Class B Boys Wrestling Preview

Editor’s Note: 605 Sports will unveil team preview capsules on all wrestling classes leading up to the 2022-23 season openers. The information provided was submitted by coaches in response to an email sent by 605 Sports.

Team capsules (listed in alphabetical order): 

Elk Point-Jefferson

Coach: Tyler Nolz

Key Returners: Ben Swatek 12th- 5th place 170lb State B (160-170), Gavin Jacobs 12th- 5th place 182lb State B (170-182), Lucas Hueser 12th- 6th place 145lb State B (152-160), Noah McDermott 12th- State Qualifier (170-195), Noah Thooft 12th (195-220), Grayson Jacobs 11th (170-195), Gunner Ewing 10th- State Qualifier (145-160), Hayes Johnson 10th (132-145), Keaton Gale 10th (145-152)

Key Newcomers: Keaton Hinds 9th (195-220), Charlie Suing 9th (145-152), Mason Marx 9th (145-152), Owen Rigg 9th (113-120), Caleb Heuertz 8th (152-160), Brody VanRoekel 8th (106-113), Luke Swatek 7th (120-126), Bode Fennel 7th 106, Beckett Fennel 7th 106, Trey VanderWeerdt 7th 126, Spencer Marx 7th 132

Outlook: “We have great leadership and experience from our senior class, once we get everyone to their spots, we will be very competitive in duals and tournaments,” coach Tyler Nolz said. “We have some seniors that have very high expectations this year.

Hamlin

Coach: Riley Miller

Returning State Qualifiers: John Yonker and Troy Randall Jr

Top newcomers: Brody Randall, Rylan Yonker and Brock Gisselbeck

Outlook: Hamlin will look to improve on an 8-5 dual record and a 7th place finish in Region 1B.

“I am really excited about the potential of this team going into the season,” coach Riley Miller said. “I believe we will have success and do well in individual tournaments, and we look to improve our dual record from last season. This is a hard-working group of young wrestlers, and really grew together as a team last year. I look forward to seeing them compete once again this season. I believe the key to our season is for everyone to buy into what we are trying to achieve. We must come together as a unit and wrestle for one another. This team has big goals both individually and as a team, and in order to accomplish them the whole team needs to stay committed and focus on improving each and every day.”

Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes

Coach: Thomas Konechne 

Returning State Placers and place: Kasen Konstanz 3rd, Iden Myers 8th (2021), Carter Lenz 3rd, Gavin Braun 1st, Lucas Lenz 5th

Other wrestlers to watch: Johnny Lenz, Jayden Kahler

Outlook: “KWLPG will have some holes to fill due to a handful of graduations and moves,” coach Thomas Konechne. “We lost a lot of leadership and experience from last year so we will be looking for some younger wrestlers to step up and fill their shoes. We return five state place winners on the boys side

led by senior Carter Lenz. We will also look for leadership from Kasen Konstanz, Gavin

Braun, Iden Myers, and Lucas Lenz. We have some injuries to get over but by middle of

January we look to be firing on all cylinders and expect to make a push for some team

hardware at the end of the season.”

Kingsbury County

Coach: Steve Gilbertson

Returning State Qualifiers: Cannon Gilligan, Dylan Zell, Connor Johnson

Wrestlers to Watch: Cody Zell 113, Lane Albrecht 120, Chase Henriksen 106, Rogan Albrecht 106, Greyson Nielsen 126, Kaleb Johnson 138-145, Blake Jennings 132, Kahne Hansen 132, Ethan Johnson 138-145, Sheldon Balderston 132-138, Tucker Andersen 160, Breyton Johnson 182, Lane Jensen 132, Marshall Holt 182, Deion Harris 170, Owen Anderson 132, Donavon Sandven 138, Noah Vig 120, RJ Cleveland 138, Jaun Gutierrez 138. 

Outlook: “Again we look to take a step forward with our program,” coach Steve Gilbertson said. “Our numbers are good overall so we look to be a solid dual squad and take pride in that. We have a group of experienced wrestlers as well as hungry young kids looking to compete at a higher level. We alwayslook forward to the challenges ahead and are excited about what our season will bring.”

Sunshine Bible Academy

Coach: Jason Burma

Returning starters: Trevor Lashkewitsch, Jimmy Burma

Wrestlers to Watch: Devon Bauman 8th 106/113, Kaleb Sarchet 11th 160, Troy Paul  10th 170, Daniel Gerbracht 12th 170/182

Outlook: “The Crusader wrestling team will be young and inexperienced this season but mat time in the room and during competitions should really help most of these guys,” coach Jason Burma said. “A couple of these young men put some time in on the offseason to get stronger.  Jimmy Burma started running this summer and it has helped his core strength and coordination especially for his 6' 4" frame.  He also was a dual sport athlete this fall playing football and finishing in the top 35 at state cross country. Trevor and Kaleb also spent some time working on their technique this summer, along with getting stronger.  This has already shown up in the practice room and should also show up in their amount of wins this season.  Kaleb Sarchet and Daniel Gerbracht are two newer wrestlers to join the squad.  Their strength and athletic ability should help them until they get that mat time experience.  We are not a big squad but I am excited to see the drive and desire to get better.  Hopefully that will be contagious in the room because it is really hard to get better without a good practice partner. We as a team just look to improve daily and work hard throughout the whole season.  The talent is there but talent without hard work only goes so far.”

