By Rich Winter

605 Sports

FARGO, N.D. — Wrestling 12 matches in three days, Huron’s Moses Kayden Gross earned a sixth-place finish, and All-American status at the USA Wrestling 16U National Championships. 

 “I’m pretty good on my feet so I thought I would do well at this tournament,” Gross said. “Everyone is good here so you have to just gotta have the mindset that you have to keep on wrestling.” 

Gross lost to Pennsylvania’s Max Gross in the second round then rattled off eight straight wins before losing to Gross again. In his final match Monday afternoon Gross lost, 9-8 to Colorado’s Garrett Reece. 

It has been a breakout year for the Huron sophomore. Gross finished his freshman campaign with a 37-3 record that included winning the Class A 132-pound championship with a win over Brandon Valley’s Trason Oehme. 

“Winning that state title gave me a lot of confidence but after that I just moved on and kept training,” he said. 

Living in Huron, Gross said he’s been lifting weights and running to stay in shape. He also said training at the Legends of Gold Wrestling Academy in Beresford this summer has been instrumental to his continued growth as a wrestler. 

Four South Dakota wrestlers from the Junior Freestyle team advanced to Monday’s placing rounds. Ayson Rice of Canton, Logan Graf of Rapid City Stevens, Luke Rasmussen of Brookings and Sloan Johannsen of Watertown all failed to advance to the placing rounds. 

While there were some good results from the South Dakota wrestlers, South Dakota USA Wrestling State Chairperson, Ray Rinstmeyer said there is room for improvement. 

“We have a very talented group of junior men so it was a little disappointing to not have anyone make the All-American rounds,” Ringstmeyer said. “We had a great start and kept battling but our lack of big match freestyle experience was the key factor in our losses in the rounds that would have put three of our guys into the top-eight, All-American status.”

The junior girls freestyle wrestling began Tuesday morning.