual state champions from a season ago will return, and Graves is cor- rect — they are split evenly, 4- 4, among the two classes. Gilbert has already competed twice this season and gave Graves his first career win as a head coach when it beat Car- lisle in a dual. So 130 Makenna Springer So 135 Morgan Beardsley Sr 135 Kate Melody Jr 140 Tatum Heaberlin Jr 140 Danielle Vogel Sr 145 Sadie Breyfogle Sr 145 Catherine Olson Fr 155 Cece Wagner So 170 Lizzie Mitchell Sr 235 Dzhesika Okumahba Jr *Weights are subject to change
34 GAME ON | WINTER 2024-25
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting