CORALVILLE — Maeley and Autumn Elsbury of South Tama County made one thing clear on Friday at girls’ state wrestling — winning runs in the family.

Maeley, a junior who entered as the No. 3 seed at 135 pounds, took down No. 1 seed and top-ranked Alexis Ross of Fort Dodge with a 2-0 decision in the finals at 135 pounds to win her first state title and the first Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union-sanctioned title at her weight, using her confidence and experience to pull through. When the final whistle blew, Maeley’s face lit up as the crowd roared. The joy and satisfaction was impossible to miss — even if the gravity of her achievement hadn’t sunk in yet.

“It hasn’t quite really hit me — I mean it has, but it hasn’t,” Maeley said. “It just seems insane that I just won the bracket in the entire state at my weight.”

“No one can wrestle with me for six minutes.”

The match was tense and slow moving. In the first period, Ross looked at times to be close to getting the opening takedown. When that didn’t happen, Maeley took the bottom position to start the second in hopes of getting an escape point. She was unable to escape but again didn’t give up any tilts, either.

It was a scoreless tie heading into the final two minutes. Starting on top with Ross choosing the bottom, Maeley felt like she was in a comfortable position. When she had a chance, she forced the issue with two nearfall points — and that was that.

“From the start of the match, I knew I just wanted to get in my good positions, I didn’t want to force any shots,” Maeley said. “This isn’t a time to mess around. I just stayed on my feet and was in good position when she shot at me.

“When we went into the third, I was happy she picked the bottom. I’m good on top, and I knew it, I trusted myself on top. That’s where I’ve spent 80 percent of the season is on top, riding girls, so I knew I could turn her over.”

She ended the state tournament 5-0 and the season at 46-1. Maeley had one bout in the morning — a match with Dakota

Whitman of Independence. Whitman had defeated Maeley in the WaMaC Conference finals earlier in the season, and she said that defeat was in her mind leading up to the match itself. She dominated after the first minute, not giving Whitman a chance to fight back and comfortably taking a 5-2 decision to advance to the finals.

“It was a little nerve-wracking knowing we wrestled not that long ago and what didn’t go my way,” Maeley said. “I knew going in that I should have won last time, and I knew I’m the better wrestler with my technique and I knew I had been training for this day.”

“I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me.”

This is Maeley’s third year wrestling at a varsity level for South Tama, albeit the first season the sport is officially incorporated by the IGHSAU. She took third place at last year’s state tournament, said she’s excited to come back next year and added that she’s happy to “set the way” for STC wrestlers in the coming years.

“I’m our first school state champ, I was our first state place-winner and it’s setting the way for so many at our school,” Maeley said. “It feels amazing.”

Autumn, a freshman, finished in fourth after going 3-0 in the morning to earn a spot in the third-place match.

Autumn (the No. 8 seed) went into the morning needing a win against West Marshall’s fifth-seeded Averie Wittkop at 170 pounds. Autumn got out to an aggressive start and then retained the edge throughout the match, coasting to a 6-0 victory and ensuring she won a medal.

In the consolation quarterfinals, the opponent was Independence’s Izzy Strickert. Autumn controlled the match and secured a pin after 3:59 to move into the consolation semifinals against Grace Britten of S.W.A.T. The match didn’t last long, as the South Tama freshman pinned Britten in just 1:07 to book her place in the third-place match with a confident showing.

Her opponent in the third-place match was a familiar one — Southeast Polk’s Bella Porcelli, the No. 2 seed at 170. The two wrestled in the Region 4 final a week ago, and Porcelli won with a 3-0 decision after a grueling match.

Porcelli was on the attack and put Autumn through the ringer in the third-place matchup, winning 12-5. But the freshman avoided a major decision and didn’t get pinned as she ended up with a fourth-place medal in her state debut, going 5-2 in a busy two-day stretch.

Autumn finished the season 38-6 and said the experience will help her move forward and drive her toward her next goal — getting the first-place medal.

“I used to not really have much confidence, but this [tournament] has given me a lot more confidence,” Autumn said. “It’s gonna give me more of a drive to try even harder, because I want to be on top of the podium like my sister is. It’s going to give me more drive to get higher.”

Both Elsbury sisters will be back next year, hoping to reach Coralville again and make winning at state a family tradition.

Abigail Chyma of South Tama County entered as the No. 31 seed at 155 pounds and faced a tough battle on Friday against No. 2 seed Jannell Avila of Iowa City West. Chyma was pinned in 1:06 to drop into the consolation bracket, where she went up against Kasee Huss of MOC-Floyd Valley. With 1:32 gone, Chyma was pinned — ending her sophomore season with a 28-16 record.