By Rich Winter

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — When Brandon Valley seventh-grader Gracie Peters was a little girl she followed her brother Mikah everywhere, including the wrestling mat.

Before she was old enough to wrestle competitively, Gracie Peters was always near the awards ceremony and celebration.

“When they would hand out the medals she would be on the podium,” said Jon Peters, who is Gracie’s adopted father. “If her brother got a trophy she wanted a trophy.” 

From a very early age Gracie Peters was interested in wrestling, often sitting on the edge of the mat to watch her brothers compete - Courtesy Photo

While Peters knew she wanted to wrestle, her mother, Anne Peters wasn’t sure that was the best creative outlet for her daughter. Gracie Peters was enrolled in dance classes and from the very beginning she was resistant. 

“I hated doing that stuff,” Gracie Peters said. “I never liked putting on make up and who wants to put on an expensive dress for like 20 minutes.”

One of the initial minuses against wrestling for the Peters parents was that their daughter had to wrestle boys. When girls wrestling became a sanctioned sport, and with the encouragement of a 4th-grade teacher, Mr. Linneweber, a wrestling career was born.  

“Mr. Linneweber asked me if I was going out for wrestling that year,” Gracie Peters said. “We used to watch the boys wrestle on television during school. He was a huge supporter of mine and he was and still is my favorite teacher of all time.” 

Every year since she has been able Peters has competed in the state AAU wrestling tournament. That experience culminated with a second-place finish in the 110-pound bracket as a sixth grader. 

“She only weighed like 99 pounds but we wrestled at 110 last year,” Jon Peters said. “We didn’t want to fight the weight battle and that’s not something we’ve ever wanted to put on our daughter.” 

Peters describes herself as rough-and-tumble while her father describes his daughter as strong ‘sometimes strong willed’.

“She’s always been a powerhouse,” Jon Peters said. “I’m not sure she knows how strong she can be.” 

Brandon Valley seventh grader Gracie Peters chose wrestling over dancing and is competing in her first state tournament this spring - Courtesy Photo

That strength might be attributed to her birth parents who are both from Haiti or from her current parents, Jon and Anne Peters who went through an arduous adoption procedure to bring their daughter to the United States. 

Leading up to 2013 the Peters family decided they wanted to add to their current family that included Isaiah and Mikah, now a junior at Brandon Valley. 

The family went through an adoption agency from Haiti and after deciding to adopt a little girl the family had to wait several days to see a picture while the internet was down during a nasty ice-strom in the spring of 2013. 

“When the picture finally came through we knew that she was supposed to be ours and that she was ours,” Anne Peters said. 

Feeling like they had been called from a higher power Anne Peters initially struggled with the decision to bring another member into the family. 

“I spent a lot of time arguing with God,” Anne Peters said.

Thoughts of I’m not good enough for this or we don’t have enough money for this were quelled when needs were met or fundraising goals to proceed with an adoption were realized. 

“God provided us with money, almost to the dollar sometimes,” she said. “You hear people talk about stuff showing up when they need it most and stuff showed up at our door when we needed it most.” 

Several months after getting the money together to proceed with the adoption the Peters family heard rumors that the adoption agency they had gone through was corrupt and stealing money from the families. 

After digging deeper the Peters found that every penny they had put into the process was gone.

“I just looked at Jon and said I can’t do this again,” Anne Peters said. “We can’t fundraise again and ask people for money again.” 

“We had given everything we had and had no money left to give to it,” Jon Peters said. “At that point it had to become more about Gracie and what God had called us to do than money.” 

Jon Peters decided to hop on a plane and fly to Haiti in what he called a Rambo mission to find Gracie and bring her home. He spent a week on the ground going through dark alleys, backrooms and with secret handshakes at every turn. WIth French and Creole being spoken Jon Peters gathered little of what was being spoken.

“On the final night I was there I called home and talked to Anne and said you have to pray because this is it,” he said. “If this doesn’t happen tomorrow morning we’re not going to see her again and your trip with the boys to come down here is going to be canceled.” 

The next morning Peters went to an office to meet what was supposed to be Gracie's caretaker. After sitting for two hours with nothing being accomplished Jon Peters stood up and said he needed to go outside and get some air. 

“I opened the door and Gracie was standing there,” he said. “I grabbed her and I haven’t let go since.” 

While Peters had been a standout at the AAU level, high school wrestling is a whole new level of competition. By her own assessment the season could have gone better. 

“I had a pretty decent season,” Gracie Peters said. “I had some hiccups and I knew I had to come back and fix those things and that’s what I did with regions.” 

Peters reached the Region 2A finals with a 4-1 decision over Yankton’s Chloe Caton. That win punched the seventh-grader’s ticket to the first of what could be many state tournaments. 

Peters, 26-18 opened the 2025 state tournament against Pierre’s Shaylee Speck, 31-4.