Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Triangular and the Lee Wolf

     Last weekend was a busy one with Aberdeen hosting both Harrisburg and Watertown in a triangular dual at the old Civic Arena. Injuries and sickness has been an issue lately with the team causing them to have 5 opens. Spotting any team 30 points makes it difficult to win a dual and that proved to be the case Thursday night. Harrisburg handed us a 24-48 setback. Kaden Johnson and Will Jarrott won by fall, Brenden Salfrank by tech fall, Brock Martin earned a major decision and Sam Calvert won by decision. For the Watertown dual Aberdeen fell 18-58. Pins for Aberdeen were Salfrank, Jarrott and Johnson. The next dual will be Thursday, January 31 in Brookings.
     On Saturday was the annual Lee Wolf Invite, this year had 18 teams and several top ranked kids in ND and SD. Aberdeen, still short several wrestlers, had a good showing finishing in 7th place. It would have been nice to see how they would have done with a full lineup. The top ranked B school in SD, Canton, won the tournament followed by Winner then Watertown.
     106 Brenden Salfrank. The top ranked A wrestler in South Dakota dominated the #2 ranked B wrestler, Andy Meyer, from Canton winning 11-1. Brenden pinned his way to the finals before capping off the win against Meyer to earn the Title at the Lee Wolf. Salfrank remains undefeated this year with a current record of 29-0 while recording 19 pins along the way.
     106 Logan Opitz went 0-2
     113 Brock Martin is currently sitting at a record of 17-14 and earned an 8th place finish. He had a nice win shutting out Mobridge-Pollocks Isaac Aman winning by major decision 8-0.
     113 Drew Salfrank went 1-2 earning a win over Huron's Will Radke.
     132 Calvin Beadle went 1-2 earning a 4-2 decision over Bismarck Legacy, Caedmon Marx.
     132 Caden Rush went 0-2
     138 Logan Beadle went 0-2
     138 Braydon Steuck went 1-2. He earned a tough fought overtime victory over Preston Gall from Jamestown.
     145 Garrett Mitzel is 15-18 on the year and finished in 6th place. He beat a couple kids that had beaten him earlier in the year. Garrett went 3-3 on the day earning two pins and a decision. The win over Huron's Daynon Huber was a big one for him and will help in the region seedings.
     152 Sam Calvert went 1-2 beating Riley Martin from Bismarck Legacy 6-1
     160 Will Jarrott's record on the year so far is 26-4. He is ranked #2 and had a good tournament losing in the finals to the top ranked kid in the B's, Sam Kruger, to earn a Runner Up finish. He had two pins and a 6-0 decision to get to the finals.
     195 Alex Hopfinger is 16-14 on the year. Alex has been picking up nice wins as the year goes on and is real close to breaking out and getting those big wins. He went 3-2 on the day for 5th place at the Lee Wolf collecting two pins along the way.
     220 Richard Steuck went 0-2
     285 Kaden Johnson is 25-5 this year. He earned another pin en-route to the finals where he fell victim to Nash Hutmacher of Chamberlain to get a Runner Up finish. Kaden collected a pin in the quarter finals over Sebastian Cardona from Huron.


     You'll notice Aberdeen had some JV wrestlers participating in the tournament. That is some valuable experience they gained. The Lee Wolf is a tough one day tournament with a really cool atmosphere. Wrestling in this tournament will pay dividends down the road.


     The next tournament for the Eagles in in Huron on Feb 9. That is the last regular season event for the team, the following Saturday is the Region 3 tourney also being held in Huron. The state tourney, is in Rapid City Feb 22-23.



































Monday, January 21, 2019

Triangular and two tournaments

     The past two weeks have been busy for the Golden Eagles. On the 11th they made a trip to Yankton for a triangular against the Bucks and the Lynx from Brandon Valley. We started off against Yankton defeating them 46-25. Aberdeen earned pins from Brenden Salfrank, Garrett Mitzel, Will Jarrott, Alex Hopfinger and Kaden Johnson. Ethan Allen, wrestling at 120, also made his season debut recovering from an injury he received before the first meet of the year. His debut was successful earning a first period fall. Also receiving wins were Logan Beadle with a Major decision and Brock Baker with a forfeit.
     The next dual against Brandon Valley was a different story. The Lynx took it to us handing us a 15-53 defeat. Salfank, Baker and Hopfinger were our only wins. 2 pins and a major decision. The following day the Eagles attended the 12 team Harrisburg Invite. Still shorthanded we finished in 3rd place behind Harrisburg and Madison. Aberdeen had 3 champions; Brenden Salfrank, Will Jarrott and Kaden Johnson. Runner up finish for Brock Martin, 3rd place for Brock Baker, 4th place finish for Alex Hopfinger, Garrett Mitzel and Logan Beadle and a 6th place for Ethan Allen.
     The following weekend was the River City Rumble in Chamberlain. Again shorthanded, we finished in 4th place trailing Mitchell, Chamberlain and Huron. We had two champions, Brenden Salfrank and Will Jarrott, two runner up finishes as well with Alex Hopfinger and Kaden Johnson. Finishing in 3rd place were Brock Martin, Ethan Allen and Brock Baker. Rounding out the placers was Garrett Mitzel in 4th.
     This week the team has a home triangular Thursday night against Harrisburg and Watertown, It's hopeful that Dillon Stoebner will be back in the lineup but Jacob Moore is still out. His return is not known yet. The following Saturday is the Lee Wolf tourney at Golden Eagles Arena. There is also a wrestling reunion over the weekend, A social Friday night at The Wakeside Bar and Grill and another gathering Saturday after the tournament at the AmericInn. Hope to see you all there.


Go Eagles!

Monday, January 7, 2019

Bismarck Rotary

     The Bismarck Rotary tournament has a long tradition as a highly competitive one. This year was no different as 34 teams from ND, SD and MT participated. Each weight class had plenty of ranked wrestlers. Aberdeen was still short a few due to injuries. Additionally, some others moved down a weight class which I believe will make us a better team at the end of the year. Overall the team finished in 6th place which is pretty good considering we didn't have a wrestler at 120, 170 and 220. Those kids should be in the lineup soon.
     Sidney MT won the tourney with 213 pts followed by Bismarck High 212, Rapid City Central 155, Rapid City Stevens 151, Watertown 136, Aberdeen 134.5. It's encouraging to see how high of a finish we had knowing there are a lot of points out there that we can get when we are all healthy. We had 4 kids place, and 3 lose out in the blood round. Below is a tournament synopsis of those 7.


     Brenden Salfrank at 106: Brenden totally dominated this weight class. 4 straight pins to get him to the finals. In the finals he faced #1 ranked in ND Tristan Tanefeu from Bismarck. One would think the top kid from ND and the top from SD would make for a good match but it wasn't. Brenden man handled him beating him 10-0 and keeping his undefeated season in tact. Salfrank is having an incredible run this year. He is 18-0 with 10 pins. The next test for him will be this coming weekend in the Harrisburg tournament where #2A kid in SD from Tea Area will be there. Earlier this year Brenden beat the former #2 from Sturgis, that kid has since lost to the Tea kid and has dropped to #3 in the rankings.
     Brock Martin at 113: Brock dropped a weight class from 120 and he looked good. He lost his first match to the #2A ranked in ND but bounced back with 3 straight wins in the wrestlebacks earning two pins and a tech fall along the way. In the blood round match he was up against the ND #4A from Dickinson. Martin was down early but came storming back earning 3 takedowns in the last period. I believe if he had about 20 or more seconds left he could have gotten him. Look for Brock to make some noise in this weight class the rest of the year.
     Jacob Moore at 126: Jacob started out the tournament with 3 straight first period pins getting him to the semifinals where he faced a familiar foe in ND State Champion Laken Boese. this is the 6th meeting these two have had throughout the years, all of which were close matches with Jacob besting him 4 times. However, Jacob lost this one 5-4 and suffered an injury during it. He finished the match but had to default out of the tournament. The kid is not happy about these 3 losses on his record but his health and the rest of the season is more important than a higher placing at the Rotary.
     Will Jarrott at 160: Will dropped down a weight class this weekend as well and the results were similar to what he was doing at 170 which was beating kids and placing high at tournaments. Will earned 2 pins, a major decision then a decision against #6A in ND in the semi finals to earn a trip to the Rotary finals. There he would run into the #1B in ND from Napoleon, Nathan Weigel. a couple small mistakes cost Will and he dropped a close one to end up as the runner up. Talking to him after the match he knows what to correct and said he felt good at this weight. It's unusual to see a top ranked kid at a particular weight class drop down a weight but Will knows this makes the team better. I imagine the other 160 pounders in the state aren't too thrilled about this move.
     Brock Baker at 170: Brock decided to drop down a weight class as well which will then move Dillon Stoebner to 182 when he returns to the lineup. Brock looked good at this weight. He suffered from some sickness later in the day and it cost him a spot on the podium. Brock started out with a pin then faced #2A from RCC Jungclaus who beat Brock. I imagine Brock will study the film and make some adjustments. Baker answered with a pin and a major decision before succumbing in the blood round.
     Alex Hopfinger at 195: Alex had a first round loss but worked his way to the blood round on the back side earning a pin and a major decision along the way. Needing to win his last match of the day to place he faced #2A from Turtle Mountain in Louis DeCateu. Alex wrestled a good match but came up short. You can see as the season goes on that Hopfinger is getting closer to winning these matches. He had a good tournament losing to a highly ranked opponent at the end.
     Kaden Johnson at 285. After receiving a first round bye the #2 seed Kaden earned a couple pins to get to the semi finals where he faced #2A from ND, Jaeden Oestern, a throw attempt in the first period put him in a bad position which ended the match and put Kaden in the wrestle backs. There he got a 29 second pin to wrestle for 3rd place. He finished off the day with a 8-2 decision over a kid from Glasgow MT.
     One of the nice things about this two day tournament is on day two they have a JV tourney and a Second Chance tourney for those that lose out early in day one.  This gives a lot of kids opportunities to get more matches in. Aberdeen had 9 kids enter this tournament which they break up into several 8 man brackets for each weight class. This is different than in the past when they did a 4 man round robin. I like the change they made here. All 9 of the wrestlers placed in their respective brackets, a real good showing from those guys.
1st place: Braydon Steuck at 138
2nd place: Drew Salfrank 113, Weston Stippich 120, Calvin Beadle 132, Sam Calvert 152
3rd place: Garrett Mitzel 145, Richard Steuck 195
4th place: Logan Opitz 106, Caden Rush 132


     The next action for the Eagles will be a triangular in Yankton against Brandon Valley and Yankton. Brandon Valley has several highly ranked kids and the current #1 at 160 Damian Schunke who Will Jarrott will be facing. This, by far, will be the marquee matchup of the night. The following day we are in the Harrisburg tournament so a busy weekend of wrestling is ahead.