CORALVILLE, Iowa – A stunning upset and another team title for Raccoon River Northwest highlighted Friday night’s closing session at the girls state wrestling tournament.
RRNW become the first program to win two championships since the IGHSAU took over sponsorship of the sport in 2023 when it walked away with the Class 2A title at Xtream Arena in Coralville. But the team’s star, Katie Biscoglia, was upset in her bid to become the first four-time champion under IGHSAU sponsorship and that left the sellout crowd buzzing.
Ankeny’s Lauren Watson wiggled out of a potential takedown and pinned Biscoglia after just 43 seconds had elapsed in their match at 110 pounds. It was the first loss of the season for Biscoglia and just the second in 208 career matches. It came after she had rolled into the finals with two pins and a technical fall, looking as though a fourth championship was inevitable.
But Watson, a junior who has lost six times this season, ended that bid in shocking fashion and posted the biggest win of her career.
RRNW’s three other finalists all came away with titles to help their team finish the two-day tournament as a repeat champion with 148 ½ points. Cassidy McCallister won at 105 pounds with a takedown in overtime, Addison McGinness upset defending champion Lauren Whitt of Cedar Falls in the semifinals at 115 before getting a pin in the finals and unbeaten Calista Rodish topped off the night for the champs with a major decision at 140.
Denver overtook Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont and Osage in the final round to win the Class 1A team championship with 107 points. The Cyclones matched RRNW by crowning three individual champions, making them the first programs to have more than two at the state meet.
Algona finished second in 2A with 112 points and had two individual champions, getting a pin from freshman Ruby Roof at 125 and a 37-second pin from Reagan Haynes at 190. Both wrestlers pinned all four of their state tournament opponents.
Southeast Polk took third with 109 points, Ankeny was fourth with 105 ½ and Iowa City Liberty slipped into fifth with a strong showing in Friday’s consolation rounds and finished with 82 ½ points.
Only one champion from last year in repeated in 2A and it came in a duel of champions, South Tama’s Autumn Elsbury pinning Waverly-Shell Rock’s Amalia Djoumessi for the title at 170. Elsbury won in that class a year ago while Djoumessi moved up after winning at 155.
Southeast Polk senior Skylar Slade finally got back to the top of the podium after winning at 155 as a freshman. She finished third as a sophomore and second last year before pinning Algona’s Regan Jensen for another title at 155.
Denver entered the final round in third place, 13 points behind first-place EBF. The Cyclones closed the gap with titles at 100 and 110, then took the lead with Lili Cooper’s 10-5 victory over EBF’s Georgia Smith at 130. Denver’s other champs were Abigail Petersen at 100 and Violet Diaz, who won at 110 after taking top honors at 105 last year.
EBF lost both its matches in the finals and finished a close second with 105 points, Osage came in third with 101, Mount Vernon was fourth with 91 and East Buchanan finished fifth with 81 ½.
The 1A finals also featured a battle of champions, this one at 140, where Saydel’s Colbie Tenborg became a three-time champion with a 9-3 win over Teagan Carritt of Logan-Magnolia, the winner at that weight last year. Tenborg won her other titles at 130 and 135.
Also repeating were Ainsley Hemann of Osage at 105 and Brooklyn Graham of East Buchanan at 190.
