By Matt Gade

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — Since the start of the year, Sturgis sophomore Shelby Werlinger had a goal of making it to state. On Friday, the Scooper made that happen. 

While a fourth-place finish at 145 pounds might not be the placing she originally wanted, considering she spent two days in the hospital in Spearfish, Werlinger isn’t going to complain.

After a diagnosis a couple weeks ago, Werlinger said she was in excruciating pain on Monday.

“I was in deep pain, Monday night. I couldn't stand, I was bent over, falling. Got admitted to Sturgis ER, they did blood draws, IVs and a CAT scan to see that I had a cyst on my ovaries,” Werlinger said. “They said about 5.2 centimeters. So then they had transferred me to Rapid City to get an ultrasound. Got an ultrasound, and it was six centimeters on my ovaries. So that's three times the size that it's supposed to be, so kind of bigger than a golf ball.” 

Werlinger said she went home and met with a doctor on Tuesday where she was admitted to the hospital in Spearfish where she received IV fluids and antibiotics for the next two days to battle the infection. 

When she was discharged from the hospital, Werlinger said her doctor agreed to clear her for wrestling competition, which came as a huge relief. 

“It kind of was down to the last minute. I was getting discharged from the hospital, and she goes, ‘I'm gonna clear you.’ And then a couple hours later, I was in practice,” she said. 

“You know, I told everybody. I said, ‘I know she's sitting in the hospital bed right now saying, I don't care what they say, I'm wrestling,’” Sturgis head coach Jon Pierson said. “She's just got that attitude, and she got in here, and, you know, we kind of just only got her in the ones we had to have. And she wrestled great.”

Werlinger, who wrestles at 145 pounds, won her first match against Douglas/Rapid City Christian’s Izzi Evans 7-2 in the Region 4 tournament on Friday at Rapid City Central. 

Werlinger would then forfeit her next match, against Hot Springs’ Sarah Rickenbach, and faced Lemmon’s Reva Barnes in the consolation bracket winning by pin fall in 3:21 to make the third-place match and qualify for the state tournament. 

Werlinger then forfeited the third-place match to Lead-Deadwood’s Ivy Hayes having already qualified for the tournament.

“I didn't want to give up,” Werlinger said. “I've worked so hard this season, especially improving since last year, and I set goals for myself, and one of them was to make it to state. Still haven't succeeded, the other one yet, but we're still on the roll. But I just couldn't let myself not come and not wrestle.”

After being discharged from the hospital, Werlinger had one more obstacle to overcome. After being hooked up to IVs and fluids for two days and resting in bed, Werlinger was overweight. 

She said she spent a lot of time at practice, spent time at Sturgis boys head coach Mike Abell’s sauna on Thursday night trying to sweat off the fluids. She then was up early Friday morning working out ahead of weigh-ins just to be sure.

“I didn't want to push her too hard, you know, you're worried about how she's feeling, but — you try to stop her. It's no small feat,” Pierson said. 

Now that she’s qualified, Werlinger said she’s going to rest and hopefully her body is feeling a lot better before practice on Monday where she said she plans on getting back to work.

“It's awesome,” Pierson said of Werlinger qualifying. “You know, last year was her first year ever, even on a mat. So she qualified last year. She's had a great season. So I was really upset when I heard what was going on. But yeah, she's pretty unstoppable.”