By Oran Sorenson, Coach
The wrestling team is in that part of the season where all involved need to keep an eye on their calendar to keep up with all the events soon coming. On Tuesday January 28th the Blue Dragons hosted their second home event of the year facing both the Parkston Trojans and the Patriots of Sioux Falls Lincoln in a triangular.
The first action of the night was the contest between Garretson and perennial powerhouse Parkston. A big matchup for the night was the very first action among two state ranked wrestlers at 106 lbs. Preston Bohl lost by decision 7-1 to Porter Neugebauer. We were able to pickup two victories in the first half of the dual with Jayse Miller winning by decision 12-7 and Hunter Abraham doing the same by a 9-4 score. Our only other victories in round one were forfeits earned by Dominic Abraham, Jayden Richter, and Gabe Johnson. Parkston won the dual by a final score of 37-20.
Our second dual of the night found our Blue Dragons regrouping for one of their finest performances of the year against Lincoln. “Our boys seem to get fired up when wrestling the Sioux Falls Schools,” said Coach Francis Ruml. One of our other top performances came last week against Sioux Falls O’Gorman. This time our lower weights came through in flying colors catapulting the Blue Dragons to a 27-12 lead at the mid-way point. Preston Bohl and Jayse Miller both earned pins while Hunter Abraham picked up a decision and Braxton Rozeboom and Tayson Swatek both picked up forfeits. Two of the biggest victories of the night came when both Dominic Abraham and Parker Schlenker pinned worthy opponents in quick fashion in the middle weights to bring the home crowd proudly to their feet in the middle weights. In the upper weights Jayden Richter would earn a forfeit and first year wrestler Gabe Johnson would continue his fast-track of improvement again bringing the home crowd to their feet with a well-deserved fall at HWT. The final score was Garretson 51 and Sioux Falls Lincoln 28.
On Saturday the first day of February, the wrestling bus would leave for our farthest event of the year pulling out at 6:00 am for the long trek to Wagner to attend one of the best tournaments of the year.
“The Wagner tournament is very important, giving our boys a chance to see some of the best wrestlers in the state, something very important toward helping prepare our athletes for the State Tournament,” said assistant coach Jason Bohl. “Most all of our boys earned victories in this tough tournament,” said volunteer Coach Oran Sorenson. “At the end of the day we witnessed three of our athletes on the award stand amongst some of the finest athletes in each respective weight class in our state.”
Our first medalist at this major event was Preston Bohl. Preston had a grueling day wrestling a total of six matches. Preston came from behind in round one to earn a pin. In round two he lost in overtime. In the wrestle backs Bohl won two in a row before falling 5-0 to the third-place finalist from Phillip. In the fifth-place match Garretson’s 106 entrant won by decision to revenge an earlier defeat for the day over the opponent he lost to in round two. At 160 Parker Schlenker went 3-2 for the day finishing sixth. Like Bohl, Parker won his first by pin before falling in the quarterfinals. In the wrestle backs Parker would win two in a row before falling in the last round of wrestle backs to the eventual fourth place medalist. In the fifth- place match Schlenker lost by decision to a previous nemesis from Freeman. Our final medalist was 220 lb. freshman Jayden Richter. After a first-round bye, Jayden was pinned in the quarters by the eventual fourth place finisher. After two victories in the wrestle backs, Richter would lose two in a row to experienced opponents to finish sixth for the day.
Other wrestlers winning matches and team points for the Blue Dragons were Jayse Miller, Hunter Abraham, Dominic Abraham, Hayden Stotereau, and Gabe Johnson. Miller, wrestling at 113 lbs., finished one match short of placing facing some good competition on the day. Next on the calendar for our team will be Tuesday at Elk Point Jefferson and Saturday in Clark participating in the Big East Conference tournament. Good luck in upcoming events.
Gallery Photos by Kristen Westover and Heather Abraham
