North Callaway girls wrestling’s two state qualifiers might have different levels of experience but are similar. 

Brooke Giboney clinched her third state bid in her senior season after finishing third at 105 pounds at Saturday’s Class 1 District 2 tournament in Mexico. Ella Baker qualified for the Class 1 state tournament on Feb. 25-26 at Mizzou Arena in Columbia after placing fourth at 135 for the sophomore’s first state appearance.

Head coach Ronnie Kimbley said he is excited to see two of the four North Callaway girls advance to state in a loaded field of 38 schools. 

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“They went out and wrestled their match and their style and left it on the mat,” Kimbley said. “That was the goal. I feel pretty confident that’s what they did.”

Kimbley said Giboney and Baker actually have similar styles, including taking the same shots and liking the same stuff on top and bottom position. Similarly, they lost in the quarterfinals during the first day on Friday so Kimbley said they needed to adjust on Saturday.

“We wrestled a little cautiously,” Kimbley said. “We all talked about that. They did not do that (Saturday). They all went out there and attacked and made it their match.”

Giboney is the first state qualifier in program history and has followed that with two more state trips following a season full of top-three finishes at tournaments. She didn’t medal in her first two state tournaments and wants to make the most out of her final chance. 

In all four of her Saturday matches, Giboney was victorious. She won by pinfall three times, including over the only girl to defeat her in the tournament, Warrenton’s Meredith Donovan, and by technical fall once. Her toughest match was in the blood round against Cecile Puati, of St. Charles, according to Giboney, because she didn’t know what she would do in the pair’s first meeting.

“Since this is my last year, I want to leave everything on the mat,” Giboney said. “I wrestled like I would normally.”

Baker said it feels good to make it to state after not being able to compete in districts as a freshman. She said she had labrum surgery that ended her season in January of that season but overcame that this season.

After having several high-place finishes at tournaments this season, Baker pinned five opponents — three in the first period — in the district tournament. She said every match was tough, especially her third-place match against Warrenton’s Dakota Lohrmann, who she wrestled for the first time.

“My confidence from having my surgery,” Baker said when asked what difficult challenge she had this season. “I was a little scared to hurt it again.”

The junior season for reigning state qualifier Elka Endres ended with a fifth round wrestlebacks loss to Fort Zumwalt South’s Addilynn Caimi in what Kimbley called “a tough match” among “tough girls in a tough bracket.” Kimbley said he still wrestled her match and wants to see the same from this season’s state qualifiers.

“We want to control the match and make it ours,” Kimbley said. “Basically, I want to make sure I’m taking my shots, my attack and my offense. We don’t want to be defensive.”

Kimbley and Giboney see eye to eye in wanting them to give 100 percent effort to hopefully bring back hardware this time.

“I’m familiar with some of the girls but not all of them,” Giboney said. “I think it helps a little bit.”

Baker is nervous but excited about state and is happy to be going with an experienced teammate.

“Yeah,” Baker said when asked if she will rely on Giboney’s guidance and past state experience. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”