SIOUX FALLS – A pair of local girls found offense hard to come by in the championship matches of the State Wrestling Tournament Saturday at the Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls.

Aberdeen Central’s Madison Little fell 3-0 in the finals at 110 pounds, while Groton’s Liza Krueger dropped a 12-3 decision at 105.

Little wrestled Annalee Pierson of Sturgis in a battle of freshman in the championship match.

“The two have wrestled each other before at outside season events,” said Central coach Jake Flakus. “They both kind of knew each other well. That girl just did a good job of defending Madi’s offense.”

The match was tied before Pierson scored a takedown in the final period.

“That girl’s a state champ for a reason. She had really good defense and then also had good offense,” Flakus said. “It just comes down to finding other ways to score and we weren’t able to do that, and that was the difference.”

Krueger was facing a major deficit in her match against Jewel Varsdveen of Madison and appeared to be on the verge of turning her on her back, but was unable to accomplish that feat in the final minute of action.

Caterie Yellow Hawk of Sully Buttes lost by technical fall to Regina Stoeser of Harrisburg in her championship match at 130 pounds.

Central finished seventh in team points, just one spot short of their goal of landing on the podium.

“There was still a lot of good that happened on the weekend,” Flakus said. “A couple of our girls finished a place higher than they did last year. Jasmine Maas, Lin Paw Jone, and Rakyrah Wallace all finished one spot higher on the podium than they did last year. For those three that was good to see them climb a little higher on the podium.”

Flakus also noted two other members of the squad.

Seventh-grader Paisley Stewart finished eighth in her first state tourney.

“That’s really impressive,” Flakus said. “She’s a lot younger and even undersized for her weight class, but she found a way to win a tough match in the blood round to get herself up on the podium.”

Allison Neitzel also had a memorable tournament winning her 100th career match on the opening day of the event.

“We thought she was going to get it at the region. … I feel this made it more special being at the state tournament,” Flakus said.

While the Golden Eagles fell just short of their team goal at the state tourney, it does not detract from what they accomplished leading up to the event.

“I think it’s better to focus on all the positives that we had this season,” Flakus said. “Getting six state place winners, won several tournaments, won our region for the first time, we had eight girls all-conference. Those are the positives that I’m going to focus on.”

Aberdeen Central results

100: Paisley Stewart 8th
Champ. Round 1 – Jamii Washechek (Rapid City Central) over Paisley Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 1:05)
Cons. Round 1 – Paisley Stewart (Aberdeen Central) over Sep Jade Lyric Paw Gay (Huron) (Fall 3:23)
Cons. Round 2 – Paisley Stewart (Aberdeen Central) over Clara Iverson (Sisseton) (Dec 8-6)
Cons. Round 3 – Jewel Gannon (Canton) over Paisley Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 1:21)
7th Place Match – Jamii Washechek (Rapid City Central) over Paisley Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (MD 18-8)

110: Madison Little 2nd
Champ. Round 1 – Madison Little (Aberdeen Central) over Kyliegh Schuller (West Central) (Dec 4-1)
Quarterfinals – Madison Little (Aberdeen Central) over Isabella Current (Sisseton) (Fall 2:55)
Semifinals – Madison Little (Aberdeen Central) over Gracie Peters (Brandon Valley) (Dec 4-1)
1st Place Match – Annalee Pierson (Sturgis Brown) over Madison Little (Aberdeen Central) (Dec 3-0)

115: Jasmine Maas 7th
Champ. Round 1 – Jasmine Maas (Aberdeen Central) over Izzy Myer (Wagner) (Fall 0:16)
Quarterfinals – Gabrielle Nelson (St. Thomas More) over jasmine Maas (Aberdeen Central) (TF 18-3 6:00)
Cons. Round 2 – Jasmine Maas (Aberdeen Central) over Macee McGregor (Webster Area) (Fall 1:36)
Cons. Round 3 – Emma Bochek (Clark/Willow Lake) over Jasmine Maas (Aberdeen Central) (Dec 11-9)
7th Place Match – Jasmine Maas (Aberdeen Central) over Kaidynce Hand (Sturgis Brown) (Fall 2:57)

