By Rich Winter

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — Traun Cook’s unlikely rise to a Class B heavyweight contender continues today. 

The Canton High School junior entered the South Dakota state wrestling tournament with a 41-1 record and the No. 1 seed in the Class B 285-pound division. He’ll face Ipswich/Bowdle’s Lucas Rowland in the semifinals today. 

Not bad for a kid who just started playing sports two years ago. 

“I used to just stay in my room and play video games and do nothing really healthy,” he said. 

A transfer from Yankton to Canton changed all that for the 285-pound football player and wrestler.

“When I got to Canton all the teachers were like ‘You are a big kid, you should go out for football,’ ” Cook said. “The people I was hanging around made a big difference in my life.” 

That includes his grandparents, Alvena and Wallace Cook, who took in their grandson at two-years-old after Traun’s biological parents went through some difficult times. 

“They are my biggest fans and come to every one of my matches,” Traun Cook said. “I’m very grateful they could take me in and raise me because I’m not sure how I would have been raised.”

They’ve watched his rise as a two-sport standout for the C-Hawks. Cook played football, a sport he says he likes but his wrestling fortunes changed one day when Canton wrestling coach Jeremy Swenson approached him in the hallway. 

“I was wearing a Canton wrestling shirt and the coach saw that and asked me if I was a wrestler,” Cook said. “I said no I’m just wearing this sweatshirt so he asked me if I'd like to join wrestling and I said sure.”

The 2021-22 season wasn’t great for Cook. He ended up winning a couple of matches but practiced against 2022 graduate Isaac Suter who finished eighth at the 285-pound weight class. 

Entering the 2022-23 season Cook was still a wrestling novice. On Dec. 31, he suffered his only loss of the season to McCook Central/Montrose’s Austin Hoiten losing by fall in the semifinals of that tournament. 

Since then, Cook has gone nearly two months without a blemish to his record.

“Last year I wrestled with Isaac Suter a lot in practice ,” he said. “This year I’m grateful that I have Tanner Meyers (No. 1 ranked at 195) and former state champion Marshall Baldwin who is an assistant coach this year for the C-Hawks.”