Newton girls down Pella in first sanctioned wrestling dual
Dec. 12—Even though girls' wrestling is in its first sanctioned season, Jessie Hutchinson, Emma Lopez-Garcia and Elizabeth Elliott are veterans to the mat.
The Cardinals' senior trio hit the ground running and things couldn't have started much better for them.
They led Newton to a 36-28 victory over Pella on Thursday. It was the first officially sanctioned girls wrestling dual in school history.
"It feels awesome to have a real dual," Hutchinson said. "The DCG dual last year was a little messy and we technically won that one, too, but having this dual with Pella and winning was awesome. It's a good way to start my senior year."
Hutchinson, Lopez-Garcia and Elliott have begun their senior years a combined 15-1. All three scored wins by pin against the Dutch.
The dual featured double forfeits at 110, 125 and 130 and Claire Breuer took a forfeit at 140. Pella took two forfeits, too.
The Cardinals were 5-3 in contested matches. All five wins were pins and Brianna Aebischer (145) and Stella Cupples (120) registered falls in 53 seconds and 19 seconds, respectively.
Lopez-Garcia got her pin at 135, Elliott's came at 100 and Hutchinson collected her fifth pin of the season at 170.
"The new girls are adjusting well," Lopez-Garcia said. "We fought tough tonight, but we still have some things to work on. Even the girls who lost gave it everything they had, and I'm really proud of them."
Lopez-Garcia is 5-0 with five pins this season, while Elliott is 5-0 and Cupples improved to 4-0 with three pins. Hutchinson is 5-1 with her lone loss coming against a nationally ranked wrestler from Southeast Polk.
"We have a good base of girls who have a lot of wrestling experience and had great coaches in the past," Newton head girls wrestling coach Chad Garvis said. "They came in strong and ready to win 25-30 matches. They are solid wrestlers with a lot of experience, and it's really helped all of our new girls mature, too."
The dual against Pella is the only scheduled home dual of the season, and the girls competed side-by-side with the boys' wrestling team, which also faced Pella.
"I actually liked running it side-by-side with the boys," Garvis said. "It was a cool thing. I'm not sure if we will continue to do that in the future or not."
Lopez-Garcia missed the first month of the season after sustaining a non-wrestling injury.
Elliott, who is a student at Lynnville-Sully, has been hampered by injuries in her career. She thinks wrestling only girls this winter has helped her stay injury-free.
"I'm wrestling pretty well so far. I have had back issues in the past so that's less likely to happen wrestling girls," Elliott said. "The transition hasn't been bad. It's just been different going from wrestling mostly boys to only girls. I think that's helped me stay healthy though."
Notes: Aebischer improved to 3-1 after her win by pin. ... Ella Machin did not wrestle in the dual due to an injury she sustained during the team's home tournament on Dec. 3. ... Hutchinson feels like the new girls are catching up to the veterans. "We started going a little bit harder this week," Hutchinson said. "The new girls had to get warmed up to that. I think we are all learning what it takes to be a wrestler."
