By Rich Winter

605 Sports

Lemmon’s Quinn Butler has been part of a lot of firsts for the Lemmon/McIntosh wrestling team.

As a sixth grader she was the only girl on the team. As a seventh grader she finished third at the state meet and as an eighth-grader she finished as a runner-up. This season, Butler became the first Cowgirl to be ranked No. 1 in her weight class (120). 

All those accomplishments aside Butler wants more.

“I am really looking for a state championship this year,” Butler, a sophomore, said. 

Several weeks ago Butler notched another Lemmon/McIntosh milestone becoming the first girl to top 100 career wins. 

Butler finished 40-3 in the 2022-23. This season Butler is 39-2 with her only losses coming to Harrisburg’s Regina Stoeser in the finals of the Rapid City Invitational and Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon’s Britney Rueb in the finals of Harrisburg tournament. 

“I’ve been putting in more work,” she said. “I think I’m lifting and training a lot harder than in the past.” 

Butler has seen a lot of Stoeser and Rueb at state events over the last few seasons and she says wrestling girls that are nationally ranked can only help her get better.

“I don’t get to see that kind of competition on my side of the state very often so I think wrestling them helps me a lot,” she said. 

As Butler has found success on the mat the Lemmon/McIntosh girls programs numbers continue to rise. Two seasons ago there were two girls on the team. For the 2022-23 season Lemmon/McIntosh had three girls on the team. This season that number has grown to six girls, something Butler is proud to be part of. 

“A lot of our AAU girls are continuing with the sport because they’ve watched me and seen the success I’ve had,” Butler said. 

Butler was part of the Lemmon/McIntosh cross-country team that finished third at the Class B state meet last fall. She didn’t run at the state meet opting to rest, a condition doctors have diagnosed as hip dysplasia. Hip dysplasia is a condition that is seen more often in women and occurs when the acetabulum (the socket in the pelvis into which femoral head fits) is too shallow to support the femoral head (the ball-shaped bone at the top of the femur or thigh bone).

“I really only did cross-country to stay in shape for wrestling,” she said. “The doctors say if it is bothering me I might need surgery at some point but it really doesn’t bother me when I’m wrestling.” 

While the girls' numbers continue to improve for Lemmon/McIntosh, Butler opts to wrestle the boys, most often grappling with Gage and Maxwell Anderson in practice. 

Butler said a state title would mean everything to her tiny community with their last state wrestling title coming from Tony Lorenz during the 1964-65 season. 

“It would mean a lot to me but I think it would mean a great deal to our community and our two coaches,” she said.