Are you kidding me? Eight of 14 weight classes won by West River wrestlers. Two West River wrestlers finish — Seth Lange and Jarrett Jensen — cap the season with state titles and perfect 50-0 records, which could be the first time that has ever happened. Five teams finish in the top 10 in the team chase, including the top two spots. Now that’s domination, and those are just some of the accomplishments racked up by West River wrestlers during the Class A state wrestling tournament in Watertown over the weekend.
I have to say it was a little weird, but very welcome, to see Sturgis, Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central all on top of the team standings, and the Sioux Falls schools back toward the middle of the pack or lower. I liked that.
Congratulations to Sturgis for its fourth state title in five years. Could the word “dynasty” be used in this situation? It looks like it.
Being a first-year sports editor here, I quickly found out that Sturgis head coach Steve Keszler doesn’t like a lot of attention paid to his team and he prefers to kind of fly under the radar. And that’s OK, each coach does it his own way and for coach Keszler his way is obviously working. But apparently area coaches knew what they were talking about way back at the beginning of the season, in our winter sports preview, when all of them labeled the Scoopers as the team to beat.
But Keszler, and the Scoopers, can expect more attention next year with nearly the entire team back, loaded and ready to win another state title. That’s what happens when you become a dynasty.

Andrew

The semifinal round of the Class A wrestling tournament in Watertown provided some serious entertainment for area fans.

Stevens’ Morgan Russell scored a 10-8 overtime win over Vermillion’s TJ North to hand North his first loss this season in 44 matches and set up a title match against Rapid City Central 8th grader Aero Amo.

Josh Keszler (Sturgis) and Jamin Battles (Belle Fourche) each pinned their opponents to set up yet another match between the two region foes at 119 pounds. Keszler’s teammate Seth Lange stayed undefeated with a tough 7-6 decision over Lincoln’s Tim Waterman to move into the 125-pound final.

Hot Springs’ Cole Romey and Sturgis’ Nate Wilson have made the 135-pound final an all-Region 4A affair, while Sturgis’ Rex Lyon held off upstart Joe Sigler of Central (just a freshman) in a 3-2 OT win to move into the 140-pound final against Huron’s Cord Glanzer.

The 145-pound class is another all-Region 4A battle as Central’s James Wilson and Hot Springs’ Brady Harkless will meet again. Stevens’ Jarrett Jensen remained undefeated this season, moving into the 152-pound final to face, you guessed it, another Region 4A foe in Belle Fourche’s Kale Merrel.

Stevens’ Kris Klapprodt had one of the most impressive performances of the semi round with a 23-8 tech fall win over Mitchell’s Austin Havlik to set up a “dream match” with unbeaten Canton wrestler Tom Davies — unbeaten and considered to be the top wrestler in the state by some.

Sturgis’ Clint Wilson will meet unbeaten Jordan Reiner of Mitchell in the 171-pound final. Jayd Docken of Winner knocked off Central’s Chapman Ham in a tight match, 3-1 at 189 pounds, and will face Canton’s Charles Fox for the title. Ham was looking to add the 189-pound title to a 215-pound title from last year.

Douglas’ Damon Lappe continued his quest for a 215-pound state title with a 4-0 win in the semis and will face Mitchell’s Kyle Larson in the finals.

Oh yeah, Sturgis is leading the team title race 148.5 to 132 over Stevens. Central’s fourth behind Huron.

- Padraic

WATERTOWN — The Sturgis Scoopers had all 10 of their wrestlers win their first-round matches Friday at the Watertown Civic Arena to move out to an early 31 to 25.5 point lead over Aberdeen Central after the first round of the Class A state wrestling tournament.

Region 4A has been good thus far, highlighted by Spearfish’s Brendon Waterson’s 5-4 win over Mitchell’s Jason Greenway at 135 pounds to move into the quarterfinals against Milbank’s Alex DeFea.

I don’t know how big of an “upset” that can be classified as, but it’s one that stuck out a bit to me.

 

- Padraic

… has set in, so, who’s your favorite professional wrestler of all time?

In no particular order — Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, The Junkyard Dog, The Bushwhackers, George ”the Animal” Steele, Wahoo McDaniel and, of course, the claw master himself, Baron Von Raschke.

Is that really “sports” blog material?

- Padraic

By Todd Williams

The busiest stretch of the high school sports season is half finished, with gymnastics and wrestling in the bag and girls and boys basketball coming in up in back-to-back weeks, beginning next week.

