CORALVILLE — Jon Koenig easily put into perspective Fort Dodge’s 2023-24 girls wrestling campaign.

“You can look at this (performance) and they can be disappointed, but we’ve come a long way in a short period of time,” Koenig said. “With a smaller lineup, we still won a (regular-season) tournament and we won a dual.

“We are making strides, little by little. The seniors that graduate have left a mark on these younger girls, and hopefully, we can carry that through.”

Seniors Macy Brown (130) and Maddie Pulis (170) wrestled their last matches as Dodgers on Friday, but sophomore Mariaha Benedict (135) will be back.

Fort Dodge had a trio of returning state qualifiers, but the tournament didn’t go the way they hoped.

Benedict (43-6) advanced to the second round after pinning Eunice Reyna-Yoc of MOC-Floyd Valley in 56 seconds.

She lost by fall to fourth-ranked freshman Bella Miller (30-1) of Dubuque Wahlert.

Benedict kept her hopes alive with a fall in 1:05 over Maddy Jansen of South Winneshiek. For the right to advance to the second day, she would face Bella Mulder (30-5) of Dallas Center-Grimes, who pinned her in a tournament earlier this season. Benedict put up a fight, before falling 5-4 after she cut into the lead with a late reversal.

“Mariaha has two more years,” Koenig said. “This tournament just keeps getting tougher and tougher. She will go to work with AAU staff and keep getting better.”

“It just goes to show how tough the tournament is. Maddie and Mariaha are both disappointed in not making the podium.

“I told all of them that this sport makes you a better person when you get older, though. It makes you tougher to handle life.”

Pulis, the Webster City senior, advanced to the second round but suffered two losses and was eliminated from the 170-pound bracket.

Pulis (33-10), the 11th seed, pinned Cedar Rapids Prarie’s Camryn Cothrell in 5:28 of the first round.

In a consolation match, she lost by fall in 49 seconds to Karissa Oldenburger (41-13) of Waverly-Shell Rock.

She was eliminated from the tournament by Kailan McEwen (26-14) of BCLUW.

“This tournament will keep getting better and better,” Koenig said. “It’s really hard to swallow that the season is over. I definitely want to give a hats off to April Ritts for helping with the middle school girls. I wouldn’t be able to do this without the help of Bob O’Connor and Roger Porter as well.

“We have a very strong support system.”

Brown (25-24) lost both of her matches. She was pinned by Tatum Shepherd (40-2) of Ridge View and Alyssa Seippel (27-5) of Dubuque Senior.

“I just told Macy thank you for what she did for this program,” Koenig said. “She will be someone I will mention to all the girls that come and try wrestling. She has been an impotant piece to the growth of girls wrestling in our community.

“She brought a great personality and culture to our team.”

-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla
Mariaha Benedict of Fort Dodge wrestles against Bethany Hanlon of Humboldt during Dodgers invite on Thursday

-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla
Mariaha Benedict of Fort Dodge wrestles against Bethany Hanlon of Humboldt during Dodgers invite on Thursday