By Rich Winter

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — When the official raised Regina Stoeser’s hand following her win over Lemmon’s Quinn Butler, the Harrisburg junior breathed a huge sigh of relief. 

Stoeser won her fourth state title with a 13-6 win and recalled an injury-plagued year that left her questioning if she would even make the state tournament. 

“To be honest I wasn’t sure I’d be back here,” Stoeser said. “I broke my ankle this summer and then tore some tendons in the other ankle.” 

Stoeser said she went through a mental slump after breaking her ankle at the first tournament of the summer season in Las Vegas. When she finally was able to return to the mat for practice she hurt the other ankle before she could even compete. 

That’s when she said she reached her lowest point. 

“Before I could even come back I tore some tendons in my ankle and I was like ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” she said. “I knew at some point I would be back but at that point I questioned which Reggie would be back.” 

With a lot of spare time on her hands and feeling down in the dumps for the second time in a span of eight months, Stoeser realized she had an identity crisis. 

“I realize that my identity crisis was that I treated wrestling as if it was an idol,” she said. 

Her solution? God.

“God is the only one who knows what I’m going through and it’s just like my identity for me is in Christ,” she said. “You can say that but there is a difference between saying that and realizing that. For me that forced me to have that realization that I’m priceless and I’m invaluable and he loves me and he made me perfect in his image and everything else is just more.” 

Stoeser finally got on the mat in early February. After suffering a rare loss, Stoeser won her region tournament and entered the state tournament with a 9-1 record. 

On Saturday, Stoeser took down Butler (47-2) and earned back points while keeping the Lemmon wrestler on her back most of the first period. For much of the match Stoeser slowed down and looked to have every move calculated with precision. 

“I really tried to be patient,” Stoeser said. “I’ve seen it too many times where people rush it. I wanted to slow myself down and take it easy.”