With the Journal’s reach primarily the West River area, it is most interesting that much of the blog traffic on our news stories has focused on the basketball season, even in the midst of a Black Hills dominated wrestling tournament. Granted, the tournament was in Aberdeen, but it seems that although wrestling is arguably the most successful sports for Black Hills schools (arguably largely because of Rapid City Stevens track and cross-country squads dominance in recent memory), it generates a low amount of blog traffic.

Perhaps the nature of the sports and their fans speaks most to this fact. I can remember heading to the locker room after basketball practice in high school, laughing and joking with my teammates only to be met by the icy stares of the wrestlers, who had just finished their own, much more grueling practices.

And while the basketball stories continue to light up the blogs more, the weekend coverage of the wrestling tournament did manage to top off all general site traffic, thanks in part to videos of each championship map.

I a dual between two of the best Class A wrestling squads in South Dakota, Rapid City Stevens edged perennial powerhouse Sturgis 34-32, and the Raiders used a slightly unusual strategy to lock up the win.
Up 34-23 and with the 215 pound match between Raider Josh Braband and Scooper Jake Stygles tied at 4-4, Stevens coach Brian Moser instructed Braband to give up a free escape with seconds left in the match. Moser said if the match had gone into OT, it was possible that Braband — wrestling in his first varisty match of the season — could have been pinned, and the Raiders would’ve lost the match.
In sports circles, it’s called taking one for the team. In basketball, it might be committing a foul and fouling out but preventing a star player from the opponent from getting to the basket. Or in baseball, laying down a sacrifice bunt to move a baserunner along. And although wrestling is at times as much an individual sport as a team sport, what Braband did is great to see.
But not everyone agrees with my assessment. On Rapid Reply for the story, at least one reader thought it improperly tarnished Braband’s record.
“Tear him down?” wrote: ” I find it hard to believe that a coach would ask a kid to take a dive. Especially when he is just starting his varsity wresting career. Doesn’t do much for the kid’s confidence especially when he was holding onto a 4-4 tie. I know this was a dual and not individual but it still goes on his record. Kind of sad that’s all. “
Whadda y’all think?

Todd Williams

Rapid City’s Aero Amo and Sturgis’ Josh Keszler once again showed that South Dakota produces great wrestlers year in and year out with their performances at the 2007 USA Wrestling Northern Plains Greco-Roman & Freestyle Championshipsin Iowa last week.

Amo won both the Greco-Roman and Freestyle championships in the 95-pound novice class and Keszler took second in the Cadet 125-pound division.

Any theories as to why wrestling is so good out here (year in and year out) while some other sports aren’t?

- Padraic

 

The Class B tourney is close after the first day, as expected, and Saturday could be an exciting day.

Parkston (64 team points), Wagner (62) and Bon Homme (56.5) are in the top-3 spots. So, who do you think will pull it out on Saturday?

What could be the match of the tourney is the 215-pound title match, which really doesn’t have any implication on deciding the team champion. Gettysburg’s Michael Fischer, who is ranked No. 2 with a 36-0 record, could meet fellow-unbeaten Seth McGregor in the championship, if the two win in the semifinals. McGregor is top-ranked with a 43-0 record.

 

–Sean Welsh, Journal staff

Well, Day 1 is over, and the Watertown Arrows are leading the team competition at the Class A state wrestling tourney.

Watertown has 83.5 team points, while Sturgis is in second just four points behind (79.5) and R.C. Stevens is still in it with 69.

So, who’s going to take home the title on Saturday?

The title could be decided in the four semifinal matches that have Watertown and Sturgis going head-to-head. If the Scoopers fare well there, it looks like it will be another team title for the West River power. If they split the matches, that might open the door for the Raiders, or possibly Canton…

 

–Sean Welsh, Journal staff

Wow, how about those Raiders?

Stevens put on quite a performance at the Region 4A wrestling meet, downing perennial champion Sturgis.

A couple big questions arise: How will Sturgis react at the state tournament, will Stevens be able to carry that momentum over to the state tourney, and do our West River teams have enough to beat the best East River has to offer?

I’m thinking Sturgis coach Steve Keszler will have his troops fired up for the end of the year battle; not that the Brian Moser-led Raiders won’t be ready to go, too.

It will probably be an intense stretch of practice leading up to the state tourney, which is in Sioux Falls on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 23-24).

 

–Sean Welsh, Journal staff