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.