NATIONAL CHAMPION — Augsburg University’s Katie Lange (top), shown recording a takedown against her opponent during action in the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s National Duals on Jan. 6 in Louisville, Kentucky, won the 143-pound individual championship in guiding her team to a fifth-place finish at nationals last Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Photo courtesy of Don Stoner, Augsburg University Athletics)

SHERBURN – The local girl used a dramatic comeback to play the role of the heroine.

Martin County West High School graduate Katie Lange earned her first individual championship and helped the Augsburg University women’s wrestling team earn a fifth-place finish at the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships last Saturday at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“I felt I was on cloud 9 after winning the national championship,” Lange said. “I couldn’t sleep that night. I just kept on thinking about winning that title. It’s a pretty awesome feeling.”

Ausburg tallied 87.5 points, behind champion North Central (Illinois) with 198.0 points; King (Tennessee) with 163.0; McKendree (Illinois) with 147.5; and Colorado Mesa with 108.0.

The Augsburg sophomore was ranked No. 3 nationally in the 143-pound division, and made quite the comeback in the third period of her national title match against top-ranked Ashlynn Ortega of King (Tennessee).

Down 6-4, Lange scored four points in the final 32 seconds, including a takedown with 11 seconds left, to claim the win and her first national title.

Lange is now 2-1 in her collegiate career against Ortega, after splitting their meetings last season. Both of Lange’s wins came when Ortega was ranked No. 1 nationally.

“She is a very tough opponent, but I was anxious to wrestle against her, knowing we split our first two matches,” Lange said. “This was kind of like a rubber match in a way. Now I have the edge against here, 2-1. I knew I needed a takedown in the final 30 seconds to win the match. I was able to get that takedown.”

This will be their final meeting since Ortega is a redshirt senior.

Lange advanced to the title match with a 10-4 victory over No. 2-ranked Grace Stem of Lock Haven (Pennsylvania) in the semifinals last Saturday.

Lange finished her sophomore season with a 33-6 record, scoring nine pins and 16 technical falls. She is now 51-7 in her two collegiate seasons, with 16 pins and 23 technical falls.

In addition to Lange, Ausburg’s Marlynne Deede of Springville, Utah, won a national title with a 6-2 victory over No. 3-ranked Dalie Garibay in the 155-pound division. It was their first-ever meeting.

Augsburg finished sixth last year in the national championships.

Jake Short is the head coach at Augsburg, who just finished his second season at the helm.

“Women’s wrestling at the collegiate level is growing in popularity, which is nice to see,” Lange said. “We put in a lot of work and we have two great coaches who help us get better each and every day.

“My head coach (Short) came up to me during the middle of the season after I was struggling and told me that he believes in me and I could win a national championship,” Lange said. “Our assistant coach, Precious Wieser, works directly with me and it’s great that she is a part of our program. We have two great coaches.”

Lange’s favorite moves are the single-leg takedown and head throws.

“I stick to the basics,” Lange said.

Lange has been involved in wrestling since age 3 and made that her primary sport in high school. She was the lone girl on the Martin County Red Bulls grappling team.

She took some time away from the sport during her junior year of high school, but returned her senior year and Short was interested in her to wrestle for his women’s program at Ausburg.

“He is a local coach and knew of me and what I could do, so he recruited me to wrestle at Ausburg,” Lange said. “It’s a good fit. I get to wrestle relatively close to home at a nice place to attend college.”

Lange, a finance and accounting major, isn’t sure what avenue she wants to pursue after her college days.

After winning the national championship, Lange had to finish homework.

“There was no rest. I had homework due even after winning the national championship,” Lange said. “I took one day off to rest my sore muscles, but then the following day I was back wrestling. I have a national championship to defend and I plan to do it.”

Lange gets high marks in the classroom, too, carrying a lofty 3.97 grade point average.

She is the middle child of parents Kevin and Lisa Lange of Sherburn.

She has two brothers, Tristan, 22, and Kaedin Lange, 13. Tristan wrestled with the Red Bulls throughout high school and Kaedin recently finished his season as a seventh-grader competing with the Red Bulls.

Katie Lange said she is interested in staying active in wrestling when her collegiate career is over.