Hovenga ends season at girls wrestling state tourney

CORALVILLE – Lia Hovenga wrapped up her first and last season as a high school girls wrestler last Thursday at the state tournament.

The Aplington-Parkersburg senior, wrestling with Aplington-Parkersburg/Grundy Center, went 0-2 in the 110-pound bracket at the Xtream Arena in Coralville.

Hovenga wrestled in a sold-out first session, with thousands of fans packing into the standing-room-only arena.

“It made me a little nervous, but it was fun,” Hovenga said. “It’s definitely really cool seeing all the people.”

Her first match was against Nevada’s Ashlyn Leslie, a freshman that A-P/GC head coach Joel Reints said clearly came in with more experience than the first-year wrestler Hovenga. Leslie scored the pin in the second period to send Hovenga to the consolation bracket.

“That girl hit some kind of gator roll and then we’re on our back and fighting,” Reints said. “She did a good job fighting off her back but I just think that girl was quite a bit more experienced.”

Hovenga scored the first takedown of her consolation match with Anika Stearns of Emmetsburg, but Stearns reversed out of bottom position to start the second period and took a 5-3 lead to the third period. Hovenga tried to work out of bottom to start the third period, but a couple turns later Stearns had the pin.

“That first girl was good, and I was hoping to get a win after that,” Hovenga said. “But it didn’t work out.”

Hovenga’s season ends at 28-8 as Aplington-Parkersburg’s first-ever girls state wrestling qualifier.

“I wish I could have gone farther, but overall I think it was a pretty good year,” Hovenga said.

Grundy Center students Kayden Muller and Grace Storjohann joined Hovenga in Coralville last week. 

Storjohann had the deepest run of the Falcons competing, including a win over third-seeded Kadence Pape of MFL MarMac in the second round, avenging a loss to Pape in the regional final in Decorah a week prior.

“She’s very calculated in her technique and she really studied [that loss],” Reints said. “And I think she’s just got a competitive personality where that loss ate at her and she didn’t put her head down but said that she was going to figure out a way to beat her.

“She wrestled a perfect match. We didn’t shoot much, just kind of kept it, blocked her off. And then the third period, she rode the you-know-what out of her. Just a great job all around.”

Storjohann was outmatched by North Scott’s Khylie Wainwright in the quarterfinals, but still had a chance to earn a medal with a win in the blood round on Friday morning against Carly Henderson of Riverside.

Henderson hit a takedown in the third period and while Storjohann was able to escape to get within one, she couldn’t find those last points to get to the podium.

As a first-year wrestler herself, Storjohann said she’s learned so much about wrestling in a short amount of time.

“Competing against these higher level girls exposed my weaknesses on shots and getting out of the bottom position,” Storjohann said. “I keep thinking to myself … one point, one takedown, one second faster. That was all I needed.

“It’s going to burn for a long time, but I’m going to use that to fuel myself in training, so that next winter, I will one up my opponents.”

Muller went 0-2 in the 130-pound bracket after a sudden-victory loss to Ridge View’s Destiny Brown in the first round, and a 10-6 decision for Treynor’s Emerson Gregg in the first consolation match.

“That first match, we were really close and she was fighting her tail off,” Reints said. “[Brown] was very tough on top, just couldn’t quite get away there. It doesn’t change how I feel about Kayden. She did a great job and fought all year long.”