Lange finishes third for Fliers at State A

Posted 2/27/23

Fliers Wrestling

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Lange finishes third for Fliers at State A

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RAPID CITY – The Flandreau Fliers were represented well over the weekend as two wrestlers competed at this year’s SDHSAA State Tournament. Jayden Lange finished in third place at 142 pounds and Julie Pitsenberger competed in two matches at The Monument in Rapid City.
Lange advanced to the semifinals with a pair of pins on Thursday defeating St. Thomas More’s Teagan Vining in the first round (1:11) and Sioux Valley’s Summer Guthmiller in the second round (2:46).
On Friday, she fell by fall to Yankton’s Nevaeh Leonard at 4:52 in the semifinals. Leonard, the top seed, had given Lange one of her two previous losses earlier in the season.
“Jayden stayed focused and wasn’t going to let that loss stop her,” said Chamblin.
She bounced back to pin Marieda Kalahar of Rapid City Stevens at 3:49 of the consolation semifinals to earn the right to wrestle in the third-place match.

There she met Pierre’s Abbigail Lewis, the number three seed, and with a scoreless match heading into the final seconds, gained a reversal at the :18 mark to win 2-0 and take the bronze medal.
“This was probably the best match I have seen Jayden wrestle,” said Chamblin.
“She wrestled five minutes hard and didn’t stop until the final whistle.”
Lange finished the season with a 29-3 record.
“Jayden will be missed on the team with her experience and knowledge,” said her coach. “I’m super proud of her this year and excited to see her on the freestyle circuit this spring. We’ll watch her wrestle the next couple years somewhere.”
Pitsenberger competed at 126 pounds and lost both her matches of the tournament falling to Canton’s Kieonna Smith by a 20-5 tech fall in the first round and losing by fall to Faith Caldron of Brookings at 2:47 of the first round of the consolation bracket. Pitsenberger finished the season with a record of 14-16.
“Julie had a tough tournament but I’m super proud of her. She wrestled some of her best matches of the year against two ranked opponents. The end of the year Julie came on strong and we’ll be excited to see what her senior year will bring.”