EC Women’s Wrestling Tested at North Central

NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The Eureka women's wrestling team took on the toughest competition it has seen all season on Sunday.

Six Red Devils wrestled at the North Central Invitational, but only one was able to come away with a victory.

"This is one of the toughest women's tournaments around," EC coach Eric Biehl said. "Four of the top five teams in the nation were present. Placing here is very difficult. Our girls will just have to work through tough positions and then will go the other way."

At 109 pounds, Gada Bryant (Westville, Ill./Westville/Lincoln) opened the day with a 12-2 technical fall over Carthage's Bentley Hills.

Then, in the quarterfinals, she found herself on the receiving end of a 10-0 tech fall against North Central's Sydney Petzinger before getting eliminated by North Central's Elizah Leonard, who picked up a fall in 36 seconds.

At 155, McKenzie Cook (Homer, Ill./Homer/Lincoln) dropped a pair of decisions, falling against Northern Michigan's Noellee Gaffney and Indiana Tech's Grace Doering 7-0 and 6-0, respectively.

Also at 155, Lizzie Brooker (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) lost by tech fall and fall, and Vannah Berry (Carol Stream, Ill./Glenbard North/Lincoln) got pinned twice.

Audrey Driskell (Pekin, Ill./Pekin/Lincoln) and Claire Schaffner (Delavan, Ill./Delavan) both lost by fall twice at 143.

"It was good to see this level of competition and it gave us items to work on," Biehl added.

The Red Devils will next take on Aurora in duals action on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.