North Tama’s Briar Blake has her hand raised after winning the 170-pound bracket at the Region 3 girls’ wrestling tournament on Friday at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Blake, now a regional champion, qualified for this week’s state tournament alongside teammate Addy Hochstetler as the first two girls to do so in school history. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

DES MOINES — Injury cut Briar Blake’s first season as a North Tama girls wrestler short.

Now, the Redhawk junior is one of the favorites to end next week with a state medal after winning the 170-pound bracket in the Region 3 tournament at the IGHSAU super regional event held at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines last Friday.

Together with 135-pounder Addison ‘Addy’ Hochstetler, the Redhawks now have their first two girls state qualifiers in school history – and another pair of names to add to the Kathi Knaack Memorial Redhawks State Wrestling board in the North Tama wrestling room.

Blake entered the tournament last Friday as the top seed and went 3-0 as champion, pinning Boone’s Brooklynn Elliott, winning a 7-6 decision with Iowa Valley’s Raelene Hawkins and pinning Iowa City High’s Molly Carlson in the finals.

At this time last year, Blake was out of action with an ACL tear sustained over the 2022-23 winter break.

Redhawk wrestler Addy Hochstetler, left, is congratulated by head coach Andrew Knaack after securing a trip to the state tournament by making it to the semifinals of the Region 3 girls’ wrestling tournament last Friday in Des Moines. Hochstelter was regional runner-up in the 135-pound bracket and will wrestle this week at the state tournament in Coralville. Redhawk wrestling coach Luke Dvorak, right, is also pictured. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

“It was really mentally tough and hard, because I had to work so hard to get back to where I am now,” Blake said.

The large support on Blake’s leg is hard to miss, but her toughness on the mat quickly overshadows it.

“She’s busted her butt all summer long,” head coach Andrew Knaack said. “Couldn’t play softball, had to sit out volleyball until the last two weeks, so when wrestling came around, she knew she was full go. And when you watch Briar wrestle you know something big’s going to happen. She likes to throw people around.

“We run practices a lot with the boys at the same time and she spends a lot of time with Kolt [Knaack], 33-0 right now and he teaches her a lot and they beat on each other and don’t treat each other differently just because he’s a boy and she’s a girl. They’ve been pushing hard.”

Blake was ranked sixth in the latest rankings release from IAwrestle.

“I just try my hardest and want it more than anyone,” Blake said. “There’s a lot of hard work involved, even stuff that coaches might not see, and working out by yourself.”

Hochstetler, a sophomore, brought the only returning super regional experience on Friday after going 2-2 last year.

She won her first two matches on Friday by fall and handled a 7-2 decision with Pekin’s Hailey Pedrick in the semifinals. She then took on the No. 1 seed Bella Mulder of Dallas Center-Grimes (a senior ranked ninth by IAwrestle) in the finals who won with a first-period pin of Hochstetler.

Throughout Hochstetler’s run on Friday it was plain to see she’s taken a step forward from her freshman campaign.

“I’ve been working on my offense a lot,” Hochstetler said, “and today just showed how much I’ve worked on it. … It’s all about how hard you work and how bad you want it.”

Knaack added, “We’ve been working with Addy on finishing her takedowns and she got three takedowns in that semifinal match. … She’s come a long way – started out at 140 and made the decision that 135 was the right way and it paid off today.”

Even for the North Tama girls that didn’t punch through on Friday, there’s not a senior among the six that wrestled, and the future is looking bright for Redhawk wrestling with Blake and Hochstetler leading the way.

“Got eight girls in junior high, three of them eighth-graders so we’ll have nine girls on the team from a school with a graduating class of 32,” Knaack said. “The girls have been awesome to work with doing the coaching for boys and girls, because they don’t want to be held back, they give you the same answer the boys do – they just want to run and go and learn and get better and battle.”

“It’s fun to not just go down to Des Moines and watch the boys. It’s time for the girls to take ownership of our own program.”

Other Redhawks competing on Friday included Grace Dvorak (110) who went 1-1, making it to the quarterfinals after beating English Valleys-Tri County’s Kadie Troyer by pinfall in one minute, 23 seconds. In the consolation round she was pinned by Martha Willard of Iowa City, City High.

Olivia Youngblood (115) defeated Kate Badding of Ames by decision, 4-2 in the opening round before falling to Sigourney-Keota’s Reanah Utterback. She then went 1-1 in the consolation round where she defeated Charlize Campbell of Carlisle by pinfall.

After receiving a bye, Ava Monat (125) was pinned by Iowa Valley’s Skyler Hoyt in two minutes, 46 seconds. She then went 1-1 in the consolation round where she defeated Pekin’s Reece Brisby by decision, 6-1.

Faith Dvorak (140) also received a bye before falling to Iowa Valley’s Claire Smolik but not before receiving two points for a takedown. In the consolation round she was pinned by McKayla Silbaugh of Boone.

On to state

The 2024 Girls State Wrestling Tournament will take place this week Thursday and Friday (Feb. 1-2) at Xtream Arena in Coralville. The Telegraph will feature full coverage of the tournament in next week’s edition.

At state, Hochstetler (27-6) is seeded No. 17 and will face No. 16 Cieanna Ficken (40-7), a senior from West Marshall in the opening round, while Blake (28-2) is seeded No. 7 and is set to face No. 26 Addaly Miller (22-5), a senior from MOC-Floyd Valley) in the opening round.