Editor's Note: We had the location wrong of the Clark-Willow Lake boys' BB game wrong in this story. It is in Clark vs. Deuel. The correction has been made in this story.
Wrestlers and wrestling mats will cover Golden Eagles Arena this weekend as Aberdeen Central hosts a big high school meet on Saturday and a youth wrestling tournament on Sunday.
The annual Lee Wolf Invitational will showcase several of the top high school teams in South Dakota and North Dakota beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday. Action in the youth wrestling tourney on Sunday begins at noon. In addition, Aberdeen Roncalli will also wrestle Sioux Falls O'Gorman and Warner/Northwestern on Friday in the cafetorium at Roncalli.
West Fargo (N.D.), a rated team in North Dakota, will return to the Lee Wolf Invite as the two-time defending champions. The Packers won last year's tournament by 76 points over Huron in second. Webster and Watertown filled out the top four. Aberdeen Central was sixth last season and Aberdeen Roncalli finished 12th.
Participating teams are expected to be Central, Roncalli, Canton, Chamberlain, Cheyenne-Eagle Butte/Dupree, Huron, Potter County, Ipswich, Milbank, Mobridge-Pollock, Redfield-Doland, Sioux Falls O'Gorman, Watertown, Webster, West Fargo and Winner. In this week's South Dakota wrestling poll, Huron is ranked third and Central holds down sixth in Class A. Ranked Class B teams include Webster at number two.
Wrestlers to watch are: Logan Richie of Webster (No. 3 at 106 pounds, Class B), Brady Burghardt of Watertown (No. 1 at 113 pounds, Class A), Chet Glanzer of Huron (No. 1 at 126, Class A) and Nolan Richie of Webster (No. 2 at 126, Class B), Sean Bice of Winner (No. 2 at 132, Class B), Griffin Hieb of Aberdeen Central (No. 1 at 138, Class A) and Spencer Rausch of Webster (No. 2 at 138, Class B), Alex Davies of Canton (No. 1 at 145), John Frisco of Aberdeen Central (No. 2 at 152), Regan Francom of Huron (No. 1 at 160, Class A) and Tyson Mitzel of Aberdeen Roncalli (No. 1 at 160, Class B), Kase Jacobs of Canton (No. 1 at 182. Class B), Chad Sjurson of Webster (No. 3 at 195, Class B), and Tanner Broughton of Canton (No. 3 at 220, Class B).
The Aberdeen Central wrestling team is fresh from a team win at the West Central Tournament last Saturday. The Golden Eagles edged Huron for the title.
"We're pretty excited," said Central coach Rocky Burkett. "Practices have been pretty positive. We're getting more confidence with what we can do. We want to go out there and keep improving each week. Hopefully, we'll improve on our performance last week and we can finish pretty high at the Lee Wolf."
Burkett pointed to West Fargo, Webster, Canton and Huron as some of the better teams.
"Last week, we had some kids that hadn't had a lot of success do really well," said Burkett. "We want those guys to keep improving, and as a team, we want to get better by state tournament time."
Sports writer Deb Smith
Cunningham to be honored
Longtime Faulkton coach, athletic director and teacher Garry Cunningham will be honored on Feb. 1 during a basketball doubleheader between Faulkton and Aberdeen Christian. Faulkton is officially naming its renovated sports facility the Garry Cunningham Sports Complex.
Craig Cassens, who took over the athletic director position when Cunningham stepped down eight years ago, said when Cunningham's name came up, it was unanimous choice.
"There was nobody on that committee of eight people that even blinked, that thought, 'No, we shouldn't do that'," Cassens said.
Cunningham, who retired from teaching six years ago, will be honored between the varsity games next week and then the field will have a sign with his name on it stretched the entire length of the press box when the weather allows.
Cassens said Cunningham, who has been fighting cancer, has a grandson who now plays on the Faulkton team and is a regular at sporting events. Cassens is hoping to see a large turnout to help honor a man who has meant so much to Faulkton athletics.
