Wawasee took a couple gambles and won some coveted spots as the IHSGW girls state tournament opened in earnest Saturday morning. With a Mishawaka Regional bracket that featured plenty of wiggle room for Wawasee to make some moves, the Lady Warriors took advantage of several opportunities to run a total of seven qualifiers to the semi-state round.

“We are really excited to have this many girls moving on,” said Wawasee girls coach Miguel Rodriguez. “I think some of the girls found out this isn’t going to be easier because there’s less girls. Not the case for some of them. This isn’t an easy sport, there are no free passes. The girls we have moving on, I think they are starting to understand that and respect that.”

Before the madness even began on the west side of a Mishawaka High School metropolis that also had the Al Smith Invite roaring on the east end of the cavernous facility, Wawasee had already guaranteed its 100-pounder, Karlee Clevenger, through as she was the lone entrant in the bracket. Rewarded for having to sit around and shoot photos for over two hours before her spot was officially called, Clevenger will enter the semi-state with a one-seed.

A second Lady Warrior will take a one-seed into this Friday’s mania at Penn, and that will be 120-pounder Ciara Rodriguez. After taking nearly a week off to get over whatever sick bugs are going around, Rodriguez jumped in feet first and had to work six full minutes to put away Penn’s Khloe Gann, but coming back for the final, needed just 85 seconds to get the full send of Riley’s Isabella Elliot to claim the 120 posterboard.

“She was really worried coming into this because she missed a physical week of practice, just being on the bike dealing with the cold she had,” coach Rodriguez said of his daughter. “She’s been working hard throughout the year, and I feel like that’s what helped her get over not having a week to prepare. But she did a good job with what was in front of her today and didn’t make any major mistakes.”

It wasn’t the perfect storm for Wawasee’s returning state placer, Alex Garcia, as the sophomore looked comfortably in control of the 155 final against Bremen’s Makenzie Shumaker. Despite being down 3-2 midway through the second and on the bottom of Baker’s reversal, Garcia didn’t seem to be in trouble. But as the clock melted away in the period, Baker had gained just enough weight over Garcia’s shoulders to get a mat slap right at the four-minute buzzer to end the championship.

Wawasee’s Kenidi Nine ended her day with a win in the third-place match at 135, beating Penn’s Emerson Avara by a 6-1 count.

Both Cyanna Leon and Sylvia Dixon had to win opening round matchups to get into the ticket rounds, and both did. Leon scored a pin over South Bend Riley and Dixon a pin over Penn to secure placement and advancement. Leon would finish fourth at 140 and Dixon fourth at 125. Isabel Schwartz also was fourth at 105 in a four-woman card, so it was just where the chips fell, and Schwartz would go 0-2 but move on.

Naviya Leon holds the call-back card at 145 if someone can’t go at Penn, winning the fifth-place match over teammate Dez Vetor, who saw her tournament come to an end at Mishawaka.

Peyton Hohman (130), Rylin Vanlaningham (155) and Tiana Senders (170) all went winless in qualifying matches and saw their tournament runs come to an end.

“Overall, I think we all wrestled well,” Rodriguez said. “Some of them got caught looking to the corner for help one too many times and got caught in predicaments. But even then, they’re coming to the corner for help. We didn’t have kids back down at all. We fought. None got stall warnings and were attacking. That’s what we wanted to see all along from these girls.”

As girls wrestling still works through its ‘emerging sport’ status, the numbers game of haves versus have nots continued as Penn was tabbed as regional team champion, leading the field with 22 competitors for 28 spots and scoring 187 points among its output. Warsaw, with just six entered, were impressive in moving on all of its half dozen and finished second at 95 points; and Wawasee, with its 12 out there, scored 90 points for third.

Action at the Penn Semi-state begins at 9 a.m. Friday at The Palace.

At Mishawaka Regional

100
Karlee Clevenger 1-0, 1st place
105
Isabel Schwartz 0-2, 4th place
120
Ciara Rodriguez 2-0, 1st place
125
Sylvia Dixon 1-2, 4th
130
Peyton Hohman 0-2, DNP
135
Kenidi Nine 2-1, 3rd
140
Cyanna Leon 2-2, 4th
145
Naviya Leon 2-2, 5th
Dez Vetor 1-3, DNP
155
Alex Garcia 2-1, 2nd
Rylin Vanlaningham 0-3, DNP
170
Tiana Senders 0-2, DNP

Full bracket results can be found on the Track Wrestling Mishawaka Regional page.