by Oran Sorenson, assistant coach
On Saturday February 20th there were four region sites chosen to host tournaments this year in both A and B divisions. Our local boys would attend their sub-state qualifier in Salem hosted by McCook Central-Montrose. Other B regions would be held in Ft. Pierre known as Stanley County Schools, the other two in Wagner and Groton. In each region four wrestlers would qualify for state which means that each weight class at State would need 16-man brackets. With fourteen weight classes that would mean that 56 young happy wrestlers would advance from each region to State. Sadly, this year, not one of those 56 would be from Garretson.
Eight Blue Dragons would step on the mat Saturday in double elimination competition to fight for those top four spots. Previously criteria would be used to seed each weight class according to how each athlete performed during the year and who had beaten whom in regular season competition. Junior Jayse Miller would earn the fourth-place seed at 126. Things seemed to be going good for Miller when he secured a major decision 13-5 over Karsten Hamilton of Howard in round one. In the semis Jayse lost 9-1 over the number one seed, Kale Ask of Canton. In the “blood round” to earn a spot in the consolation finals, Jayse was working hard for a pin hold when he was reversed and pinned by Joseph Weis of Elk Point-Jefferson, an unseeded wrestler whom we had beaten twice previously, but who put together a very fine day to qualify for state. In the fifth place match we were pinned by the very same Howard wrestler we pinned in round one.
Our only other seeded wrestler was our lone senior Trevon Cross at 138 pounds. Things seemed to be going well for Cross after he pinned Karter Headrick of Flandreau in round one, whom we had lost to just last week. In round two we injury defaulted to state number one ranked Braden Sehr of Canton. Trevon too ran into trouble in the “blood round”, behind 4-3 as period three slowly ticked away, we were never able to secure a takedown to win the match and move on to state. In the fifth-place match Trevon again faced the up-and-coming young Karter Headrick of Flandreau. Here Cross showed up and again put his Flandreau opponent down with a pin. Eventually we did get some good news for our 138 wrestler. The single reason we now wrestle for fifth is to possibly qualify as the alternate in each weight class at state. This is the second year of that policy, which seems to make even more sense in a pandemic year. The four 5th place finishers in each weight class the next day were seeded one to four based on earlier criteria, and because of his strong regular season, Trevon Cross is the alternate in the State B at 138, and will compete in Rapid City should any of the other sixteen qualifiers not be able to wrestle for whatever reason.
Two other Blue Dragons made it to the “blood round,” but like our two seeded wrestlers were not able to win, ending up one victory away from a major season goal. At weight class 132 junior Braxten Rozeboom was pinned in this round by a young Landon Reiser from Tri Valley and at 220 sophomore Jaden Richter lost to senior Clayton Smith of Marion-Freeman. Both also lost in their fifth place matches, not qualifying them as alternates. The other four competing for Garretson in this tournament, but unable to place were Tayson Swatek, Carsten Rozeboom, Adam Hulscher, and Gabe Johnson.
“Saturday was a painful day for Garretson wrestling,” said head coach Tyler Sorenson. According to assistant Jason Bohl, “I have been here 28 years and I think this is the first time not a single Blue Dragon has qualified for state. We had boys good enough to qualify, we simply didn’t get the job done!” All three coaches agreed that this could serve as a motivator to move on from here and do what we have to do to get better. “While we do have too many open spots on our roster, we do have some good kids and kids who can work hard, but we have to work even harder. According to one dad, ‘maybe some of our kids don’t really know what it takes to dig down deep and find that inner fortitude and refuse to lose attitude this sport takes.’ Those are all things we will work on for next year,” said assistant coach Oran Sorenson. The Blue Dragons have all but one wrestler back next year. 2021-2022 should be a much better year for wrestling in Garretson.
