BROOKINGS – The Governors had 12 wrestlers place, including three – William Turman (132), Michael Lusk (145) and Pryce Dyk (285) – who won individual titles, as Pierre powered to the team title with 239.5 points at Saturday’s Les Tlustos Invitational at Brookings High School.
Brandon Valley was second with 208 points, followed by Mitchell (162) and Rapid City Central (150.5), as Vermillion and Yankton tied for fifth with 123 points apiece.
Brookings finished ninth with 97.5 points as seven Bobcats earned individual hardware, led by Nolan Archer’s runner-up finish at 106 pounds; Connor Klinkhammer’s third-place result at 113; and Logan Bowes’ fourth-place finish at 160. Sam Lehman (138) and Justin Devine (170) placed fifth, while Gus Miller (220) and Tucker Christie (285) finished sixth.
“We wrestled really well – Friday night we wrestled – traditionally – the best team in South Dakota and you feel kind of down, but we came back and wrestled well by beating a couple of kids that beat us the night before, so that’s always a good thing,” said Bobcat head coach Scott Miller. “Nolan Archer is continuing to improve every time he steps on the mat; we had a matchup at 138 with Sam Lehman from the night before and not only that, he got to wrestle (Pierre’s Cade Hinkle) for fifth place and he ended up winning the final match.
“A lot of kids really took a step forward on Saturday.”
Archer opened with a 12-2 major decision over Andrew Weiland of Dell Rapids, who was wrestling unattached; won by fall in 5:29 over Sioux Falls Lincoln’s Alex Mentzer; won a 4-0 decision over Hayden Schaffer of Pierre; and then, lost a 14-2 major decision to Rapid City Central’s Cael Larson to finish second.
Klinkhammer won by fall in 35 seconds over Sioux Falls Washington’s Adam McManus; won by fall in 55 seconds over Sam Olson of Madison; lost a 7-5 decision to Sioux Falls Roosevelt’s Riley Hollingshead; won a 10-1 major decision over Canyon Lowman of Dell Rapids in a consolation semifinal, and then, won a 4-1 decision over Riley Williams of Lennox to place third.
Logan Bowes advanced with a first-round bye; lost by fall in 1:02 to Pierre’s Austin Senger; won by fall in 2:23 over Joel Druin of Vermillion in the wrestlebacks; won a 9-2 decision over Lincoln’s Braedon Treadway; won a 4-2 decision over Wyatt Jungclaus of Rapid City Central; but fell 4-0 to Madison’s Jarred Hodges in the third-place match to finish fourth.
Lehman received a first-round bye before dropping a 4-3 decision to Pierre’s Cade Hinkle; received a bye in wrestlebacks; won by technical fall, 18-3 in 3:53, over Mitchell’s Tyson Degen before losing a 6-0 decision to Kobi Terpstra of Brandon Valley. He then came back to win a 3-2 decision over Hinkle in the fifth-place match.
Devine also received a first-round bye; won by fall in 5:34 over Mitchell’s Max Schoenfelder; lost by fall in 3:41 to Nick Schirado of Harrisburg; lost by fall in 51 seconds to Brandon Valley’s Riley Pletten in a consolation match; and then beat Schoenfelder, 9-2, in the fifth-place match.
Miller won by fall in 1:12 over Washington’s Michael Vroman; lost by fall in 1:10 to Mathias Thompson of Rapid City Central; won a 6-0 decision over Pierre’s Gunnar Gehring in wrestlebacks; posted a 4-0 decision over Kyle Becker of West Central; lost by fall in 2:52 to Yankton’s Cole Diedrichsen; and then lost by fall in 1:32 to Ben Cavigielli of Dell Rapids in the fifth-place match to finish sixth.
285 – Tucker Christie received a first-round bye; won by fall in 5:57 over Dell Rapids’ Nick Palmer; lost by fall in 5:13 to Sam Khronke of Brandon Valley; lost by fall in 1:17 in the wrestlebacks to Roosevelt’s Caleb Dagel; and then dropped a 7-2 decision to Wyatt Winter of Mitchell in the fifth-place match to finish sixth.
Also competing for the Bobcats but not placing were Jaxon Bowes (120), Jacob Montis (132) and Aaron Schmidt (182).
Bowes went 1-2, losing his first match, by fall in 3:40 to Kyler Bauder of Mitchell; winning 1-0 over Roosevelt’s Eli Leonhardt in wrestlebacks before dropping a 4-0 decision to Jacob Marshall of Harrisburg to be eliminated.
Montis lost by fall in 51 seconds to Vermillion’s Ryne Whisler in his opener; won a 9-2 decision over Amani Boes of Lincoln in the first round of the consolation bracket; but lost by fall in 45 seconds to Yankton’s Taten Bahm to be eliminated.
Schmidt lost by fall in 2:00 to Yankton’s Donovan Bain and then lost by fall in 1:50 to Alex Williams of Madison in the consolation bracket to be eliminated.
Next up for the Bobcats is an Eastern South Dakota Conference dual at Aberdeen Central on Thursday and the Yankton Invitational on Saturday.
