Cyclone Girls’ Wrestling Takes in Experience from 1st-Ever Competition

Cyclone Girls’ Wrestling Takes in Experience from 1st-Ever Competition -

(12-12-23) – The first one is always the hardest.

The Cyclone girls’ wrestling team made history by competing in their first-ever varsity tournament last Friday. The team only earned 3 pts, but Coach Tarah Devlin-Lawler knows the experience for herself and her wrestlers will live on forever.

“The experience was great. There was a lot of nerves with me. There's a lot of nerves with the girls but they went out on the mat. They competed. They definitely worked on things that we've worked in practice. Every single one of them came off the mat, a little disappointed about losing, but they all came off knowing that they wanted to know what they did wrong so that we can improve on it in the future.”

The Cyclone squad did get a thrill from Ivy Stephens as she earned a victory in the 130 lb consolation round, pinning Earlham’s Lilli Strandberg at 2:35 of the match.

“It was so exciting to watch her win. I think there was a moment of disbelief on her part. She actually stood up kind of looked at us and said that this really happened when she won and it was exciting for our entire team. All of the girls were able to watch her match and so everybody got to watch her get that pin. So I think it kind of put a little bit of fire into everybody else and want them to be able to do that as well.”

Now that the first competition is out of the way, Lawler says it’s time for her girls to work on improving their skills so they can turn those losses into victories.
“We talked a lot about having the girls commit to doing more shooting. That was one thing that we didn't do a lot of this past weekend. So I want to see the girls get in there and take those shots and have confidence in their shots being able to get into those shots and finish them and just maintaining that ability to gain confidence every single time they step out on the mat.”

The Harlan Community Girls’ Wrestling team will next compete at the Shenandoah Invitational this Saturday.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats