The Pleasantville girls wrestling team will kick-off year three of the program next week.

The Trojans have had a successful first two years since the program was officially established at Pleasantville and sanctioned in Iowa. In those first two years, Pleasantville benefited from a strong leader and talented wrestler in Madilyn Rowson who was a state qualifier and has since graduated. Rowson now wrestles at Central College. The Trojans currently have five girls out this year including returners Addie Koenig and Maggie Gasparovich who will look to help mentor the newcomers and try and earn their own trips to the state meet. Pleasantville has 14 dates on their schedule this year including a home dual tournament on January 27th that will feature eight teams. Head Coach Michael Koenig is happy with the direction of the program and he said they have worked to build up the competitiveness of the program.

“I would say our experience stepped up significantly. Last year we competed really well. We won a lot of matches last year, as a team and some individuals. Madilyn Rowson was a state qualifier for us and made it to the blood round, and now wrestles at Central College. It’s just a testament in two years time going from her having no experience wrestling to being competitive and now competing at the college level. We’ve been able to pick that up and try and build that competitiveness that we have on our boys side into our girls side and do the best we can with the numbers we have.”

The Trojan girls wrestling team will open their season on Tuesday at Sigourney.