Two Rangers take top spots

The Hill City girls wrestling team finished fourth at the Gordon- Rushville 2023 Invite in Nebraska Dec. 9.

Both Tiara Faehnrich and  Brittney Hanson took home first place wins in their weight class.

Faehnrich (5-1) scored 24 team points in her 140 pound class. She defeated all three of her opponents by fall. 

According to head coach Tanner Davis, Faehnrich wrestled very hard through some “tough Nebraska girls” coming out on top of an eight girl bracket.

Hanson (3-1), too, defeated all of her opponents by fall in the 170- pound class, scoring 20 team points.

“I was very proud of Brittney” said Davis, who acknowledges Hanson is new to the sport,” he said. “She pushes herself in practice. You can really see the results stacking up.”

The girls also scored two third place wins. Daisy Munoz (4-3) scored 11 team points in her 155 pound class. Munoz narrowly lost by decision to Chloe Fire Thunder (8-1)  of Lakota Tech in her second round match and fell to Addie Diers (6-0) of Chadron in the third round.

Trystyn Jangula (1-4)  scored nine team points and was third in the 145-pound class.

“I was very excited for our overall girls score. Many other teams had double, even triple the amount on their roster,” Davis said.  

Davis sees the girls’ efforts paying off.

“Our girls have improved tremendously since last week. Four of them are in the top 10 in the state. In the room they just don’t go through the motions but they help push each other and all have a common goal of getting on top of a podium,’ he said.

Davis notes that their success is partially a result of the “tight friendships” the girls have.

The boys team again finished at the bottom of the pack. Davis says it’s simply a question of mat time and confidence.

“I think once they start believing in themselves they could also start seeing a lot of success,” he said. 

Caleb Garcia (2-4) was the only boys wrestler to score points for the team. He won a match by medical forfeit after his opponent got too sick to compete in the match.

The team wrestles in Hot Springs next  on Dec 15.