By Rich Winter

605 Sports

At the 2022 South Dakota Class B State Dual Championships Custer wrestling coach Jared Webster felt his team was qualified to make the eight-team final. 

The Seeding Committee felt otherwise and the Wildcat grapplers were left on the outside looking in.

“I believed we were one of the top-four teams last year,” Webster said. “We looked at the seeding and felt like we needed to get to the eastern part of the state and see that competition.”

On Thursday, Jan. 12 the Wildcats showed up in Salem to dual McCook Central/Montrose, Kingsbury County and Tri-Valley. The team jumped on the bus with a 51-20 win over MCM, a 60-15 win over Kingsbury County and a 60-15 win over Tri-Valley. 

The next night Custer defeated the Philip/Kadoka Area/Wall Badlands Brawlers 48-24 and the next day the Wildcats steamrolled the competition at the Black Hills Conference Tournament, crowning nine individual champions. 

Custer caught the attention of all of Class B when they out-dueled defending Class B State Dual Champion, Winner Area in Winner, winning 34-26. 

“We took a lot of time with that dual, wrote everything out on paper and came prepared,” Webster said. “I believe we match up pretty well with Winner and they are a heck of a program.”

That win over Winner Area vaulted Custer into the No. 1 ranking for Class B dual teams as provided by Dakota Grappler. 

A program is something Webster and the Custer wrestling community has been building since he took over 11 years ago. 

“It started out with revamping our AAU program,” he said. “We have excellent coaches, a great board that is wonderful to work with and now we are starting to see some of those kids finding success at the high school level.” 

In the most recent weekly wrestling poll the Wildcats have nine wrestlers that are ranked including top ranked Tray Weiss (113). The Wildcats are currently the No. 5 ranked Class B team in the state and Webster is hoping to be in the mix for a high placing at next month’s Class B state tournament. 

“We have high expectations for this group of kids,” Webster said. “The highest team finish we’ve had since I’ve been here is 5th and we’re hoping to be higher than that but I promise you we’re going to have fun doing it” 

Custer is often thought of as a basketball school but Webster said hard work by a lot of people and a welcoming community is slowly changing that.

“We’ve seen some change,” he said. “I think our success over the last few years has changed the culture a little bit.” 

The culture of the Custer program was never more evident following the death of classmate Carter Bader. After defeating Winner Area in dual action on Jan. 5 the Wildcats wrestled the first day of the Mid Dakota Monster tournament in Presho on Jan. 6. Most of the team left that tournament to attend their classmates' funeral, with all of the senior grapplers serving as pallbearers. 

“Our kids are home grown and do a lot of hunting and fishing together,” Webster said. “The loss of a classmate in a small community is a tough loss for young people to deal with.”