A pair of Pella girls wrestlers are heading to Coralville and the 2025 state tournament as regional champions at South Tama. Isabella Smith and Elizabeth Thomas both won their respective weight classes to earn the chance to compete among Iowa’s best next week.
Smith is returning to the sanctioned tournament for the second time in three years after qualifying as a freshman two years ago; Thomas qualified for the Iowa Wrestling Coaches Association tournament as a 9th grader before the girls sport became officially recognized by the IGHSAU.
Pella nabbed four other top four place winners:
110-Jenna VanWyk, 3rd, 3-2, 1 Major Decision, 1 Fall
115-Isabella Smith, 1st, 3-0, 3 Falls, STATE QUALIFIER
125-Bri Shannon, 4th, 2-2, 1 Fall
130-Kenadi Montgomery, 4th, 2-2, 1 Major Decision
135-Elizabeth Thomas, 1st, 2-0, 2 Falls, STATE QUALIFIER
155-Abbi Lemke, 4th, 2-2, 1 Fall
Head Coach Adam Hale:
“After such a great weekend last weekend, we really wanted to keep that good momentum rolling, and our girls sure did that today in South Tama! Isabella Smith and Elizabeth Thomas led the way with their first place finishes and State qualifications, but we had another day of our full lineup wrestling hard. Jenna VanWyk finished third today and just missed qualifying after knocking off another ranked opponent for the second straight week. Actually, our freshman class as a whole wrapped up an absolutely incredible year. We had five freshmen in our lineup today and four of them finished off their season above .500.
Bri Shannon, Kenadi Montgomery, and Abbi Lemke all finished 4th. I’ve just really enjoyed seeing the season all three of them have put together. Kenadi with a solid freshman campaign, Bri in her first year of wrestling ended up above .500 and over 20 wins including at least one over a State Qualifier, and Abbi has made some tremendous strides this past month especially! It was also nice getting Ani and Khloe back in our lineup after missing some time. It’s a tough tournament to come back to, but I was pleased to see some aggressiveness out of both of them.
We really did have an all around great team day again. We filled 11 spots in the lineup and had eight of our wrestlers earn team points. Even in our losses, we were wrestling hard through the very end. Our fight these last two or three weeks has been exactly what we coaches have been looking for. On the day we faced opponents that we’d previously lost to six times and went 5-1 in those matches. That’s a testament to the girls’ hard work that they’ve been putting in and their minds being in the right place that it doesn’t matter who you’re wrestling, what they’re record is, or even what the score is—if you keep wrestling hard, looking for those next points, good things happen.
When you look at both of these two, they’re exactly what you want. They show up every day, they put in good work, they don’t grumble, and they elevate everyone around them. There’s a reason they’re two of our captains, and the wrestling is only a part of it.
I know the focus will be on Isabella and Elizabeth, and understandably/deservedly so, but I can’t stress enough how proud I am of the entire team. I am SO proud of their efforts today.”