Lady Hounds get strong start to season

(CORRECTION: This story has been updated to include Briena Fenton's results. Fenton was listed as Did Not Place on trackwrestle.com but that was incorrect according to the results.)

URBANDALE – The Fort Madison Lady Hounds' wrestling team just missed getting their second tournament title of the season Saturday at Urbandale.
Fort Madison won a dual tournament last week at Cardinal, winning three dual meets on Monday and then missed winning Saturday’s 15-team Urbandale tournament by half a point. The Hounds finished with 164 points right behind Ames’ 164.5.
Highlighting the tournament was Mara Smith’s title at 140. It was the senior Smith’s 100th career win. She finished 4th in the state last year in the Girls' State Wrestling tournament, the first ever Fort Madison girl to make the podium.
Smith went undefeated through Saturday wrestling getting two early pins in the first period. Her semifinal match with Izzy Schoettmer of Benton Community went into the second period where Smith recorded the fall at 2:35. She then got Lauryn Metcalf of Ames in a fall at 3:35.
Smith showed up for Thursday’s winter media day with a blackened left eye she got from a header in Monday action, but clearly wasn’t phased by it going into the Saturday wrestling.
“She’s at 140 and I think 140 is mentally challenging for her, not weightwise, but at the competition level. That first match Monday, she was a little not like Mara, and then that girl headbutts her and… it’s on,” said Head Coach Kyle Doherty at Thursday’s winter sports media night.
Kat DiPrima took 2nd Saturday, DiPrima is another returning wrestler for the Lady Hounds who went to state last season. She exited on the first day, but got some experience under her belt and will be looking for a return trip this winter.
DiPrima got a bye in the first round of wrestling and recorded a couple quick falls getting to the finals after knocking of West Des Moines Valley’s Gwen Wright by pin early in the second period. Lizzy Wolf of Benton Community scored a pin halfway through the second period in the title match to give DiPrima runner up at 155 pounds.
Returning state qualifier Briena Fenton also captured 2nd place  at  125 lbs. Fenton went 3-1 on the day falling to Dallas Center-Grimes' Addyson Bowers in the first period in the title match.  She downed Morgan Dickinson of Interstate 35 by fall in the first period to advance to the title match.

Aubree Bunnell, fresh off her first ever state cross country qualifying for Central Lee, captured 3rd place at 130 lbs. in a nice start to the season.  Bunnell went 4-of-5 on the day losing in the quarters to Ames’ Sarah Higgins by fall in the second period. She then reeled off three straight, all by fall, with the toughest coming in 3rd-round consolation where she finally got Aleah Vanderlinden of Indianola compromised at the 5:09 mark. She got a quick :34 second pin in the 3rd place match over Sabrina Macke of Dallas Center-Grimes.
Other place finishers for the Hounds included: Lucille Zimmerman (4th-100 lbs.); McKayla Schinstock (4th-135lbs); Lyla Smith (6th- 145 lbs.); Eloise Lamb (7th-110 lbs.); Tatum Peters (7th-170 lbs.); Nora Kelley (8th-120 lbs).
On Monday, the Bloodhounds beat Van Buren County in the first round, Albia, and then Knoxville in the finals. Doherty said wrestling Monday was pretty good for the start of the year, and in that he included the competition.
“That was a lot different style of wrestling than we typically see this early and in this area. They were pretty gritty on the bottom and we’re not used to it in our style of wrestling,” he said.
He said the overall caliber of wrestling is really starting to improve around the area.
“I think we started with 25 and we’re down to 23 and I really feel good about the ones we have. Nobody shows any signs of shying away from it. "The freshmen getting thrown into the lineup right away have handled it really well.
"I was nervous after the first week, because the newness can be intimidating, and they keep showing up.”
The one thing that surprised me this year is that I didn’t hear about all these people coming out and we ended up having that first practice on Nov. 4 and these girls kept showing up and I was like, ‘Well, who are you, who are you’ and find out that Central Lee and Danville brought a couple more girls and then we got more from Fort Madison.”
He said when everyone is at natural weight, they will have the full lineup except for someone at 235.
Fort Madison shares the program with Central Lee, Danville, and Holy Trinity.