By Rich Winter

605 Sports

Don’t be surprised within the next few years you hear about the Marion/Freeman boys wrestling team being a contender for some team hardware at the state meet. 

Coach Chris Sayler is sporting a roster with no seniors and a host of underclassmen that have been winning big matches and climbing in the rankings every week. 

“We have a great group of young athletes right now,” Sayler said. “If I get up to the weight room after practice there are three-to four guys there for 90 minutes after practice. If they don’t go at night then they for sure will be there the next morning.” 

• Freshman Logun Pankratz (106): Pankratz is currently ranked No. 6 in the latest Class B 106 rankings. 

• Freshman Brody Gossen is currently Class B’s No. 4 ranked wrestler at 113. Sayler calls him an extremely hard worker that wrestlers year around. Gossen was a state qualifier last season (106). 

• Easten Tschetter is only an eighth-grader and is currently ranked No. 7 at 120. Tschetter qualified for the state tournament (113) as a seventh grader. 

• Junior Keaton Preheim is ranked No. 10 at 132

Sayler said he has about eight guys on the team that really get after it and provide superb wrestling partners in practice. Couple that with involved parents and strong numbers at the AAU level and this Marion/Freeman team is going to be dangerous for the next few seasons. 

Sayler graduated from Freeman High School and was coached by Hall of Famer Gary ‘Smokey’ Wallman. 

Sioux Falls Lincoln having a strong Class A season

It often feels like when we talk about Class A wrestling about five teams come to mind. Brandon Valley, Sturgis, Pierre, Aberdeen Central, Watertown and maybe Tea Area and West Central. 

Very quietly the Sioux Falls Lincoln team, coached by Mark Ernster, is having a great season. The Patriots moved to 11th in the Dakota Grappler team rankings this week with 65 projected points. 

The Patriots had a little juice pumped into the program this week when senior Bentley Williams moved into the top ranking (132) for Class A. Williams beat Pierre’s Alex Oedekoven (Class A No. 6) 11-1 in the semifinals of the Yankton Invitational. In the finals he defeated former No. 1 Graham Wilde of Sioux Falls Jefferson, 10-3. 

Hudson Cisar is ranked No. 4 (120) and the Patriots currently have eight grapplers that are ranked in the top-12 of their weight classes for Class A.