MITCHELL, S.D. — Dakota Wesleyan Women’s Wrestling hosted the Buena Vista Beavers, an NCAA Division III school, and conference foe Morningside Mustangs in a series of dual meets. DWU Women’s Wrestling celebrated Family Night, as it is the team’s lone home event of the 2025-26 season.
Both the Beavers and Mustangs would have limited roster numbers, leading to a handful of forfeits between both duals that mostly favored Dakota Wesleyan. Even still, those that did have matches showed out in a big way for the home crowd in the Christen Family Athletic Center. Against Buena Vista, Jayden Lange kicked off competition at 145 with an impressive technical fall over Baier of Buena Vista in just two minutes and 10 seconds. She was followed in the dual by Olivia Smith, who matched Lange’s result with one extra point, recording an 11-0 technical fall in 4:49. Kaitlin Gay at the 207-pound weight class faced Ella Brown from BVU, and ultimately fell in the final contest of the dual. The two wins earlier in the dual, however, earned DWU eight combined team points, which, when combined with the forfeits, gave Dakota Wesleyan an 18-15 edge on the team scoreboard.
The second dual of the evening for Dakota Wesleyan held just two official matches, but the Tigers made them count. Cerys Gardner was able to grind out a win at the 110-pound weight class after turning Alyssa Olson of Morningside for a pinfall towards the end of the match, while Smith came up big for DWU once again with a win over Baylie Wehmeyer. Smith faced an early injury timeout, but was able to battle back to turn the tables in her favor and record a massive pinfall in four minutes and five seconds. Those two wins, on top of four other forfeit wins, gave the Tigers a dominant 30-10 victory over the Mustangs to end the day 2-0 as a team.
DWU Women’s Wrestling will be back in action against the Waldorf Warriors in a GPAC dual meet on Thursday, January 29th, at 6:30 PM. See the full 2025-26 schedule here.