Philip/Kadoka Area Wall Badlands Brawlers

Coach: Luke Weber

Returning State Placers: Tukker Boe 7th at 106, Kipp Cordes 4th at 120, Jace Blasius 3rd at 126, Thane Simons 8th at 145, Burk Blasius Returning State Champ

State Qualifiers Returning: Gage Ravellette, Blair Blasius, Jensen Fitch

Wrestlers to Watch: Radley Wendt 12th, Jerimiah Lange 9th, Cannin Snyder 8th , Chance Wagner 7th , Rayler Fitch 7th ,

Outlook: “We are very excited about this year,” coach Luke Weber said. “We got hit hard by injuries last year at the end of the year and those kids are back and they seem to be stronger and hungry to get back out on the mat. If we can get a couple kids that are coming into the season healthy and the others to stay healthy we feel like we have a shot at the state title.

Winner Area

Coach: Spencer Novotny

Returning State Placers: Maxton Brozik 1st , Jack Kruger 2nd , Riley Orel 3rd

Returning State Qualifiers: Karson Keiser, Jack Peters, Jude Sargent, Konner Osborn

Season outlook: “Last year we lost a lot of seniors that have helped move our program in the right direction,” coach Spencer Novotny said. “We will be looking for new leaders in the wrestling room, but we do have a great group of seniors this year. It will be interesting to see where our guys line up with the new OPC program. We are looking forward to this year. We were pre-season rated 7th and I know that the guys are looking to improve on that. We will have a lot of new faces this year on varsity, however, they will be quite experienced. Almost all our kids on our roster got varsity wins last year, wrestled in the state dual tournament, and this year will be looking to earn their own spot on the varsity roster. Hopefully we can continue to attack on offense and keep the culture that our kids have created over the years.” 

Class A Wrestling Previews:

Chamberlain

Coach: John Donovan 

Head Coach: John Donovan 19 th year

Returning state qualifiers: 

Noah Hutmacher 2nd @195, Canyon Burkard 7 th @ 285, Xavier Donovan, Devyn Anderson, Quinn Long, Bryce, Reuer, Swade Reis, Shelby Shrake.

Wrestlers to Watch: Jozey Nesladek, Declan Tveit, Ty Graesser, Carter Santiago,

Peyton and Prestyn Haugen, Isaac Shepherd, Rope Reis, Sutton Powers, Marcello

Martinez, Mario Oliva-Gaytan, Judah Vaad, Owen Engel, Cannon Thomas

Outlook: The team returns eight state qualifiers and two state place winners from last year’s team,” coach John Donovan said. “There are also many young wrestlers that had a lot of mat time last year that will be vying for a varsity spot. We had a great Region tournament last year and competed hard at the state wrestling tournament. We fell short of our goal at the state tournament, but we return a great nucleus of guys this season. I am really excited to coach this group of young men. We have great senior leadership returning this season also. Our schedule has changed a little which will help us see some more Class A opponents. Overall this should be an exciting season and I look forward to seeing this group compete.

Flandreau

Coach: Cody Chamblin

Returning starters: Caleb Pitsenberger, Brayden Weise, Karter Headrick

Top Newcomers: Justin Klein, Teague Bergjord

Outlook: “For conference we will struggle in duals with not filling a lot of weight classes,” coach Cody Chamblin said. “But I feel like we can definitely have a number of kids that are all-conference caliber and potential conference champions. Big things happened last year getting five kids to state and getting Chase Reed and Tathan Headrick on that podium. We have a great group of kids that are putting the time in. Just need to make that next leap. We did have to make the move to class A this year and like I stated above we have quality kids that will make some noise, we will just lack in the team dual aspect.

Pierre

Coach: Shawn Lewis

Returning State Qualifiers and Placewinners: Alex Oedekoven (3rd @ 106) Fr, Lincoln Schoenhard (SQ @ 113) Fr, Tristan Spencer (5th @ 132) Jr, Deegan Houska (2nd @ 152) Sr, Jayden Wiebe (SQ @ 160) Sr, Lucas Chamberlin (7th @ 170) Jr, Chance Carda (4th @ 182) Jr, Gavin Stotts (7th @ 195) Sr , Elijah Boutchee (SQ @ 220) So, Joshua Rydberg (6th @ 285) Sr

Other Wrestlers to Watch: Chace Carda Sr, Trey Lewis Jr, Jaxon Duecheneaux Jr, Rowdy Menning Fr, Jacob Mason So, Hudson Shaffer Fr, Carson Stoesser So, Lincoln Houska So

Outlook: This season the Governors will be looking to challenge for a top spot in the state once again,” coach Shawn Lewis said. With the experience and talent that they have returning there is little doubt that it can be done. Getting kids into the right weight classes and staying healthy all season long will prove to be a key. With late football runs this team has come into the season with a few bumps and had to gut it out over the past few seasons.  This group is no stranger to success in football and wrestling.  Leadership is going to take this group far.  Deegan Houska, Gavin Stotts, Jayden Wiebe, Chace Carda, Rosh Rydberg, and Matthew Hostler, this year's Seniors are no stranger to the Governor Wrestling lineup.  With the wealth of experience in the supporting cast it should be a great year.  The coaching staff is hoping to build off of the 3rd place finish at State Duals last year and regain a spot in the Finals.  The depth of talent around the state is going to make this season a fun one.  Brandon Valley, Harrisburg, Tea, Sturgis, Watertown and Aberdeen Central return a solid amount of their line ups from past years.  Lofty goals of 14 qualifiers, 12 place winners, 4 finalists, and two champions will be the roadmap for the Govs to compete with the defending 2x State Champions Brandon Valley Lynx.”