Winner claimed its eighth straight Big Dakota crown Saturday at Parkview Gym. The biggest surprise was how convincingly they turned back a formidable field that included Parkston, Webster and Kimball-White Lake.
“We’re very happy with the way we wrestled,” said Winner coach Bill Kaiser. “This is the first time all year we’ve had our full lineup so I was anxious to see how we would perform. We did pretty well, especially our young kids. We expect to score a lot of points with our big guys and we did.”
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The Warriors placed 11 in the top four, including champions Jayd Docken at 189, Kyle Higgins at 125 and Blake Burnham at 160.
The 16-team field was the largest in tournament history and wrestling on three mats continued for more than 11 hours with little break time. Parkston, Kimball-White Lake and Webster all took turns challenging Winner during the day but the Warriors took a commanding 45-point lead going into the finals.
“There were more teams and it was nice to see someone different,” said Kaiser, whose team is ranked No. 8 in Class B.
Host Stanley County, who was the last team to beat Winner in the tournament in 2002, had a disappointing day. They placed two wrestlers and finished in 11th place.
“We didn’t wrestle as well as we could, but the competition was tough,” said Buffalo coach Craig Heller. “It was a tough tournament the whole day.”
The Buffs were without Thomas Tolton and Matt Stoeser, who are both recovering from injuries. In addition Cody LaCompte failed to make weight and had to sit out. Heller expects to get all three back for next week’s District 8B meet in Newell.
Seventh grader Casey Heninger placed fourth in his first ever Big Dakota tournament. He rallied in the consolation semifinals to get a pin over Darrick Lone of Groton in the last 10 seconds of the match.
“He had a great tournament even though he was disappointed with fourth place,” said Heller. “As tough as this tournament is, he did a heck of a job. He’s just a seventh grader and can only get better.”
Chantry Norman was the Buffs’ other place winner, taking fourth at 125 pounds.
The seeding committee did an excellent job as all but one of the top-seeded wrestlers claimed championships. In perhaps the most anticipated match of the day, unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Logan Storley, of Webster, faced No. 3 Ted Wonnenberg, of Winner, in the 171-pound finals. The match proved anticlimactic as Wonnenberg suffered a leg injury in the first period and defaulted. It was Storley’s third straight Big Dakota crown and 31st win of the season without a loss.
“I don’t know how serious (Wonnenberg’s injury) was but we didn’t want to take any chances,’ said Kaiser.
Another huge match was the 189-pound finals that pitted No. 1 Jayd Docken, of Winner, against No. 2 Zane Nightingale, of Kimball-White Lake. Both had pinned their way to the finals, won by Docken by 8-3 decision.
The Docken-Nightingale showdown was followed by another No. 1 vs. No. 2 spotlight match. Eric Reiff of Parkston, 23-1, faced Sam Thorson of Groton, 23-1 in the 215-pound finals. Reiff pinned Thorson at 3:28 and was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.
The only upset came in the 152-pound finals where No. 3 seeded Wilbur Jones of Miller-Highmore beat No. 1 Dalton McCollam of Bennett County, 8-5 in triple overtime. Pat Waring of Miller-Highmore, top-rated at 119 pounds, improved to 36-0 on the season with three pins and a technical fall on the day.
In one negative note, Julian Hernandez, of Red Cloud, suffered a serious leg injury in the second round wrestlebacks and had to be taken from the gym by ambulance.
The tournament completes the regular season. Stanley County competes at the District 8B meet in Newell on Saturday.
The Buffs can expect a bit of a let up as realignment has pared the field to just six teams vying for 56 individual spots as Gettysburg was shifted to District 2B.
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