HISTORIC WIN: HC’s Stephens Going to State for Girls’ Wrestling

HISTORIC WIN: HC’s Stephens Going to State for Girls’ Wrestling –

(1-31-25) – It was a historic night for the Harlan Community girls’ wrestling program.

In just their 2nd season in existence, they have their first ever State Qualifier as Elle Stephens earned a 2nd place finish at 125lbs at the Class 1A Region 5 Qualifier in Red Oak on Friday.

“She saw some really tough competition,” Cyclone girls’ wrestling Coach Tarah Devlin-Lawler told KNOD Sports. “Regionals is always, you know, the best girls that we see on that front side of the bracket and Elle went out and was confident and just put her best foot forward and left everything out on the mat. She gave it her all and had a great outcome. She's a fantastic wrestler and she's a lot of fun to watch while she's out on the mat.”

Stephens fell to 3-time defending champions Molly Allen of Riverside in the 1st place match on a technical fall, 18-1 decision. It forced Stephens and Lawler to wait to see if she’d have a wrestleback in a 2nd place match.

“We sat and watched that match, the 3rd place match, and as soon as (Maddie) McCoy (of Clarinda) won, we knew that Elle had punched her ticket to State, so we were sitting there kind of on pins and needles, waiting to see how that matchup played out.”

Stephens defeated McCoy in the semifinals with a pin at :53 seconds.

Kyrsten Madden earned a win in the consolation round at 135lbs when she pinned Southwest Iowa’s Keyana Haggerty at 1:31, but fell in her next match to Bridgette Sieck of Logan-Magnolia-Woodbine.

Annaleigh Sheehan, Danica Schwery, and Hallie Lopez also competed at State Qualifying for Harlan Community. Lawler says it was great to see effort they put out in this competition and all season long.

“They all wrestled really hard and put things together and we talked to them after the tournament and they were proud of themselves. So, it was really fun to see.”

Stephens will next compete in the Class 1A Girls’ State Wrestling Tournament on Thursday, Feb. 6th, at Xtreme Arena in Coralville.

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