Women’s wrestling dominating season

Ash Seery Photo

Women’s wrestling continues to dominate the 2025-2026 season with its multiple wins, tournament champions and so much more.

Cedar Falls took home wins at both the Valley and Go-Hawk invitationals, as well as the Osage Tournament. Multiple athletes also took home multiple champion titles in their respective weight class at each event. Varsity seniors Destiny Hoeppner and Lauren Whitt both took home three champion titles for the Go-Hawk, Valley and Osage events. Other varsity members Isabella Stumbo and senior Briar Ludeman took home two champion titles in two different events too.

“This year’s a lot different from last year. We graduated 14 seniors, so coming back and having the team that we have is great,” women’s wrestling coach Ali Gerbracht said. “We have only lost one duel this year, and we’ve won all the tournaments we’ve competed in so far this year.”

Another major event women’s wrestling dominated was the Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of Waterloo is the premier of Iowa’s high school wrestling tournaments, typically taking place before or during winter break. It has a reputation of being an exciting, well run, three-day tournament for both men’s and women’s wrestling. The tournament features a 24-team girls bracket, in addition to the 32-team men’s bracket. Senior Briar Ludemen, who was state champion of her weight class last season, did admit she was a little anxious for the event.

“It was different from previous years. It honestly did make me a bit nervous, just with how many seniors we had last year compared to this year, but we had great freshmen and sophomores from Dike, from Hudson, from Cedar Falls, and we competed hard this year, to our usual standards,” Ludemen said.

Despite some early jitters, not only did the women’s wrestling team take the championship win, this is their fourth year in a row defending their title. As the Iowa wrestling Instagram (@cf_womenswrestle) put it, it was a “back to back to back to back Battle of Waterloo titles.”

Finally, another major milestone the team likes to celebrate is the 100 pin and/or 100 win club. Essentially, through the seasons, the team counts each time a teammate pins an opponent and wins a match. Once 100 is reached, Gerbracht photographs and prints the girls’ milestones on posters to commemorate the hard work they have put in throughout their high school wrestling careers.

“I got my 100 wins last year, and then this year I got my 150 wins and 100 pins. It was good to meet those milestones, especially before my season ended, and even more especially in my senior year. Those are chances I won’t be able to have again,” Ludeman said.

Like any high school sports team, the goal is State. Last year, women’s wrestling as a team had made it to third in the state championship. To reach No. 1, Gerbracht continues to train her team through the multiple practices each week. 

“I feel like I’ve grown to appreciate and understand the sport. I’ve come to understand that people are going to grow at different rates and everyone is out there for a different purpose.”

Ludeman, as well as wanting the entire team to go to State, wants to hold onto her own state champion title. 

“I’m putting in a lot of work, and I know it’s not going to be just given to me. Having the confidence from winning last year definitely helps though,” Ludeman said. “Additionally, after practice I’ll have a match with my coaches who are very skilled and both have state titles, national titles and I know no girl in the state is going to be as good as my coach, so if I can do well in the matches against them, it helps a lot with my performance,” Ludeman said.