Glenwood’s McIntyre makes history

Abby McIntyre knows the exact moment she knew she wanted to wrestle.

“I used to go to watch my brother practice and I saw him get a kid in a head ock and make him cry,” the Glenwood junior said. “I said, ‘Dad, I want to do that!”

She joined the wrestling club the next week.

Eleven years later, McIntyre joined the long rich history of Glenwood wrestling as the school’s first girls state champion.
McIntyre pinned defending champion Anika Behrends of Waverly-Shell Rock in the 132-pound finals in the second period to secure her crown.  

The Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) girls state wrestling tournament, held Friday and Saturday at Waverly-Shell Rock High School in Waverly, awarded championships in 11 weight classes. Nearly 400 girls wrestled in the second year of the tournament.

For McIntyre, the match and the win, still hasn’t sunk in. She’s won state titles before – twice in AAU and another in Freestyle once – but nothing compares to Saturday’s win.

“Those tournaments, they’d have like five girls in my bracket,” she said. “This is high school girls sanctioned where there were 52 girls in my bracket and it’s literally recognizable everywhere as a ‘state championship.’ But to be honest, it still hasn’t sunk in.”

McIntyre is the only girl member of the Glenwood wrestling team. An early season injury has held her to just two varsity matches this season. Yet, Glenwood head coach Tucker Webber had little doubt what she was capable of.

“She’s proven she’s one of the best girls in the state and I think not being able to wrestle last year made her more hungry to go get a state title this year,” he said.

Not be able to wrestling a year ago devastated McIntyre. A severe concussion kept her of the mat for weeks. But it also made her hungry. Driven.

“I trained all year to get HERE,” she said.

Following a first round bye, McIntyre breezed through her preliminary matches. She entered the state tournament ranked No. 1 but was seeded No.5. She notched a technical fall and two pins en route to the finals where she met he hometown favorite and defending champion, Behrends.

McIntyre was confident heading into the finals against the top seeded Behrends but that didn’t rule out some butterflies.

“When we were waiting for all the other matches to go and staying ready, I heard her name, ‘Anika Behrends,’ and everybody in the stands stood up and screamed and whistled,” she said. “I thought to myself ‘Oh man.’ I wanted this so bad but she had this huge home crowd. I knew she would not just go down.”

Once the match started, all the extraneous crowd noise and any perceived home mat advantage went out the window.
“I’m never satisified in a match,” McIntyre said. “I just want to keep going and pushing until  the whistle is blown or the referee stops the match.”

Tucker said the match “wasn’t even close.”

“That was the big hyped match, defending champion vs. Abby and she went out and dominated her,” Weber said. “It wasn’t a close match at all. She got a takedown, turned her and got on top. She was up 7-0 when she pinned her.”

McIntyre had trouble putting in to words what the title means to both her personally or to Glenwood wrestling.

“It honestly has me speechless,” she said. “It’s always been my goal to be the first girl to win state and qualify for state and all that. I’m amazed but still in shock.’

Webber and McIntyre agree the state title can only help the sport grow in Glenwood. McIntyre is the only girl out for the boys wrestling team but she knows other would join an all-girls team if it was available.

“That’s kind of our focus right now,” Weber said. “I’ve been talking with (activities director) Mr. Bissen about this being a great time to start, with a state champion in the room, and having the girls come out and see how hard Abby works. I think if we can promote a team with girls where they only wrestle girls, it can be beneficial and we can get a lot more girls out.”

Webber thinks Glenwood could add a girls wrestling team as early as next year.

But the real question remains: has McIntyre made anyone cry with a head lock?

“Many times,” she said.