Junior Ellie Hancock, apart of the Raccoon River Northwest Wrestling Team, explains the growth she had this year, which resulted in her being a place winner at the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Wrestling Tournament.

RRNW is a combination of four schools, including Adel-DeSoto-Minburn, Van Meter, Waukee, and Waukee Northwest. Hancock shares that after tallying seventh place during last season’s state tournament, she focused her energy into wrestling year-round coming into her junior campaign. She captured fourth place at this year’s state wrestling tournament, and reveals how her experience from last season carried over to help this time around.

“There’s a lot of good girls in Iowa, but then you go out and there’s 49 other states. And so, it really helps to wrestle different weight classes, different techniques, different styles of wrestling, like freestyle or folkstyle, and then just different competition from other states.”

RRNW won back to back state team titles this year, and Hancock says that it was special because a lot of her high school sports that she’s been apart of have come close. She notes that she’d love to grab a third title her senior year, but more importantly would like to encourage her teammates and younger girls that might be interested in wrestling.