K.J. Pilcher

West Delaware’s Addison Burger suffered physical and mental adversity in her first 18 months of high school sports. She has overcome those challenges and has thrived as a member of West Delaware’s first girls’ wrestling team.

The response to the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s first sanctioned season of wrestling has been deafening. Participation numbers have rapidly grown in the first half and many are excited about trajectory, even though officials work toward improvements.

Doug Streicher has transformed Linn-Mar into a top wrestling program during his 26-season tenure, becoming the elder statesman of current Mississippi Valley Conference head wrestling coaches. He still finds reward in the progress athletes make on and off the mat.

Iowa Wrestling Weekend That Was extended into Monday with UNI and Iowa State’s action at the Collegiate duals in New Orleans and important news from the IGHSAU and IWCOA.

North Linn senior Cael Bridgewater wants to score lots of points and make his final season fun. He captured the 138-pound title at the Lynx Invitational Saturday, scoring 58 total match points in three technical falls. Benton edged Cedar Rapids Xavier in the team race.

Linn-Mar two-time state champion and three-time state finalist Tate Naaktgeboren reached the 100-win career win plateau, recording a pin to open the third-ranked Lions’ 58-20 dual win over Iowa City West on Thursday night at Linn-Mar

Cedar Rapids Prairie sophomore Mackenzie Childers has always possessed a love for wrestling. She has parlayed that passion into success, opening the season 20-0 with 16 pins.

Watch or listen to the December 14, 2022, Pinning Combination podcast, talking all things wrestling in Iowa.

United World Wrestling World Cup was another entertaining event. We peruse a few results from the weekend in college and high school wrestling.

USA Wrestling defeated Iran, 6-4, in the gold-medal dual at the United World Wrestling World Cup in men’s freestyle Sunday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

For the first time, United World Wrestling’s World Cup featured me’s and women’s freestyle competitions share the same stage. Team USA finishes fourth, falling to Mongolia in bronze-medal dual.

Felicity Taylor was a pioneer in girls’ wrestling as a prep at South Winneshiek. She continued her career at McKendree before transferring to become University of Iowa’s first women’s wrestling team. Now, she will represent Team USA at the UWW World Cup this weekend in Coralville.

Real Woods earned his degree at Stanford, earning All-American honors. He is a graduate transfer that chose University of Iowa to continue his pursuit of an NCAA wrestling title.

Mount Vernon has been successful to open the boys’ wrestling season. The Mustangs have sandwiched a tournament title between two dual meet victories to begin the year. Mount Vernon topped Clear Creek Amana, 45-28, Thursday night at home.

Mount Vernon senior Claire Gaffney remembered the influence former Mustang girls’ wrestlers had on her. She’s filling that role for new Mustangs wrestlers.