The Watertown Dual Tourney and Rapid City

    The Eagles wrestling season got underway at Watertown in their dual tournament. 7 teams this year instead of the usual 8. Aberdeen was in a pool of 3 with Yankton and Harrisburg. Our first action was against the Bucks from Yankton. It looked like we weren't all settled as to what weight class everyone was going to be at for the year as I saw different kids at different weights throughout the day. Starting off at 106 was freshman Jacob Bellefuille. He was dominating his opponent showing some aggressiveness on his feet before pinning him in a spladel during the 3rd period. Following at 113 was defending state champion Brenden Salfrank who also got a pin over Tucker Bahm. Yankton followed with a pin of their own before Aberdeen rattled off 6 straight wins to put the dual out of reach. Brock Martin and Calvin Beadle would get decisions. Ethan Allen, Logan Beadle and Dylan Schaunaman would earn falls while Garrett Mitzel got a forfeit and Landon Merkel, with his first wrestling action of his career, would also get a forfeit. The Eagles won 54-21.
    The next dual would not go the Eagles way facing a very strong Harrisburg Tigers team who beat us 20-53. Bellefuille would earn another pin. Brenden Salfrank won via Tech Fall. Garrett Mitzel won a close one 4-3 and finishing out the scoring for Aberdeen was Connor Bockorny pinning Larsen in the second period.
    Going 1-1 in pool play put us in the match for 3rd place where we would face Mitchell. Just like the previous two duals Jacob Bellefuille started the dual out with a pin, this time early in the 2nd period. What a great beginning to his career going 3-0 with 3 pins and earning the Varsity Wrestler of the Week. Salfrank got a 2nd period pin as well putting us up 12-0. a Mitchell pin at 120 was followed by a decision for Brock Martin then a pin from Drew Salfrank. Mitchell would then roll off 4 straight pins before they forfeited to Mitzel at 170. Richard Steuck kept the scoring going pinning Fick in the second period. A Stoebner pin at 195 in under a minute and another forfeit to Landon Merkel sealed the dual for the Eagles who would win 45-33.


    Thursday the team went west for a triangular with Rapid City Central and Sturgis. Both teams bested us as we wrestled shorthanded with 3 forfeits. I believe several starters were out to take their ACT college entrance exams. Those that made the trip competed hard and it started out just like in Watertown with Jacob Bellefuille at 106 earning a second period fall over Jacob Pavlicek. If that name is familiar it's because they were from Aberdeen and he wrestled his elementary years in our youth program. Brenden would also continue the winning ways beating Steven Perman via tech fall. The Cobblers would go on to win the next 6 matches before Garrett Mitzel put an end to that pinning Landin Winter at the 4 minute mark. Dillon Stoebner would also get a fall in the last match of the dual. Aberdeen would forfeit the last two weights. The  final score was 23-56
    It was an even more lopsided dual against Sturgis, they beat us 60-9. Brenden Salfrank won 5-0 and Dillon Stoebner pinned Clayton Smith in the first period for our only two victories. Early in the season it is easy to see we give up too many pins which are hard to overcome in a dual format. As the season progresses and we get more experience I would expect to see that diminish.
    The following day was the Rapid Invite. This tourney is growing and gaining popularity amongst the out of state teams. A total of 40 teams this year and some really good competition early in the year. Aberdeen had only 3 kids make it to day two of the tourney with two of them placing. Below is a synopsis of each kid at their weight class.
106 Jacob Bellefuille. He went 1-2 on the weekend. Beating Spenser Eldeen from Mitchell 11-0
113 Brenden Salfrank. Brenden had a fantastic tournament bringing home the title and defeating a couple state champions along the way. Brenden rattled off 3 straight pins getting him to the semi-finals where he would face Nebraska Class B state champ, Quinton Chavez. Brenden handled him 7-2. This put him in the finals against Bismarck ND High state champ Christian Tanefeu. Brenden must not have been happy with his semi finals performance because he got after Tanefeu and totally dominated him beating him 15-0. An incredible performance by the senior who is now 10-0 on the year.
120 Drew Salfrank. Drew got down to this weight class which will certainly help him and the team as the year progresses. He went 1-2 beating a kid from Williston.
126 Brock Martin. 2-2 and just missed placing. Brock beat Sparks from Mitchell and Bismark Legacy's Blumhagen.
132, Open
138 Calvin Beadle 1-2 beating Heggney from Mandan
145 Logan Beadle 0-2
145 Brayden Steuck 0-2
152 Samuel Calvert 1-2 beat McCubbin from SF Washington
160 Garrett Mitzel 2-2 defeated Schneck from Milbank and Booth from Dickinson
170 Dylan Schaunaman 0-2
182 Andrew Richardson 1-2 beating Borrelli from Worland via pin
195 Dillon Stoebner had a really good tournament. The 5 seed finished in 3rd place. He opened the tourney pinning Christensen from Huron then a major decision over Atwood from Hot Springs. In the quarter finals he would beat the 4 seed Holtquist from Milbank 8-2. Day two he faced the top seed Sam Adams from Harding County losing 7-3. Dillon would bounce back with another major decision, this time over Glatt form Bismark then would go on to beat Regan Bollweg from Pierre in a wild 17-12 match for 3rd place. Of Note: both Milbank and Pierre are in our Region so these two wins have region seeding implications.
220 Open
285 Open
Bismark High would go on to win the tournament with 188 points. Brandon Valley is the top finishing South Dakota School in 3rd place with 173.5 RC Stevens 5th, Pierre 6th. RCC 8th, Sturgis 9th, Chamberlain 10th. Aberdeen would finish in 17th place.


    Next action is Thursday Dec 19th. The home dual opener against Pierre. Varsity action starts at 7:00, JV 6:00 middle school around 5:00