This Iowa girl is wrestling against boys — and she's winning at the Iowa state tournament

Reanah Utterback strolled back into the warm-up area inside Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. She looked back for her coach, asking for her wristband, then settled by the interview area.

"What’s up?" a reporter asked.

Utterback looked up and smiled.

"The ceiling," she cracked back, still calm and cool after collecting a 6-4 second-round win at the Class 1A Iowa state wrestling tournament.

She advanced to Thursday morning’s quarterfinal round, where a win guarantees her a spot on the podium at 106 pounds.

Utterback, a sophomore for Sigourney-Keota High School, is one of six girls all-time to qualify for the Iowa boys state wrestling tournament. She is one of just three to qualify twice, joining Megan Black, who qualified for Ottumwa High School in 2011 then Eddysville-Blakesburg-Fremont High School in 2012, and Ottumwa’s Jasmine Luedtke, in both 2021 and 2022.

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Black is the only girl to win a medal at the boys state championships, finishing eighth at 106 pounds in 2012. Utterback was very young back then, only just starting her wrestling career. But it has long been one of her goals to join Black as a girl state medalist against the boys.

"To be one of the only girls to do this, it would be amazing,” Utterback said. “I want to show that I am one of the top Iowa kids. Megan helped show me that I can do this. She’s one of my biggest supporters.”

Still, how is Utterback even able to do this?

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With girls wrestling officially sanctioned, how can Utterback continue in IHSAA against the boys?

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union finally offered girls wrestling as an official sport this past season. It was, by most accounts, a big success, with participation more than doubling from last year.

Before the season began, the IGHSAU sent a memo to coaches that included, among other things, a reminder that girls could not wrestle against boys “when competing as a member school under the IGHSAU sanctioned umbrella.”

But Sigourney-Keota coaches quickly found a loophole.

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If a school does not start a girls sports program (of any kind), and does not have a sharing agreement with another school, the Iowa High School Athletic Association allows girls to compete for their school’s boys teams.

Straight from the IHSAA handbook: "If a like sports program is not offered for girls in a school district, the IHSAA recommends the school district give consideration for girls to participate on the boys’ team if they request participation."

Because Utterback was the only girl wrestling for Sigourney-Keota this season, coach Cory Van Den Heuvel gave her the option – and the decision was a quick one.

"My decision was for me to get better," Utterback said, alluding to her decision to wrestle the boys. "Nothing against the girls. The girls are great. But my goal is to get as much competition as possible, and I feel like there’s more competition on the boys side for me since that’s what I’ve done my whole life."

She continued: “I’m doing what I want to do. This is my decision.”

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One of the top high school wrestlers in Iowa — against girls or boys

Utterback is hands down one of Iowa’s top girls wrestlers – a girls state champ a year ago, but also a 16U folkstyle national champ and freestyle All-American. She is ranked No. 7 nationally at 106 pounds by USA Wrestling.

"She had an opportunity to be a four-time girls state champ, but she chases competition," Van Den Heuvel said earlier this season. "She’s a hunter. She doesn’t shy away from it – win, lose or draw.

"It’s our job to find that for her, and I’m going to do everything I can to help her chase her dream, which is what every coach should do. No hill is too tall to climb for your own athlete.”

Utterback knows going up against boys isn’t a forever thing, either. She’s got her sights set on wrestling collegiately – perhaps even at Iowa for coach Clarissa Chun – and will continue to wrestle girls at the big national competitions in the offseason.

Van Den Heuvel and Utterback both expect a contingent of middle school girls in the district to continue wrestling into high school. Utterback was adamant about Sigourney-Keota starting a girls program in the future so those girls would get the opportunity to compete – and when that happens, she’ll have to wrestle girls, too.

"If we had other girls that wanted to wrestle this season, I totally would’ve wrestled girls so they can also compete," Utterback continued. "But I’m the only girl wrestling this year, so it was the best decision for me and my season."

So far, Utterback has proven she’s one of Iowa’s top wrestlers, boy or girl. She is now 36-8 overall this season after her win Wednesday morning, a 6-4 decision over Clayton Ridge’s Erik Flores. She will face Nashua-Plainfield’s Jayden Rinken, the 1-seed, in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

One more win – either on Thursday morning or, if she loses to Rinken, in Friday’s bloodround – guarantees her a state medal against the boys, which would put her in rare air as an Iowa girl.

"That’s my big goal for this week," Utterback said. "This is what I’ve always wanted to do. Ever since I was little, this was always my dream."

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa girl wrestling against boys and winning at Iowa state tournament