Brenneman and Meader finish first at Wilton Tourney

Mid-Prairie took eight wrestlers to the Wilton Girls Tournament on Saturday. Seven came away with at least one win and two were class champions. 

Sarah Meader won her second tournament title of the season, for Browyn Brenneman it was a first. 

“This is (Brenneman’s) first year wrestling and she looked pretty good,” said Mid-Prairie wrestling coach Dylan Walther, who was in Wilton with the girls on Saturday. 

“On Monday, she wrestled a girl that got fourth at state last year. It wasn’t that close by looking at the scoreboard but she was aggressive and just made a couple mistakes that made the margin pretty wide but she fought and battled and competed the whole match. 

“On Saturday, she just opened up and was aggressive. For her, the thing is just going out there not thinking too much and just kind of be instinctive.”

Brenneman won a 9-4 decision over North Scott’s Kyleigh Westlin in round one, and then clinched first place with a pair of first-period pins. 

Meader won all three rounds by pin to clinch her second tournament win in six days. 

Caitlyn Busch went 2-1 for the day, which tied her for first. She ended up third in her class officially on the tiebreaker, despite pinning Marion’s Jordan Wheeler who finished first. 

Ellie Brenneman also went 2-1 and was second in her class

“Before the tournament we just talked about just being more aggressive overall and bringing the fight to them instead of reacting to our opponent,” Walther said. “I thought we did a better job of that on Saturday than we did on Monday.”

A week and a half ago at West Liberty, some of the first-time wrestlers didn’t even know little things like how to check in before a match. 

“They are definitely picking it up,” Walther said, “and doing pretty well with it.”