by Oran Sorenson, assistant coach
Parent’s Night Tuesday Feb 9th
Our last home event of the year is usually reserved as parent’s night. We also use this opportunity to say goodbye to our senior athletes, cheerleaders, and statisticians. On this night we would also introduce our 25 youth wrestlers and their four coaches, all of this in front of a very large home crowd as well as a good crowd from our three guest schools and fans. One special highlight of this event was the national anthem sang by two Frewaldt sisters, Hannah and Lucy. Our opponents on this night would all three be division A schools, the Dell Rapids Quarriers, Lennox Orioles, and the Sioux Falls O’Gorman Knights. In round one we took on Lennox falling by a final score of 43-27. Picking up victories in this round were Jayse Miller, Braxten Rozeboom, Trevon Cross, Martin Welch, and Gabe Johnson. Johnson’s victory at HWT was a well fought 5-1 decision.
In round two our Blue Dragons took on a very powerful squad from Dell Rapids, who has seven of their grapplers currently ranked in the state. Here our only victors were Braxten Rozeboom, Martin Welch, and Gabe Johnson. We would lose this dual 63-18. After round two we took the opportunity to honor our parents and give a special thanks to our one senior Trevon Cross. Cross is an outstanding young man who sets a fine example in the practice room and who has ambitious plans for the future. Another highlight was when Trevon met his former coach from Dell Rapids, Craig Jorgenson at the center of the mat to give him a special gift, proving once again that sportsmanship and friendships have no boundaries.
In the final round of the night, it would be Blue and White vs. Blue and White, Garretson taking on Sioux Falls O’Gorman. The Sioux Falls Blue and White would prevail 54-30. Winning in our last match of the year in our home gym were Jayse Miller, Braxten Rozeboom, Martin Welch, and Gabe Johnson. Miller, Rozeboom, and Johnson all excited the crowd with first period pins. Rozeboom, Welch, and Johnson all went 3-0 for the night while Jayse Miller went 2-1.
Tri Valley Quad Friday Feb 12th
On a very cold Friday evening our wrestlers and support staff loaded a bus for the drive to the rural Tri Valley complex to wrestle Kingsbury County, Flandreau, and the host Mustangs. In the first round of action our boys would take on the Knights of Kingsbury County for the first time this year. Kingsbury Co. includes the former powerhouse of B wrestling Arlington, as well as the former wrestling schools of Lake Preston and DeSmet. We soon found out why Kingsbury is in consideration for an invite to the state dual team tournament which has been re-introduced this year in a different format. In this round we won only one match, this was at 120 where sophomore Preston Bohl took the mat for the first time this year following rehabilitation for a nagging leg injury. Bohl earned a pin in 1:33 in the first period. Where we had some of our best wrestlers, so did the Knights who outwrestled us on this occasion. Martin Welch at 195 and Gabe Johnson at 285 picked up forfeits, final score 60-24 Knights.
In round two the Blue Dragons would take on the Mustangs of Tri Valley. Earning a sweet victory for Garretson was 7th grader Drew Chester when he pinned his opponent Drew Lofswold in 5:35. Other victors for the Blue and White were Jayse Miller, Trevon Cross, Adam Hulscher, and Gabe Johnson. Jayse and Trevon both earned 6 team points with first period falls. Also earning 6 team points for forfeits were Adam and Gabe. The final score was 42-30, Mustangs.
In round three our boys were finally able to secure something quite rare this year. With us always giving up four or five forfeits and spotting our opponents 24 or 30 points, dual victories have been hard to come by. The competition would start against Flandreau in the 126-class determined by a draw at the beginning of the night. The Fliers chose not to send wrestlers out against two of our stronger competitors giving both Jayse Miller and Braxten Rozeboom 6-point forfeits jumping the Blue Dragons out to an early 12-0 lead. Things were looking good for GHS in the 3rd match when senior and team leader Trevon Cross jumped out to a 14-4 lead against his young and aspiring Flier opponent. But in this sport, a mat mistake can quickly change things as Trevon was caught and thrown to his back and pinned in the second period. The slide continued as Flandreau would pick up two additional back-to-back pins at 145 and 152. Junior Adam Hulscher put the brakes on this slide when he defeated Gary Moose for the second time this year, this time Hulscher’s big smile came after a pin in 1:43. After Flandreau was awarded 12 team points because the Blue Dragons had no one to put on the mat at 170 and 182, the strength of our roster came through because we had wrestlers to put on the mat in the next three spots with Martin Welch, Jaden Richter, and Gabe Johnson at 195, 220, and HWT respectively. With the scoreboard now showing the Blue Dragons up 36-30, we now entered the last three weight classes, all in the lightest weights. After forfeiting to them at 106 and 113, Preston Bohl had to accept the role of saving the day to try to bring us to at least a tie. To do so, Bohl would have to earn a pin, which he did over Dylan Christensen in just 42 seconds. With the team score tied at 42-42, coaches and officials took to the rulebook and awarded one additional point to Garretson because of the criteria which reads “whichever team earned the most match victories, not including forfeits, shall be declared the winner.” On this basis our boys were victors 43-42 and were also able to enjoy a more pleasant ride home.
Going 3-0 for the night was HWT Gabe Johnson and going 2-0 for the night was 120 pounder Preston Bohl. We had three young men finish the night 2-1, Jayse Miller at 126, Adam Hulscher at 160, and Martin Welch at 195. The six matches most of our wrestlers had this week are all just practice to prepare us next week for the all-important Region II tournament to be held this coming Saturday in Freeman.
“While the regular season helps us get ready and learn what we are capable of, it all comes down next week to the Region Tourney and the State meet the following weekend in Rapid. This is the important part of the season; this is what we wrestle for!” said head coach Tyler Sorenson. Good luck to all the wrestlers and coaches next week at Regions.
