By Rich Winter

605 Sports

While Canton and Sturgis dominated action at the state dual tournaments there was some carnage throughout the brackets leading up to those state championship duals. 

Custer entered the Class B duals as the No. 8 seed and promptly sent top seed Winner Area to the consolation bracket with a 36-33 win. The state duals offer an opportunity for coaches to move wrestlers around a bit and Custer coach Jared Webster made one of those moves to secure the victory. Custer’s Zayne Severyn (215/285) bumped up to 285 and beat Winner Area’s Stetson Shelbourn 1-0 (TB-1). 

Custer nearly made it to the Class B final, wrestling Philip/Kadoka Area/Wall Badlands Brawlers to a 34-34 draw in the semifinals. The Brawlers advanced to the finals after a 1-point tiebreaker was added to their score. The Wildcats efforts did not go unnoticed as Custer moved up to the No. 2 in the Class B team rankings from Dakota Grappler this week.

(All Rankings issued by Dakota Grappler)

Week 11 Class B team rankings: 1. Canton, 150; 2. Custer, 114; 3. Philip/Kadoka Area/Wall Badlands Brawlers, 105; 4. Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes, 104; 5. Winner Area, 101; 6. Miller/Highmore-Harrold, 95; 7. Wagner, 80; 8. Howard, 67; 9. Parker, 62; 10. Parkston, 58. 

It was all Sturgis at the Class A state dual tournament but few besides the Watertown wrestling team would have pegged the No. 6 seed Arrows to reach the title match. Early in the season, Watertown’s Micah Hach (285) was asked about the heavy losses to graduation the 2022-23 team suffered.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys in the room right now but everyone is working hard and we hope to be at our best by the end of the year,” Hach said.

After knocking out No. 2 seed Rapid City Stevens, 43-21, in their opener, Watertown backed up that effort with a 38-29 win over No. 2 seed Pierre. While the recent rankings find the Arrows as Class A’s No. 5 team don’t be surprised if Watertown comes close to matching their runner-up finish from the 2022-23 season at next week’s state tournament. 

Seeded No. 6 the Watertown wrestling team finished second at the Class A state dual tournament - Photo courtesy of South Dakota Public Broadcasting

Milestones Matter: 

• Sioux Falls Lincoln’s Hudson Cisar recently eclipsed the 100-win barrier. 

• Marion/Freeman freshman Brody Gossen is expected to top the 100-win barrier at Saturday’s Region 2B tournament in Canton. 

Lakota Tech girls win Black Hills Last Chance tournament

HOT SPRINGS — While it was a light week for girls wrestling season the Lakota Tech girls ramped up for the postseason by winning the Black Hills Last Chance tournament in Hot Springs. 

The Tatanka scored 121 points, well ahead of Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon (96) and Hot Springs (64). Rapid City Stevens (58) and Todd County (56) rounded out the top-five teams from the 14-team tournament.

Lakota Tech had four champions as Brandy Marshall (107), Chloe Fire Thunder (152), Sandra Moves Camp (165) and Eriah Big Crow (185) all claimed individual titles. 

Other individual titles were claimed by Rapid City Stevens’ Averie Brehm (100), Rapid CIty Central’s Langston Huffman (114), Lemmon/McIntosh’s Quinn Butler (120), Sully Buttes’ Cateri Yellow Hawk (126), St. Thomas More’s Victoria Verhey (132), Sully Buttes’ Cheyenne Fuller (138), Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon’s Peyton Hellman (145) and Todd County’s Unique Clairmont (285).