Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Wrestling Social Media

It’s been a year of firsts around the state of Iowa for girls wrestling, but thanks to the success of the program, the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks are celebrating their own first in school history. At last week’s Super-District State Qualifying meet in Cedar Rapids, five Mid-Prairie athletes made their way onto the podium to qualify for the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union state meet next week. That’s the most in school history for a single state tournament, boys or girls, eclipsing the previous mark of four, set in 1998, when Heath Ropp, Brad TeBockhorst, Sol Miller and Ryan Brunk all advanced to Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines.

Mid-Prairie’s state qualifiers this year include Gabi Robertson at 100lbs, Ellie Brenneman at 135lbs, Grace Conway at 140lbs, Mia Garvey at 145lbs and Ellie Callahan at 170lbs. They spoke this week with KCII Sports about the record and what it means for them and their program. “It’s awesome! It feels great! I didn’t know that, it’s kind of like ‘Wow! Okay!’. It’s definitely one of those things that a lot of us will remember for a long time. We’ll be able to tell people ‘We set that record, that was us!’. We really are making history. First ever girls sanctioned state wrestling meet, breaking all of our old school records, and we’re getting better as it goes.”

This is the ninth time in school history that Mid-Prairie has qualified multiple wrestlers for a single state tournament and the fifth time they have sent three or more. The Golden Hawks will take the mat Thursday at Xtream Arena in Coralville to open the first ever Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Tournament, KCII will have live updates at the top of each hour Thursday and Friday. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII.