- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,258,220
- Reaction score
- 59
Feb. 25—SIOUX FALLS — Three fierce days of wrestling get underway on Thursday at the Premier Center for the South Dakota High School Activities Association's state wrestling championships.
By Saturday, a total of 42 state individual titles will be handed out — the most ever for a South Dakota state wrestling tournament — plus team champions in each of the two boys classes and girls wrestling.
Wrestling begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday with the opening round, followed by the quarterfinals at 4 p.m. Thursday. Friday's semifinal round begins at 3 p.m., with the placement matches for third, fifth and seventh at 10 a.m. Saturday and the championship round at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Here's a look at what to know for the competition:
* Five Class A wrestlers remain undefeated entering the state tournament, led by a pair from Watertown. Gage Lohr looks for a fifth state championship this season at 157 pounds with a 24-0 record, while teammate Shea Richter is 41-0 in his senior season at 132 pounds. Sturgis senior Tyler Baldwin has a perfect record at 120 pounds at 43-0, Rapid City Central junior Pierce Hurd is 43-0 at 113 pounds and Tea Area's Tyler Woodring enters the 138-pound bracket with a 42-0 record for his senior year.
* Lohr, a junior, is looking to become only the second five-time state champion in Class A history, joining Brandon Valley's Navarro Schunke, who reached the mark in 2024. Madison's Caleb Hodges is seeded No. 2 behind Lohr in the 157-pound weight class and has a record of 33-1 this season.
* Sioux Falls Lincoln's Carlos Rodriguez Jr. is the Class A leader in wins this season, with a record of 47-8. A Patriots junior, Rodriguez is the No. 5 seed in his weight class at 285 pounds.
* Watertown's Braylon Schell leads the Class A participants with 31 pins to his name. Schell wrestles at 106 pounds. Fellow Arrow teammate Shea Richter, wrestling at 132 pounds, leads Class A wrestlers in technical falls with 21 this season.
* Parker Graveman, of Sturgis, is the Class A leader in takedowns with 184 to his name for the season. He has a 43-4 record and wrestlers at 132 pounds, where he's the No. 4 seed in the bracket. The top-seeded Richter is second with 147 takedowns with only one allowed this season.
* Eight Class A wrestlers are looking for repeat state titles. That group includes Baldwin, Richter, Woodring and Lohr, plus Sioux Falls Lincoln's Hudson Cisar (144), West Central's Kaden Haakinson (113), Sturgis' Kelson Dirk (190) and Brandon Valley's Elijah Schunke (285).
* The top Class A programs collected a lot of state qualifiers to the tournament. Pierre and Sturgis both qualified wrestlers in all 14 weight classes, while Watertown, Madison and Rapid City Central each had 13 qualifiers. Aberdeen Central and Harrisburg each qualified 12 wrestlers to the state meet.
* Sturgis won the 2025 Class A team points title for a second year in a row, and the Scoopers are coming off their third consecutive Class A state dual wrestling title in February.
* Six wrestlers are in the Class B state tournament with undefeated records. Winner freshman Apollo Willuweit has an undefeated record at 47-0 at 106 pounds, as does Parkston senior Wyatt Anderson at 47-0 at 175 pounds. At 138 pounds, Wessington Springs/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington junior Jacksen Carter remains perfect at 37-0, and Canton's Aidan Kranz has a 37-0 mark at 190 pounds. Wagner senior Gannon Knebel has a 33-0 record at 215 pounds and Webster Area's Haeden Jorgensen has a 26-0 record in his senior season at 144 pounds.
* Flandreau's Justin Klein leads the Class B participants in most wins this season, with a record of 49-9 at 175 pounds for the Fliers. He is part of a bracket that includes three wrestlers that already have 45 wins or more. That includes Anderson, of Parkston, who is 47-0, and Tri-Valley's Landyn Reiser, who is 45-4.
* Canton's Gunnar Swenson is the Class B leader in pins entering the state tournament with 38 falls to his name. Swenson is the No. 6 seed in the 285-pound bracket (46-10), which has Winner's Legend Benedict (44-5) as the No. 1 seed.
* After 10 seniors won state championships in 2025, only three wrestlers are in line to defend titles this season. Willuweit is joined by Sisseton's Holden Hawkins, who is 48-1, and is the No. 1 seed at 165 pounds. Hawkins' only loss came to South Dakota State commit Cavin Carlson, of Willmar, Minnesota, on Jan. 3 at the Rumble on the Red Tournament in Fargo, N.D. Also looking to defend a state title is Canton's Conner Giedd, who wrestles at 157 pounds and is the top seed at 38-2.
* Winner qualified only seven wrestlers to the state tournament but five of them are the top seeds in their brackets. That includes Willuweit and Benedict, plus brothers Rylan Robbins (120) and Roukyn Robbins (126) and Ryken Orel (150). Mason Curtis, who wrestles at 215 pounds, is the No. 2 seed in his bracket for the Warriors.
* Winner has two of the top takedown artists in Class B wrestling. Roukyn Robbins leads the class with 170 on the season, while Apollo Willuweit has the third-most 128 this season without allowing a takedown to an opponent this season. Tri-Valley's Landon Reiser has the second-most takedowns in Class B with 130.
* Miller/Highmore-Harrold's Talon Ping leads Class B wrestlers in technical falls with 18 this season. Ping is the No. 1 seed in his bracket at 132 pounds with a 37-7 record.
* Canton is going for an 11th state title in Class B in the team points race and its ninth in a row. It is the longest streak in South Dakota team wrestling history for either class. It already won the Class B state dual title earlier this season over Bon Homme/Avon.
* The Cavaliers of Bon Homme/Avon qualified 13 wrestlers to the Class B state meet, the most of any team. Canton is sending 12 wrestlers, while Philip/Kadoka Area/Wall and Tri-Valley each qualified 11 wrestlers and Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes is sending 10.
* Six wrestlers in the state girls wrestling tournament enter with undefeated records and at least 15 wins. Quinn Butler, of Lemmon, has a 43-0 record at 140 pounds, while junior Summer Guthmiller, of Sioux Valley, is 38-0 at 155 pounds. The youngest of those undefeated wrestlers is Ella Coomes, of Madison, who is an eighth-grader with a 35-0 record and is the No. 1 seed at 100 pounds.
* Harrisburg had two undefeated wrestlers with Rhiannen Heimdal carrying a 37-0 perfect mark at 170 pounds as a senior and Regina Stoeser with a 16-0 record at 130 pounds.
* Stoeser is seeking her fifth state wrestling championship, something that was done for the first time by Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon standout Peyton Hellmann in 2025. Stoeser is committed to wrestle at Fort Hays State in Kansas, which is where Hellmann wrestles collegiately as well.
* The sixth member of the still-undefeated club in girls wrestling this year is BHSA's Britney Rueb, is in the running for her fourth state championship as a senior. Rueb won in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and then missed the 2025 state meet with a knee injury. Rueb is back in the 135-pound bracket this year with the No. 1 seed and a 25-0 record.
* In all, nine wrestlers are looking for repeat titles, including Stoeser, Guthmiller and Heimdal. Watertown has three of them: Olivia Anderson is 47-3 this season and wrestling at 120 pounds, senior Allison Konrad is 40-1 at 190 pounds and junior Eden Hach is 42-1 and looking for a repeat at 235 pounds.
* The 155-pound weight class includes the Cossacks' junior Guthmiller, who won last year's state championship at 138 pounds with an undefeated season and is the No. 1 seed, while Pierre's Abbigail Lewis (30-1) is a defending champion from 152 pounds and is pursuing a third-straight state championship as a junior. Guthmiller pinned Lewis in the third period of their lone meeting this season in December in Watertown.
* McCook Central/Montrose's Alexis Bryant is in a bid for a third consecutive state championship. Bryant is 46-6 this season for MCM but is the No. 3 seed at 115 pounds behind Custer's Savannah Bell (36-3) and Watertown's Brooklynn Randall (35-2).
* Also looking for repeat titles includes Groton's Liza Krueger and Canton's Finley Evjen. Krueger is the No. 1 seed at 105 pounds and has a 42-2 record and Evjen is the No. 1 seed for the C-Hawks with a 31-1 record as a freshman at 125 pounds, and Evjen is seeking a third-straight title.
* Butler has made the finals in each of the last two years but is looking for her first title. She was 47-2 last season and was 36-2 in 2024 but fell to Stoeser and Rueb, respectively, in those tournaments.
* The 190-pound weight class will be one to watch, as Konrad is the No. 2 seed. The top seed is Jessica Hite, of Custer, a Wildcats junior with a 36-3 record and was third at 185 pounds last season.
* Rapid City Central's Jamii Washechek has a state-best 91 takedowns this season. The Cobblers' eighth-grader is the No. 7 seed at 100 pounds with a 43-17 record.
* Sturgis' Brooklynn Baird is the state's leader in wins this season entering the state tournament with a record of 48-7 as a senior for the Scoopers. A total of 44 of those wins have been pins, the state's most in the girls division. Butler ranks second with 41 pins and Bryant is third with 36 pins.
* Baird is the No. 5 seed in the 135-pound bracket which includes the top-seeded Rueb, Pierre's Lexie Hillmer who is the No. 2 seed with a 30-3 record and Spearfish's Mathilde Matsuda, who is 40-6 and the No. 3 seed. Hillmer, Baird and Matsuda all placed in the top-five of last year's 132-pound division won by Hellmann.
* This is the first state tournament in which there are 14 girls weight classes to match the boys. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) requires states to adopt a 12, 13 or 14-weight class system for boys and girls, and South Dakota chose to have 14 weight classes for both boys and girls. This is also the sixth year of an individual girls wrestling tournament in South Dakota.
* Canton leads the state competition with an entry in 13 weight classes in the girls weights. Aberdeen Central, Brandon Valley, Pierre, Sturgis and Watertown all qualified nine wrestlers to the state meet.
Continue reading...
By Saturday, a total of 42 state individual titles will be handed out — the most ever for a South Dakota state wrestling tournament — plus team champions in each of the two boys classes and girls wrestling.
Wrestling begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday with the opening round, followed by the quarterfinals at 4 p.m. Thursday. Friday's semifinal round begins at 3 p.m., with the placement matches for third, fifth and seventh at 10 a.m. Saturday and the championship round at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Here's a look at what to know for the competition:
* Five Class A wrestlers remain undefeated entering the state tournament, led by a pair from Watertown. Gage Lohr looks for a fifth state championship this season at 157 pounds with a 24-0 record, while teammate Shea Richter is 41-0 in his senior season at 132 pounds. Sturgis senior Tyler Baldwin has a perfect record at 120 pounds at 43-0, Rapid City Central junior Pierce Hurd is 43-0 at 113 pounds and Tea Area's Tyler Woodring enters the 138-pound bracket with a 42-0 record for his senior year.
* Lohr, a junior, is looking to become only the second five-time state champion in Class A history, joining Brandon Valley's Navarro Schunke, who reached the mark in 2024. Madison's Caleb Hodges is seeded No. 2 behind Lohr in the 157-pound weight class and has a record of 33-1 this season.
* Sioux Falls Lincoln's Carlos Rodriguez Jr. is the Class A leader in wins this season, with a record of 47-8. A Patriots junior, Rodriguez is the No. 5 seed in his weight class at 285 pounds.
* Watertown's Braylon Schell leads the Class A participants with 31 pins to his name. Schell wrestles at 106 pounds. Fellow Arrow teammate Shea Richter, wrestling at 132 pounds, leads Class A wrestlers in technical falls with 21 this season.
* Parker Graveman, of Sturgis, is the Class A leader in takedowns with 184 to his name for the season. He has a 43-4 record and wrestlers at 132 pounds, where he's the No. 4 seed in the bracket. The top-seeded Richter is second with 147 takedowns with only one allowed this season.
