Because of the lingering COVID-19 thing, some changes in athletic competition have had to take place this year upon recommendation of the South Dakota High School Activities Association. At one time some 6 or 7 years ago, Garretson used to host the Jesse James Invitational wrestling tournament the second Saturday in January. Nearby Brandon also held their Dan Pansch Invitational the same weekend.
Because of difficulty at the time getting enough teams, the two events were combined. The popularity of this tough tournament and Brandon having arguably the best venue in the entire state to host such an event meant the tourney would soon grow to close to twenty teams. But going into this season the SDHSAA put a limit on both the number of teams and the number of contestants that can compete in any one gym. Thus, the correct decision was arrived at by administrations of both host schools to separate the two events at least for this year. As the day went on though, many coaches and others declared their interest in coming back again to Garretson and keeping the two separated again. The decision for next year will be made sometime soon in the future.
Ten schools would begin arriving for the event on Saturday January 9th with the number of athletes reaching 97, comfortably under the 112-athlete limit. Traveling the farthest were A school Chamberlain and Bon Homme-Scotland-Avon, both with very fine programs finishing 1st and 4th respectively. Also traveling some distance were Parkston, Elk Point-Jefferson, and our 2nd A program, Beresford-Alcester Hudson. These teams placed 2nd, 3rd, and 5th respectively. Our closest neighbors to attend were Tri Valley and Flandreau. Tri Valley finished 6th while Garretson and Flandreau tied for 7th. At this event for the very first time were two schools just starting to offer this sport. Viborg-Hurley is in its 2nd year of the sport and for the very first time ever, Hanson High School had their first participant. If they can get a few more boys out next year, their school board has made a commitment to fully expand their support for this sport.
Twenty-two statewide-ranked wrestlers would put their talent on display in front of our home crowd. Garretson would enter more boys than usual in this competition. The tradition is that whoever is the host team gets to enter JV wrestlers in spots where other schools may have openings. For this reason, the Blue Dragons were able to enter 12 wrestlers among the 14 weight classes instead of the usual 8 or 9 we have been able to dress recently. As the day grew longer into the afternoon, four Blue Dragons were still competing and would go on to place. Both senior Trevon Cross at 138 lbs. and junior Braxten Rozeboom at 132 would earn their way into the finals. Cross, seeded number one, would use an early pin and a decision on his path to the finals, where he was upset by 3rd seeded Porter Jensen of Tri Valley who had a very fine tournament. Rozeboom, seeded 3rd, had a quick pin in round one and survived in a well battled 4 rounds of overtime in the semifinals to earn his way into the gold round. There Braxten was defeated by number one seeded Landon Sudbeck of Parkston, who this year is coached by a former Blue Dragon, Dan Bonte.
Our other two place winners were Jayden Richter at 220 and Gabe Johnson at HWT. Both our two upper weights were seeded fourth and finished fourth. Richter, a sophomore, lost two matches against tough wrestlers by decision and Johnson, a junior, lost his consolation final by one to zero against a ranked wrestler from Viborg-Hurley. Also winning matches and earning points for the home team were Jayse Miller 126, Tayson Swatek 145, and Adam Hulscher 160. While Miller has had better days, his weight class may have easily been the toughest with 5 ranked wrestlers. Others in competition wearing the blue and white were 7th grader Drew Chester at 106, 7th grader Cole Schleuter 132, 8th grader Brock Bonte 132, 8th grader Carsten Rozeboom 152, and 8th grader Marty Welch at 220.
Freeman Triangular
Just two days earlier our wrestlers, coaches, and statisticians loaded a GHS school bus for a trip to Freeman for a triangular with the host school and Flandreau on Thursday, January 7th. We first would tangle with the Fliers from Flandreau, and came within a hair’s breadth of winning our first conference dual. At the end of regulation, the score was tied 33-33. After examining the tie breaking criteria, the officials declared Flandreau the victors on the criteria of scoring the most near falls. In the last event of the night, the Blue Dragons would be outwrestled by Marion Freeman by a score of 27-48. Having very good outings going 2-0 for the night were Braxten Rozeboom, Trevon Cross, Tayson Swatek, and Gabe Johnson. Winning one match each were Cole Schleuter, Carsten Rozeboom, and Adam Hulscher.
In future action we will see our wrestlers travel to Viborg-Hurley this coming Thursday, January the 14th and at the Tri Valley Invitational this Saturday January the 16th.
