Jaylee Jetty
FARGO — The relatively new Devils Lake girls’ wrestling program saw another step in its growth this weekend.
Five Firebird girls joined the 11 boys at the state wrestling tournament. That was up from four last year.
“My goal as a head coach is to send as many, or more,” Devils Lake girls’ wrestling coach Fields Olson said. “And even coming out of the East Region Tournament, we had three girls that we lost in the blood round. You had three more girls; that’s eight girls participating in the state tournament, which is double what it was the previous year.”
The Firebirds, despite their relative dearth of experience, were hardly fazed by the bright lights or roaring crowds of the Fargodome.
In fact, they embraced the opportunity.
“We’ll warm up out here, and a lot of it’s just to get the shock and awe out of the system,” Olson said. “Get out in front of the lights… They get more nervous, I think, wrestling duals at home, because they’re in front of their home crowd. And I always tell them, ‘We’re kind of a tournament team.’ We go out and we just wrestle.”
At the end of Thursday, two of the five girls were still alive: Jaylee Jetty and Olivia Lindstrom. Jetty made it to the quarterfinals before taking a loss, while Lindstrom stayed alive in the first round of wrestle backs.
But Olson saw good things even from the girls who were eliminated earlier.
“This year, we had some very competitive brackets,” Olson said. “Like I tell the girls, sometimes it’s our day; sometimes it’s not our day. We had some really good battles in the first round. Didn’t pick up a win where we needed to.”
First round
The first day started with a tough loss for the girls. Elizabeth Orness, seeded No. 9 in the 112 weight class, took a tight 7-6 loss to No. 8-seeded Emma Dutt from Central Cass. She was right in it, but had to settle for a trip to the wrestle backs.
“Last night, in preparation for her first match, we looked at things. Found commonalities with different moves that her opponent would do, and just tried to create options to counteract them,” Olson said. “It was really exciting. Heartbreaking at the same time.”
Maria Riojas, seeded No. 14 in the 124, lost to the No. 3 seed by a pin at 3:28. No. 15-seeded Leah Dahle lost by a pin at 3:00 to the No. 2 seed in the 30.
Lindstrom’s day also started with a loss by pin. She was seeded No. 12 in the 136 and took a defeat at the hands of Grace Lemar from Central Cass, the bracket’s No. 5 seed. Lemar pinned Lindstrom at 1:15.
“Her first match, that’s a girl we’ve wrestled before,” Olson said. “It’s been close. But it’s just one of those things that you’ve gotta stay resilient, especially at the state tournament, because there’s always more matches. There’s always an opportunity.”
Jetty came up with a first-round win for Devils Lake. It was another close contest, with Turtle Mountain’s Aleah Martin squeaking out to a 2-0 lead. Jetty had yet to gain any points at the end of the first period.
But she came up with a big move when she needed it most. She took down Martin with a pin, ending the match and emerging victorious. She fell into Olson’s arms in exasperation as Olson congratulated her and pumped her up.
“There were different things we worked on, being a little more aggressive,” Olson said. “And when the match first started, that Turtle Mountain girl came out extremely aggressive. She got a couple points off us for that. But Jaylee stuck with it. There were some things we worked on that she implemented, and it resulted in a pin.”
Officially, Jetty’s pin came at 3:11.
Quarterfinals
Jetty represented Devils Lake in the girls’ quarterfinals. She had to face the No. 1 seed, Bismarck’s Madison Reems.
And she stayed even with Reems for a while. It was scoreless at the end of the first period, with Jetty not giving in. But Reems went up 1-0 in the second period, then built a 4-0 lead after a takedown. Reems finished off the match with a pin at 3:51.
And so, Jetty fell out of the main bracket. But her wrestling run wasn’t done yet, as she moved to the second round of wrestle backs on Friday.
“Jaylee is generally pretty consistent,” Olson said. “The biggest thing is staying calm, and that goes for all the girls. But as long as they stay calm — if they wrestle calm, we wrestle well. And not getting wrapped up in the other person’s match. We always say, ‘Wrestle your own match.’ What do you do good, that’s what you lean on. And that comes through later in matches. If you stick to your game plan, good things happen.”
First-round wrestle backs
While Jetty competed in the quarterfinals, the other four Devils Lake girls all had matches in the first round of wrestle backs.
Orness lost by a pin at 3:13 in the 112. It was an upset win for Bismarck’s Chloie Collins, who was seeded No. 16 compared to Orness’s No. 9. That ended Orness’s run, despite a nearly-even effort in her first match.
“Izzy has probably improved the greatest. And that comes with confidence and just remaining calm,” Olson said. “Obviously, most athletes would get pretty anxious prior to any competition, but the improvement I’ve seen overall in her, just in her overall wrestling strategy — she studies.”
Riojas hung through to the end of her match in the 124. But she ended up taking a loss by decision, 6-2. It was scoreless for most of the first period until her opponent, Valley City’s Hailey Ford, got a takedown.
In the 130, Dahle lost by a pin at 1:31.
Lindstrom, though, stayed alive after taking a first-round loss. She won by a pin at 5:23, beating No. 13-seeded Chloe Bartz from Harvey/Wells County.
It was a step up from last year for Lindstrom, who made it to state but lost both of her matches. This year, she got to go home having won a match in the Fargodome.
“It’s good to see her progress from one season to the next,” Olson said.
Lindstrom advanced to join Jetty in the second round of wrestle backs on Friday.
Second-round wrestle backs
Lindstrom and Jetty both saw their tournament runs come to an end Friday morning.
No. 12-seeded Lindstrom, a day after beating the No. 13 seed, got pinned by the No. 11 seed at 4:36 in the second round of wrestle backs.
Jetty also lost by pin. She fell at 3:15 to the No. 8 seed in the 155, Bismarck Legacy’s Jaycee Etzel.
And thus ended the girls’ portion of the state wrestling tournament. But it was another step forward in a program that’s only been sanctioned for a couple of years.
“Bringing five [girls], that was an achievement in itself,” Olson said.
As a bonus, all five of them will be returning next year. Orness and Riojas are juniors. Jetty is a sophomore. Lindstrom is a freshman, and Dahle is only an eighth-grader.
The Firebirds will only look to continue building and send even more girls to state next February.
