Vandalia’s Bowers Wraps Up Successful Freshman Year for Wartburg College Wrestling

Vandalia grad Sophie Bowers racked up plenty of wins in her pre-collegiate career and continued her winning ways this season as a freshman on the Wartburg College Knights women’s wresting team. Bowers compiled a 31-10 record in her first collegiate season including going 9-2 for a pair of third place finishes in her first two tournaments and split time between the 124lb and 131lb weight classes this season. Bowers best tournament finish of the season came in the American Rivers Conference Tournament on January 24 when she made it a clean sleep at 124lbs, going 5-0 to claim the conference championship. She finished the season strong after that going 10-4 over her final three tournaments taking third at the Wartburg College D3 Invite and taking third at the NCAA Division 3 Regionals to earn a qualifying spot in the first ever NCAA Women’s NC Wrestling Championships. After suffering a first round loss at the Championships, Bowers bounced back with a big tech fall win before another loss ended her freshman season. Overall, the Knights finished the season at 10-2 in dual team action, took 1^st in the American Rivers Conference Tournament, took 2^nd in their own Wartburg D3 Invite, took 2^nd in the NCAA Regionals and finished in 11^th place at the NCAA Championships.