* Eight Class A wrestlers are looking for repeat state titles. That group includes Baldwin, Richter, Woodring and Lohr, plus Sioux Falls Lincoln's Hudson Cisar (144), West Central's Kaden Haakinson (113), Sturgis' Kelson Dirk (190) and Brandon Valley's Elijah Schunke (285).
* The top Class A programs collected a lot of state qualifiers to the tournament. Pierre and Sturgis both qualified wrestlers in all 14 weight classes, while Watertown, Madison and Rapid City Central each had 13 qualifiers. Aberdeen Central and Harrisburg each qualified 12 wrestlers to the state meet.
* Sturgis won the 2025 Class A team points title for a second year in a row, and the Scoopers are coming off their third consecutive Class A state dual wrestling title in February.
* Six wrestlers are in the Class B state tournament with undefeated records. Winner freshman Apollo Willuweit has an undefeated record at 47-0 at 106 pounds, as does Parkston senior Wyatt Anderson at 47-0 at 175 pounds. At 138 pounds, Wessington Springs/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington junior Jacksen Carter remains perfect at 37-0, and Canton's Aidan Kranz has a 37-0 mark at 190 pounds. Wagner senior Gannon Knebel has a 33-0 record at 215 pounds and Webster Area's Haeden Jorgensen has a 26-0 record in his senior season at 144 pounds.
* Flandreau's Justin Klein leads the Class B participants in most wins this season, with a record of 49-9 at 175 pounds for the Fliers. He is part of a bracket that includes three wrestlers that already have 45 wins or more. That includes Anderson, of Parkston, who is 47-0, and Tri-Valley's Landyn Reiser, who is 45-4.
* Canton's Gunnar Swenson is the Class B leader in pins entering the state tournament with 38 falls to his name. Swenson is the No. 6 seed in the 285-pound bracket (46-10), which has Winner's Legend Benedict (44-5) as the No. 1 seed.
* After 10 seniors won state championships in 2025, only three wrestlers are in line to defend titles this season. Willuweit is joined by Sisseton's Holden Hawkins, who is 48-1, and is the No. 1 seed at 165 pounds. Hawkins' only loss came to South Dakota State commit Cavin Carlson, of Willmar, Minnesota, on Jan. 3 at the Rumble on the Red Tournament in Fargo, N.D. Also looking to defend a state title is Canton's Conner Giedd, who wrestles at 157 pounds and is the top seed at 38-2.
* Winner qualified only seven wrestlers to the state tournament but five of them are the top seeds in their brackets. That includes Willuweit and Benedict, plus brothers Rylan Robbins (120) and Roukyn Robbins (126) and Ryken Orel (150). Mason Curtis, who wrestles at 215 pounds, is the No. 2 seed in his bracket for the Warriors.
* Winner has two of the top takedown artists in Class B wrestling. Roukyn Robbins leads the class with 170 on the season, while Apollo Willuweit has the third-most 128 this season without allowing a takedown to an opponent this season. Tri-Valley's Landon Reiser has the second-most takedowns in Class B with 130.
* Miller/Highmore-Harrold's Talon Ping leads Class B wrestlers in technical falls with 18 this season. Ping is the No. 1 seed in his bracket at 132 pounds with a 37-7 record.
* Canton is going for an 11th state title in Class B in the team points race and its ninth in a row. It is the longest streak in South Dakota team wrestling history for either class. It already won the Class B state dual title earlier this season over Bon Homme/Avon.
* The Cavaliers of Bon Homme/Avon qualified 13 wrestlers to the Class B state meet, the most of any team. Canton is sending 12 wrestlers, while Philip/Kadoka Area/Wall and Tri-Valley each qualified 11 wrestlers and Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes is sending 10.
