Two wrestling squads and the bowlers were in action on a busy Saturday for Knoxville. The girls wrestlers placed 6th at the Cardinal Classic at Newton. Three Panthers were able to finish in the top three with Serenity Turner winning her weight class. She never wrestled a match to completion, sailing through with three pin wins, with the longest going 5:00 as she beat Alyssa Wheeler from Carlisle. Andie Branson was runner up in the 140 pound class. Branson had to wrestle teammate Cally Landis in a 1st round match to advance. Landis would come back to finish in 5th place. Mariah Ripperger at 235 pounds was also runner-up as she knocked off top seed Kinley Jimenez of South Tama in a semifinal before falling to Keaton Simmerman of Central Decatur in the final. Coach Doug Hatch tells KNIA/KRLS Sports the girls are picking up on small things to improve on and eventually those will add up to a much improved wrestler.
Hatch: “Couple girls came off and I said ‘Hey, you did this better and that better,’ and a couple of them said ‘I wasn’t falling for that again.’ So they’re getting better at several little things and those will add up later on.”
The Panthers are back in action on Tuesday at Chariton.
The Knoxville Boys Wrestlers were at Nodaway Valley on Saturday at the Coach Riley Invitational and placed 7th. Three grapplers were in the top three including Grant Garrison at 113 pounds, and Hunter Lund at 120 pounds, both placing 3rd. The runner up was Tristan Sinnard at 150 pounds. Sinnard had a bye all the way to the semifinals where he defeated Eli Harris of Nodaway Valley 11-4, but fell to Urijah Fry of Clarke in the final. Knoxville will have a home meet for the first time this Thursday when Baxter and BGM come in for a triangular.
The Knoxville Bowlers were at Newton for the Cardinal Invitational on Saturday. The girls placed 6th with 1,702 pins and the boys were 7th with 1,979 pins. Troy Binns was the top scorer for the boys in 23rd place with a 324 series while Caleb Reid was 34th with a 282 series while Ezra Schmidt was 39th with a 289, Brendan Marvelli was 40th with a 240, Connor Schultz was 41st with a 231 and Price McDaniel finished 42nd with a 182. For the girls, Bridgette Renard finished in the top ten with a 9th rolling a 339 series, Nichole Schultz was 20th with a 267, Cassidy DeMederios was 31st with a 222, Abbi Wiand was 40th with a 169 and Erika Merideth was 41st with a 149. The Panthers have a triangular in Oskaloosa next Saturday.