Awards presented; coach gives outlook for the future

The Denison-Schleswig Monarch girls finished their second season as a state sanctioned sport by sending two team members to the state tournament.

Taya Adams punched her ticket to the state tournament at 130 pounds and sophomore Angie Rivera qualified for state for the second consecutive year.

Along the way, the Monarchs won a number of duals and placed in tournaments.

The Monarchs won duals against Audubon, Hinton, Carroll, Glenwood and Kuemper.

They placed third at the Western Iowa tournament, fourth at the Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson tournament, fourth at the Riverside tournament, fourth at the Lo-Ma tournament and 14th at the SWAT tournament.

The team recently presented its awards and letters.

Most Valuable Wrestler: Taya Adams

Most Improved: Giana Garcia

Hardest Worker: Angie Rivera

Monarch Award: Taya Adams

Following are the team members. Varsity letterwinners are denoted by *.

Freshmen team members: Andrea Alcaraz*, Grace Collins*, Samantha Espinoza, Marisol Granados*, Briana Perez, Katherine Ramirez, Guadalupe Ramos

Sophomores: Giana Garcia*, Addison Ransom*, Angie Rivera*, Katerin Rodriguez

Juniors: Kasandra Barroso*, Ana Castillo*, Miranda Estrada, Alexis Hartwig*, Nallely Rivera, Yarecze Rodriguez*, Alexa Tremblay*

Seniors: Taya Adams*, Taylor Totten*

“It felt like we got our feet underneath us a bit in our second year of competition. We were able to build a solid lineup that had four top four finishes in tournaments throughout the season,” said Head Coach Jacob Brawner. “We don't have any top tier girls from a talent perspective at this point, but we have a lot of solid girls throughout our lineup, and we improved immensely from quite an eye-opening experience against some tough teams on the first night of the season.”

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He added that the Monarchs rewrote the book with the following additions to the season’s top 10 records.

Wins in a season: 7/10

Win percentage: 6/10

Takedowns: 6/10

Falls: 6/10

Fastest fall: 6/10

“It was a very long and grueling season, and we were decimated a bit by injuries and girls not sticking it out the whole season. We still managed to finish the season with 20 girls on our roster,” Brawner said.

The Monarchs finished eighth out of 24 teams at the regional meet. Seven of the nine Monarchs at the regional won a match.

Brawner listed the following areas of focus for the future and provided comments for each area.

• Recruit athletic and tough girls to join the team. “We improved in this area during year two and have all but two varsity starters returning. Filling those gaps and getting girls in the room that challenge our current roster is imperative. We should start to see some freshmen come in next year with some experience, which will be nice to have.”

• Recruit athletes to start participating in youth and middle school wrestling by building relationships. “Girls’ wrestling is already commonplace in some areas around the state. We will struggle to keep up if we don't get girls involved sooner.”

• Weight room and summer wrestling are a priority. “If we want to be competitive, we need to close the gaps in these areas.”

• Establish a schedule with dual meets as a priority. “Dual meets emphasize the team aspect of wrestling.”

This year’s team captains were Rivera and Adams. The manager was Cheyenne Vang and the assistant coach was Joe Brawner.

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