HOT SPRINGS – Despite not ever competing in the sport until 8th grade – one year after girls wrestling first became sanctioned in the state of South Dakota – Hot Springs High School junior Sarah Rickenbach has been a state medalist every year.
Rickenbach first decided to trade in her shoes made for hardwood with a pair made for the mat after completing her 2022 middle school basketball season. Opting to skip the middle school wrestling season, she jumped right onto the high school team after Christmas for the 2022-23 season.
Her older brother Caleb, who was a junior at that time, was piling up wins on the Bison boys wrestling team. Sarah followed his lead and soon started doing the same.
“I liked the aggressiveness of it and the fact that it’s an individual sport, where I’m responsible for my results, whether it’s winning or losing and working hard,” Sarah said during an interview this past Sunday, while wearing a brand-new gold medal around her neck after returning home from the 2026 State Wrestling Championships in Sioux Falls.
That first season, as a member of the Hot Springs girls wrestling program, Rickenbach qualified for state and placed 7th in the 142-pound division. The next two seasons, she placed third both years in the 145-pound division, and this year, she finally struck gold at 145 to become Hot Springs’ first-ever girls wrestling state champion. She’s also the first individual state wrestling champion at the school in a decade, since Jacob DeSersa donned the gold medal for the Bison in 2016 – coincidentally also at 145 pounds.
Throughout her career as a high school wrestler, Sarah said her brother Caleb, who is now a sophomore on the South Dakota Mines football team, has been a huge source of support.
Despite not ever capturing an individual state wrestling title of his own, Caleb is the winningest wrestler in Hot Springs High School history with a record of 221-38 overall. He is also a four-time, high-placing state medalist, finishing 3rd as a freshman (170 lbs), 3rd as a sophomore (195 lbs), 2nd as a junior (195 lbs) and then 3rd again as a senior (215 lbs).
“My brother has helped me a lot. He gets it,” Sarah said. “Even when I text him now, he’s like, ‘yeah, I know what you’re feeling.’ And that just makes me feel really seen. My parents (Josh and Mindy Rickenbach) are very supportive but there’s just something about someone whose been through the exact same thing and that really helps.”
When asked in what specific areas her brother has helped the most, Sarah said, “Mindset in wrestling is very difficult; with injuries and just keeping your mindset right.”
“Nerves are really crazy, especially at the State Tournament, when you have the ‘want’ to please people and not let anyone down,” Sarah said. “Just keeping the goal to wrestle for you, and for God, is sometimes really hard; and he gets that.”
Like nearly all of her previous three seasons, her junior season this year was once again plagued with injuries which forced her to miss a handful of tournaments. Despite the challenges of having fewer matches than many of the other state qualifiers in her bracket, she still entered this past weekend’s state meet as the top-seed with a 20-3 record overall.
At a reception for Hot Springs’ boys and girls wrestling teams held in Case Auditorium on Sunday, March 1, Rickenbach pointed out to the crowd of supporters that two of her losses on the season were due to a controversial disqualification at the Hot Springs Girls Holiday Extravaganza during a match versus an Upton, Wyo., wrestler. The only legitimate loss Rickenbach actually suffered during the season was at the Mid Dakota Bride of the Monster Tournament, when two-time state champion Summer Guthmiller of Sioux Valley moved down from her usual 155 weight class to face her in Presho.
Hot Springs senior Katie Snyder, who is Rickenbach’s wrestling partner in practice and who also faced Guthmiller at this year’s state meet in the 155 pound semifinals, spoke during this past weekend’s team reception and described some of her teammate’s struggles during the season. Snyder recalled her friend being on the brink of quitting wrestling in January while dealing with injuries and the emotional strain of the season, after narrowly defeating Ivy Hayes of Lead-Deadwood to win the 145-pound title of the Governor Girls Wrestling Tournament in Pierre.
Thankfully, Snyder said, she didn’t quit and was ultimately rewarded for her perseverance with the championship medal around her neck.
Her road to gold this past week in Sioux Falls began with two seemingly easy wins, first pinning Makhala Nissen of Spearfish in just 15 seconds and then Allison Neitzel of Aberdeen Central in 48 seconds. The semifinals saw her once again battling the aforementioned Hayes of Lead-Deadwood, whom she eked by in Pierre with an 8-7 decision, but this time stuck in the first period with a fall at 1:56.
In the championship match, Rickenbach faced two-seed Winry Yaggie of Yankton, who despite only being a freshman, came into the match with 38 wins on the season. Rickenbach struck early with a takedown to take a 3-0 lead, but Yaggie later earned an escape to make the score 3-1 to start the second period.
After Yaggie deferred the coin flip, Rickenbach, with her left shoulder wrapped in a brace from an injury earlier in the season, chose the down position, which is where she stayed the entire two minutes, as Yaggie wrenched away on her upper body in an attempt to turn Rickenbach over.
When asked what it was like to endure two full minutes of Yaggie “cranking on that shoulder,” Rickenbach said, “It was awful. Honestly, it hurt like Hell, but I just kept telling myself, ‘You got this. You will not go to your back. You will not let her turn you, because you DO want this and this has been the goal and you CAN do it. You have so many people supporting you and loving you and you got it.’” Rickenbach did hold on and held firm to her base, ultimately riding out the entire second period on the bottom. After Yaggie then chose the top position to start the third period, Rickenbach once again found herself in the same position, but at the :55 point, she also found the strength to earn a onepoint escape, which she soon answered with another threepoint takedown. For the final 29 seconds of the match, Rickenbach was on top and in control, and as the final whistle blew, she rolled off of her opponent and raised both of her arms to the sky in celebration of a 7-1 victory.
When asked what winning the school’s first-ever girls state wrestling title means to her, Rickenbach said, “It’s very exciting.”
“It’s been a goal of mine for a long time and finally being able to achieve it is just really special,” she said. “I hope I can be someone who little girls, growing up in wrestling at Hot Springs, can look up to. Even if you start a little later, you still can do it.”
Rickenbach also added that she feels very blessed with all of the support she has received.
“I’m really grateful and feeling very blessed with all of the support. God has blessed me,” she said. “I prayed a lot during the state tournament for Him to give me peace of mind and the strength, and I’m just really grateful.”
Ray Ringstmeyer, who has been her coach throughout the past four seasons, commented on Rickenbach’s success after the state meet and said, “What a journey she has had.”
“There were times she was so mad at us for sitting her out due to injuries,” Coach Rickenbach said. “She overcame a lot this year. In the end, she trusted us, and believed in herself, and went out there and took advantage of her opportunities.”
In an interview with the Rapid City Journal immediately after Rickenbach won the state title, Ringstmeyer said he told the newspaper that there’s a bunch of little girls that want to be like her. “And they should,” he said. “Hopefully it paves the way for more young ladies to try wrestling. Her only loss this year is to Guthmiller at Lyman who ended up winning Katie’s weight. The way her season started at the Holiday Extravaganza, this was a special end of the folkstyle season for her.”