FM girls win first-ever home Invite

Senior Chloe Sokolik executes a cradle in her title match Monday night at the Fort Madison Invitataion enroute to her first-place finish.

Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Sophomore Mara Smith tries to pull down Anna Gorsch from behind in the title match at 125 lbs. Smith would win and remains perfect on the season.

Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

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Winning the right way

Winning a tournament like this at home is fantastic. You wanna win it. But how you win it wasn’t the way we want to win it. We want to win it with clean wrestling and I don’t think we did that tonight.”

Kyle Doherty, Lady Hounds Head Coach

FORT MADISON – After winning the first girls' wrestling tournament ever held at Fort Madison High School by more than 50 points, Head Coach Kyle Doherty didn’t jump up and down, he didn’t even smile. He wanted more.
“I called them out a little bit,” Doherty said after the event.
“There’s a difference. Winning a tournament like this at home is fantastic. You wanna win it, but how you win it wasn’t the way we want to win it. We want to win it with clean wrestling and I don’t think we did that tonight,” Doherty said.
“We need to go back to the drawing board ASAP tomorrow and keep going.”
Senior Chloe Sokolik who got her first title of the year wrestling at 130 lbs. said the Lady Hounds needed the butt chewing from Doherty after the event - the first time in FMHS history a girls' wrestling tournament was held at home.
“I feel like we needed it so we don’t get in our heads,” Sokolik said. “There’s always room for improvement. We can’t go out there and think we can win every single one of them. We have to know there are people better than us and do different things to beat them.”
Sokolik (12-2) knocked off Tori Hansen of Louisa-Muscatine with a pin :24 seconds into the third period. She won all her matches by pin including a pin over teammate Briena Fenton in the first period.
Fort Madison had eight girls make the finals in the five-hour event at the Hound Dome. Hailey Kemper (100 lbs), Annah Blanchard (115 lbs), Mara Smith (125 lbs) Sokolik, Alaina Schwerin (135 lbs), Kat DiPrima (140 lbs), Tatum Peters (145 lbs), Sadie Brandon (155 lbs).
“Eight in the finals is fantastic. It’s nice to sit in the chairs and stay in them,” Doherty said. “We just have to attack the finals.”
Part of Doherty’s frustration were the losses in the final four matches and a highly emotional match between Blanchard and Tipton’s Alyssa Lovell. The referee had to stop the match at several points to calm both wrestlers down after several warnings for slapping head gear.
Lovell was issued a penalty point and a caution in the match and held a 4-2 first period lead. Blanchard turned the tables in period 2 with an early escape from a down start where a few moments later action was stopped to draw down tempers.
Blanchard responded with a takedown and then Lovell turned things around with a reversal. As the wrestling moved to the outer circle, Blanchard was able to score her own reversal with two seconds left in the period for a slim 7-6 lead going into the final period.
The Lady Hound started down in the third period. Lovell was issued a hold caution off the whistle and then Blanchard quickly got out of Lovell’s grasp for a two-point reversal, but Lovell worked her way out getting four points in a reversal and near fall. Blanchard would escape but suffer another takedown and eventually a fall at 5:08.
Doherty said the Hounds have to learn to fight through the adversity and emotion of the matches, especially in finals matches.
“Annah Blanchard’s match was a high match. We gotta be better there. We can’t let everything around us consume us. When the moment was hot in the finals, we caved.”
In addition to Sokolik’s title, the Hounds got titles from Kemper and Smith.
Kemper rolled through her bracket getting a first round bye and then getting a quick pin over Louisa-Muscatine’s Neyva Alberhasky in just :37 and then Wapello’s Kenadee Helscher in 1:22 for the title.
Smith rolled easily at 125 until the finals where she was headlocked and hip-tossed three different times in her championship match with English Valley sophomore Anna Gorsch. Gorsch grabbed Smith into a headlock almost immediately off the whistle and flipped her to the ground 15 seconds into the match, recording five quick points. The Fort Madison sophomore, who qualified for state last season, was able to slip out of the hold for a reversal, but was whistled for a penalty point after returning the favor with a headlock and hip-toss of her own that left Gorsch needing a medical timeout. After the penalty point, Smith trailed 6-2 at the end of one. Smith started on the bottom in period two and received a penalty point on a hold. Gorsh was cautioned again after another headlock, but Smith was again able to slip away from the grip for two points. Gorsch executed a third headlock takedown and then got a near fall before Smith slipped a reversal and came out on top of Gorsh chest-to-chest and scored a pin for the title.
“That was definitely something new. I usually don’t get thrown in a headlock a lot,” Smith said. “It was nerve wracking being put on my back that many times. I was sitting there thinking, 'I gotta go', because I knew I was losing. I definitely got caught in a lot of risky positions on my part.”
The four-point deficit was the largest deficit Smith had to wrestle back from in the Hounds' first four tournaments. Doherty said Smith has only been on her back six times this year, three in that match.
But Smith said she’s starting to gain her confidence in any spot on the mat.
“I was nervous at the start of the year, but now I feel like I’m getting in the groove and have more confidence."
Doherty agreed.
“Mara’s starting to figure out there’s different competition out there. What’s changed from last year to this year is that she doesn’t panic.  She’s wrestling.”
Fort Madison won with 195 points followed by Ottumwa with 145 points and Tipton with 127. Burlington and Cardinal rounded out the top five with 115 and 108 points.
Complete results for Fort Madison wrestlers are below:
Hailey Kemper (100 lbs) 1^st place – 24 points
Lucille Zimmerman (100 lbs) 6^th place
Emma Berry (105 lbs) 5^th place – 9 points
Annah Blanchard (115 lbs) 2^nd place – 18 points.
Mara Smith (125 lbs) 1^st place – 24 points.
Iris Arevalo (125 lbs) 6^th place
Chloe Sokolik (130 lbs) 1^st place – 24 points.
Briena Fenton (130 lbs.) 4^th place
Natalie Wright (135 lbs.)
Alaina Schwerin (135 lbs) 2^nd place – 22 points.
Kat DiPrima (140 lbs.) 2^nd place – 22 points
Tatum Peters (145 lbs) 2^nd place 22 points.
Mady Emmett (145 lbs) 4^th place.
Sadie Brandon (155 lbs) 2^nd place – 24 points.
Taylea Palar (235 lbs)