by Morgan Pierret, GHS Blue Ink
Despite their low numbers, the Garretson wrestlers got off to a great start at their first tournament, last Saturday, in Flandreau. They also traveled to Mt. Vernon yesterday to compete in their first Quad of the season.
On Saturday, everyone that wrestled, placed. Tayson Swatek and Braxten Rozeboom placed 4th, Martin Welch and Trevon Cross placed 3rd, Jayse Miller placed 2nd, and Jaden Richter placed 1st.
When asked how he thought he did on Saturday, Miller wasn’t satisfied with himself, even though he placed second. “It was the first tournament and I was out of shape, so I don’t think I wrestled too good.”
Miller’s focusing on getting into better shape, as well as working on “bottom stuff”, as he likes to call it, but also known as defense. He is also striving to make it to state and hopefully place.
Although Richter thinks he wrestled pretty well on Saturday after winning all his matches, he says he needs to improve on taking shots on bigger guys. He also has goals of becoming a better wrestler and has his eyes on making it to state.
This year at tournaments, workers are making sure to mop the mats more frequently. This normally only happens at the beginning of the meet, but with COVID this is just one adjustment that had to be made.
Another adjustment was the restriction of spectators. The wrestlers now have vouchers, and they can only give two of them away. Also, tournaments are limited to 114 wrestlers (8-10 teams), so about half the size of normal tournaments. Due to this, tournaments are much shorter than they normally would be.
“It hasn’t really affected how I wrestle”, said Miller about the new COVID adjustments. Coach Jason Bohl added that the wrestlers are trying to stay with their same practice partner throughout the year, too.
Yesterday, when the team travelled to Mt. Vernon for their first quad, they wrestled against Parker, Sioux Valley, and Mt. Vernon/Plankinton. Because there were only seven Garretson wrestlers, it made it hard to win duels and the Dragons ended up going 0-3 as a team.
“We’ve only got 12 kids out from 6th grade to 12th grade. We have some kids that were out last year that didn’t come out. But we’ve got 12 kids and were going to make the most of it and go from there,” said Coach Bohl about their low numbers.
Although the team as a whole didn’t do good, Miller had an outstanding night after he won all three of his matches. Cross went 2-1 for the night, and the rest of the boys had a rocky night, only winning one of their matches.
Last night was Gabe Johnson’s first time wrestling this year. He didn’t wrestle in the first tournament, and neither did Preston Bohl. Bohl is working on recovering from an ongoing knee injury, but hopes to be back soon.
These boys are crucial to the team, since they are both at opposite ends of the weight classes. Bohl wrestled in the 106 weight class last year, and Johnson is wrestling in the 285 weight class this year.
This year, home wrestling meets are going to happen more frequently than previous years. Four different meets will be taking place in the Dragon's lair. On December 15, there will be a dual against Chester Area; January 9, there will be a tournament; February 5, Garretson will host the Big East Conference; and February 9 there will be a quad.
On January 9, Garretson will host the Jesse James Tournament. Normally, Garretson and Brandon Valley co-host this meet in Brandon, but this year they decided it was in everyone’s best interest to have the tournament in two different locations.