* Six wrestlers in the state girls wrestling tournament enter with undefeated records and at least 15 wins. Quinn Butler, of Lemmon, has a 43-0 record at 140 pounds, while junior Summer Guthmiller, of Sioux Valley, is 38-0 at 155 pounds. The youngest of those undefeated wrestlers is Ella Coomes, of Madison, who is an eighth-grader with a 35-0 record and is the No. 1 seed at 100 pounds.
* Harrisburg had two undefeated wrestlers with Rhiannen Heimdal carrying a 37-0 perfect mark at 170 pounds as a senior and Regina Stoeser with a 16-0 record at 130 pounds.
* Stoeser is seeking her fifth state wrestling championship, something that was done for the first time by Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon standout Peyton Hellmann in 2025. Stoeser is committed to wrestle at Fort Hays State in Kansas, which is where Hellmann wrestles collegiately as well.
* The sixth member of the still-undefeated club in girls wrestling this year is BHSA's Britney Rueb, is in the running for her fourth state championship as a senior. Rueb won in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and then missed the 2025 state meet with a knee injury. Rueb is back in the 135-pound bracket this year with the No. 1 seed and a 25-0 record.
* In all, nine wrestlers are looking for repeat titles, including Stoeser, Guthmiller and Heimdal. Watertown has three of them: Olivia Anderson is 47-3 this season and wrestling at 120 pounds, senior Allison Konrad is 40-1 at 190 pounds and junior Eden Hach is 42-1 and looking for a repeat at 235 pounds.
* The 155-pound weight class includes the Cossacks' junior Guthmiller, who won last year's state championship at 138 pounds with an undefeated season and is the No. 1 seed, while Pierre's Abbigail Lewis (30-1) is a defending champion from 152 pounds and is pursuing a third-straight state championship as a junior. Guthmiller pinned Lewis in the third period of their lone meeting this season in December in Watertown.
* McCook Central/Montrose's Alexis Bryant is in a bid for a third consecutive state championship. Bryant is 46-6 this season for MCM but is the No. 3 seed at 115 pounds behind Custer's Savannah Bell (36-3) and Watertown's Brooklynn Randall (35-2).
* Also looking for repeat titles includes Groton's Liza Krueger and Canton's Finley Evjen. Krueger is the No. 1 seed at 105 pounds and has a 42-2 record and Evjen is the No. 1 seed for the C-Hawks with a 31-1 record as a freshman at 125 pounds, and Evjen is seeking a third-straight title.
* Butler has made the finals in each of the last two years but is looking for her first title. She was 47-2 last season and was 36-2 in 2024 but fell to Stoeser and Rueb, respectively, in those tournaments.
* The 190-pound weight class will be one to watch, as Konrad is the No. 2 seed. The top seed is Jessica Hite, of Custer, a Wildcats junior with a 36-3 record and was third at 185 pounds last season.
* Rapid City Central's Jamii Washechek has a state-best 91 takedowns this season. The Cobblers' eighth-grader is the No. 7 seed at 100 pounds with a 43-17 record.
* Sturgis' Brooklynn Baird is the state's leader in wins this season entering the state tournament with a record of 48-7 as a senior for the Scoopers. A total of 44 of those wins have been pins, the state's most in the girls division. Butler ranks second with 41 pins and Bryant is third with 36 pins.
* Baird is the No. 5 seed in the 135-pound bracket which includes the top-seeded Rueb, Pierre's Lexie Hillmer who is the No. 2 seed with a 30-3 record and Spearfish's Mathilde Matsuda, who is 40-6 and the No. 3 seed. Hillmer, Baird and Matsuda all placed in the top-five of last year's 132-pound division won by Hellmann.
* This is the first state tournament in which there are 14 girls weight classes to match the boys. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) requires states to adopt a 12, 13 or 14-weight class system for boys and girls, and South Dakota chose to have 14 weight classes for both boys and girls. This is also the sixth year of an individual girls wrestling tournament in South Dakota.
* Canton leads the state competition with an entry in 13 weight classes in the girls weights. Aberdeen Central, Brandon Valley, Pierre, Sturgis and Watertown all qualified nine wrestlers to the state meet.
Continue reading...
