East Buchanan girls’ wrestling holds its own against the best

MARION — With a BEDS classification number of 242, East Buchanan was the smallest school competing in Saturday’s Linn-Mar Dual Tournament.

For reference, the largest school was Southeast Polk with 1,797. But, that didn’t stop the Buccaneers from sailing to a fourth-place finish, after falling to Raccoon River, 54-30, in the placing round.

To get to the third-place match, the Buccaneers went 3-1 in the initial round robin. East Buchanan defeated Linn-Mar, 36-36, by criteria; Vinton-Shellsburg, 39-30; and Dubuque Hempstead, 48-30. The lone loss on the day came to No. 4-ranked Southeast Polk, 49-30.

“I think we did pretty well,” East Buchanan Coach Dan Stiefel said. “We gave up a lot of weights and points, but I still thought we performed well.”

Since girls’ wrestling continues to grow in Iowa, there are more opportunities to participate in dual competitions and Saturday’s tournament at Linn-Mar was one of the toughest.

The tournament featured five of the top 12 ranked teams in the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) preseason rankings. Those five teams included: Waverly-Shell Rock (1), East Buchanan (3), Southeast Polk (4), Raccoon River (10) and Vinton-Shellsburg (12).

Stiefel and the Buccaneers were up for the challenge.

“We pretty much had the best teams in the state here today,” Stiefel said. “We can compete with pretty much anybody with a small number of girls. It goes to show how tough they are.”

One of the leaders for East Buchanan was Destiny Krum, who competed at the 130-pound and 135-pound weight class.

On the day, Krum went undefeated and pinned all her opponents.

“I listened to my coaches, and they helped me decide what moves to do,” Krum said. “I also had my teammates’ help to get pumped up before I went out and wrestled.”

During the third-place dual, Krum faced Raccoon River’s Montana Mitchell in the 130-pound bout.

In the opening part of their match, Krum was tossed to her back, nearly pinned. It wasn’t long after those moments of looking at the lights when Krum was back in a scramble and came back to pin Mitchell in 1:42.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Krum said. “She threw me. It was kind of a sprawl, and it was about whoever moved faster and got their hips on top.”

Waverly-Shell Rock, the defending state champion, won the tournament, defeating Southeast Polk, 48-33. The Go-Hawks’ Kiara Djoumessi was named the tournament’s most valuable wrestler.

In the fifth-place match, Cedar Falls defeated No. 12-ranked Vinton-Shellsburg, 60-18.

Linn-Mar came out on top in the seventh-place match, winning over Iowa City High, 60-18. Dubuque Hempstead took home ninth place, defeating Norwalk by a score of 48-24.

Stiefel and the Buccaneers will use Saturday’s performance to continue learning and improving on the mat.

“We have a lot of work to do, and we knew that coming in,” Stiefel said. “Now’s a good time to be learning, because we want to peak at the end of the season. That’s where we are looking.”