Fliers place four at annual Invite

FLANDREAU – The Fliers placed four of their six wrestlers on the podium with both girls taking first at the annual Flandreau Flier Booster Club Wrestling Invitational.
“For our first time out this year, we had a great day with a lot of positives,” said first year Flier Head Coach Cody Chamblin.
“The kids showed up to wrestle against some tough competition, but we’ll always have things to improve.”
Both Julie Pitsenberger who was named girls’ MVP and Jayden Lange took first place and freshman Teague Bergjord at 106 and sophomore Karter Headrick at 182, both took third.
Girls division
With the female participant numbers increasing among tourney teams, the girls had their own tourney brackets. There were six weight brackets with 14 girls.
Flandreau’s two female wrestlers combined for 22 points, but a loaded team from Luverne nudged them for the title by a lone point at 23. Garretson was just behind the Flier girls with 20 points and Madison scored 16. Also in the tourney was Canistota with two points.
Flier junior Julie Pitsenberger was named the girls’ tournament MVP for her first place which included three wins by fall.
“Our returning state qualifier Julie Pitsenberger started hot and never cooled off,” noted Coach Chamblin.

“She has become more aggressive this year and really wrestled well.”
She pinned Hannah Freewaldt of Garretson in 3:08, Isabelle Henry of Madison in 1:12 and closed out the day with a 51 second fall over Danika Juhl of Garretson, all in the 132 pound class.
First year Flier wrestler Lange was in a three-girl bracket at 154.
She lost her first match to Cece Rock of Luverne in a third period fall, 4:45, but came back to win over Summer Guthmiller of Sioux Valley by a 7-4 decision. Each girl won one match so were crowned ‘tri-champions.’
Boys’ division
Powerhouse teams Luverne, Mn and Madison, loaded up the brackets to take first and second place at 169 and 149 points. Both teams only had one open - the 195 pound weight class.
Deuel was third at 124, Elk Point-Jefferson was fourth at 102, Red Rock Central (Minn.) took fifth 95.5, with Howard, Sioux Valley and Flandreau coming in sixth through eighth. Garretson was 9th, Chester 10th, Viborg-Hurley/Irene Wakonda, 11th and Canistota was 12th.
“Our two young guys on the team Teague Bergjord and Justin Klein came out aggressive and got some big wins. Teague stood on the podium for his first time in his varsity career placing third,” said Chamblin.
For the Flier 106 pounder, Bergjord started the day by pinning Carter Leibeg of Chester Area in 1:51. He then fell in a hard-fought loss to the bracket runner-up, Keagen Steen of Red Rock Central, 6-3. In the wrestlebacks, Bergjord decisioned Brody VanRoekel of Elk Point-Jefferson, 6-4 and then won by fall over Luverne’s Brody Kopp, 2:15, to place third.
Headrick, who wrestled up a weight class at 182, faced Dominic Constant of Deuel and lost a 12-5 decision. He then needed to work his way through the wrestlebacks and used three wins by fall to take third. He pinned Gabriel Martian of Howard, 2:35, and then Jacob Madison of Luverne in 4:05. In his final match, Headrick won by fall over Trevor Ryan of VH/IW, 2:32.
“He started slow but came back strong going 3-1,” said Chamblin.
Flier freshman Klein, at 152 pounds, began the day with a 2:40 pin over Jett Kuchta of VH/IW, but then lost by fall to Jaden Reisch of Luverne, 1:49. He moved on to defeat Brock Bonte of Garretson, 3:11, made quick work of Tucker Adkins of Deuel in 26 seconds but then lost to Madison’s Tristen Dorhout, 2:50
“Klein had one of the largest brackets on the day (13) and was one match away from placing going 3-2 on the day,” noted Chamblin.
Flandreau’s Caleb Pitsenberger also wrestled up a weight class.
“Caleb ran into a couple good kids in the state (tourney MVP Ben Swatek). He wrestled them well but came up short going 0-2 on the day.”
In the 170 pound division, Pitsenberger first faced Swatek lost by fall, 3:18, took a bye and then lost to Layne Hess of Madison, 1:46.
“Overall the kids came out aggressive and ready to go. I’m really excited to see what this team brings each and every week. We are at home on Tuesday (5 pm Quad) and at the Howard Tournament on Saturday.”