130: Imani Pippens
Champ. Round 1 – Hadlee Kracht (Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon) over Imani Pippens (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 2:46)
Cons. Round 1 – Ramsie Hinricher (Brookings) over Imani Pippens (Aberdeen Central) (Dec 6-5)

140: Rakyrah Wallace 5th
Champ. Round 1 – Rakyrah Wallace (Aberdeen Central) over Paige Jonas (Sully Buttes) (Fall 0:15)
Quarterfinals – Rakyrah Wallace (Aberdeen Central) over Kenzie King (Canton) (TF 16-0 3:50)
Semifinals – Langston Huffman (Rapid City Central) over Rakyrah Wallace (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 5:35)
Cons. Semis – Rosearia Rohrer (Lennox) over Rakyrah Wallace (Aberdeen Central) (SV-1 7-4)
5th Place Match – Rakyrah Wallace (Aberdeen Central) over Eddy Adkins (Lead-Deadwood) (Dec 2-0)

145: Allison Neitzel
Champ. Round 1 – Allison Neitzel (Aberdeen Central) over Citori Edwards (Todd County/White River) (Fall 3:06)
Quarterfinals – Sarah Rickenbach (Hot Springs) over Allison Neitzel (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 0:48)
Cons. Round 2 – Shelby Werlinger (Sturgis Brown) over Allison Neitzel (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 2:59)

155: Lin Paw Jone 6th
Champ. Round 1 – Lin Paw Jone (Aberdeen Central) over Jayce Turbiville (Harding County) (Fall 1:58)
Quarterfinals – Bella Morteo (Rapid City Stevens) over Lin Paw Jone (Aberdeen Central) (Dec 10-7)
Cons. Round 2 – Lin Paw Jone (Aberdeen Central) over Rory Thielsen (Flandreau) (Fall 0:25)
Cons. Round 3 – Lin Paw Jone (Aberdeen Central) over Taylor DeJong (Mitchell) (Fall 1:54)
Cons. Semis – Katie Snyder (Hot Springs) over Lin Paw Jone (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 1:34)
5th Place Match – Samantha Dreiske (Lemmon) over Lin Paw Jone (Aberdeen Central) (Dec 7-1)

170: Lilly Nelson 6th
Champ. Round 1 – Lilly Nelson (Aberdeen Central) over Adilynn Ahrens (Clark/Willow Lake) (Fall 1:46)
Quarterfinals – Blair Merkwan (Vermillion) over Lilly Nelson (Aberdeen Central) (Dec 6-3)
Cons. Round 2 – Lilly Nelson (Aberdeen Central) over Valonny Walking Bull (Chamberlain) (Fall 2:46)
Cons. Round 3 – Lilly Nelson (Aberdeen Central) over Sydney Badwound (Spearfish) (Fall 1:38)
Cons. Semis – Macie Letsche (Sioux Falls Jefferson) over Lilly Nelson (Aberdeen Central) (Inj. [time])
5th Place Match – Jaidynn Giedd (Kingsbury County) over Lilly Nelson (Aberdeen Central) (M. For.)

190: Meleane Mounga
Champ. Round 1 – Allison Konrad (Watertown) over Meleane Mounga (Aberdeen Central) (Fall 1:43)
Cons. Round 1 – Meleane Mounga (Aberdeen Central) over Brylee Pelle (Pierre T.F. Riggs) (Fall 2:23)
Cons. Round 2 – Kyra Tostenson (Milbank) over Meleane Mounga (Aberdeen Central) (MD 10-1)

You can browse the entire event on Trackwrestling using the following link.
https://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/predefinedtournaments/VerifyPassword.jsp?tournamentId=930352132