Twenty-four girls wrestling teams competed to win the rights for the first-place plaque at the Minooka Thanksgiving Throwdown tournament on Nov. 22.
This tournament was a huge success for the team’s first home opener with over 300 girls wrestling. Minooka managed to place second as a whole with 262 points, 24 points behind champions East Aurora who had 286.
Making her way through her 155-pound bracket, senior Abigail Boersma came out superior to other wrestlers by taking first place. She pinned all three of her opponents. In the finals, she faced Jordan Smith from East Aurora, who fell at 1:13.
Boersma wrestled last year, and is determined to keep a winning streak.
“It felt great to start the season off on a high note by winning the tournament,” Boersma said, “This tournament allowed me to learn about what I can improve on and notice what I did well on.”
Senior Bella Cyrkiel placed third against Brooke Coy from Yorkville. Coy fell at 3:43 and Cyrkiel managed to snag the third-place spot in the 145-pound bracket. She has been looking forward to her senior season of wrestling competing with more girls from different schools.
“I thought it was awesome that our school was able to host such a big tournament with great composition,” Cyrkiel said. “Especially with it being our first home tournament, it was really fun and exciting.
Junior Elizabeth Castro pinned Andrew COOP’s Lana Shuaibi at 0:48 and left Castro with an overall third-place finish in the 140-pound bracket. With a quick match this led Castro to place on the podium for her weight class and bring in more points for Minooka’s overall score.
“When I placed that day for varsity, it gave me a lot of anticipation for what the year is going to be like for me, especially starting off on the right foot particularly knowing I beat a state qualifier,” Castro said.
Competing in the smallest bracket size of 100 pounds, freshman Kiley Adelmann managed to pull off a placing of fifth. She went against Kayleigh Shannon of Yorkville with a fall at 0:50. Only as a freshman, she is starting on varsity in the 100-pound bracket and has placed at her first tournament.
As a team, Minooka placed second out of 24 and many were pleased with the outcome. Head coach Paige Schoolman was proud of the girls’ efforts.
“We were excited to be able to place in our first tournament even with a few girls sitting out the first competition. We have a lot of improving to do over the next few weeks and months,” Schoolman said.