"We'd like people to come," Cassens said. "We're hoping to have a pretty good crowd."
Sports writer Dave Vilhauer
State basketball tournaments have new start times
Fans will notice a big change when the state basketball tournaments take place next month.
For the first time, both the boys' and girls' state tourneys will start sessions at noon and 6 p.m. all three days. In the past, only Saturday's sessions had those start times with the first two days beginning at 1 and 7 p.m.
"We kept seeing families with little kids getting up in the middle of ball games and leaving because it was too late for them," explained Jo Auch, assistant executive director of the South Dakota High School Activities Association.
Auch said that while the change may take a bit of getting used to, she believes that all involved - from the fans to the players to the media - will appreciate the games ending an hour earlier than in the past.
"I don't think there will be much backlash," Auch said. "I think people will really enjoy the change."
Sports writer Dave Vilhauer
YTC tourney kicks off
The annual Yellowstone Trail Conference girls' and boys' basketball tournaments have joined forces this week.
The two tourneys have been combined and will take place today through Saturday at Gettysburg. Four YTC teams will participate in the tournament: Edmunds Central, Eureka-Bowdle, Herreid-Selby Area and Potter County. Wakpala and Sully Buttes belong to the YTC, but will not play in the basketball tournament.
The schedule follows below.
|Tonight at Gettysburg|
|Girls' Games|
Herreid-Selby Area vs. Edmunds Central, 6:30 p.m.
Potter County vs. Eureka-Bowdle, 20 minutes after first game.
|Friday at Gettysburg|
|Boys' Games|
Potter County vs. Edmunds Central, 6:30 p.m.
Herreid-Selby Area vs. Eureka-Bowdle, 20 minutes after first game.
|Saturday at Gettysburg|
Third place girls' game, 1 p.m.
Third place boys' game, 20 minutes after first game.
Championship girls' game, 7 p.m.
Championship boys' game, 20 minutes after first game.
Staff reports
Highmore Action Club Classic
The Highmore Action Club Classic will be Feb. 2 at the Highmore-Harrold High School.
There will be eight games in Highmore: Girls, Colome vs. Iroquois, 10 a.m.; Boys, Colome vs. Iroquois, 11:30 a.m.; Girls, Eureka-Bowdle vs. Kadoka, 1 p.m.; Girls, Jones County vs. Timber Lake, 2:30 p.m.; Boys, Jones County vs. Lower Brule, 4 p.m.; Girls, Wessington Springs vs. Lower Brule, 5:30 p.m.; Boys, Highmore-Harrold vs. Wessington Springs, 7 p.m.; Girls, Highmore-Harrold vs. Chamberlain, 8:30 p.m.
Sports writer Shawn Werre
Wrestling with atmosphere
While the location may be foreign for some, Aberdeen Roncalli figures to be in its element when the Cavaliers host two duals in the school Cafetorium on Friday night.
Because of a basketball game in Roncalli Gym, the wrestling duals between Warner-Northwestern and Sioux Falls O'Gorman, and Roncalli and SFO will take place right next door.
"For us it's normal, because that's where we practice," said Roncalli coach Justin Briese. "For us, it's not too awkward of an environment."
While the area is used as a cafeteria, it also includes a stage so it is known as the Cafetorium, but the wrestlers have a different name for it.
"We call it the Wrestletorium," Briese said. "That's our home; our home away from home."
Sports writer Dave Vilhauer
Basketball player tops 1,000
It was a tournament to remember for a Rosholt girls' basketball player.
Rosholt not only won the third-place game in the Eastern Coteau Conference Tournament game on Saturday, but senior Mackenzie Eggers scored the 1,000th point of her career. Rosholt beat Florence-Henry 62-56 in the third-place game hosted by Great Plains Lutheran in Watertown. Eggers scored 11 points in the game.
On Monday, Eggers added 19 points to her career totals in a 73-59 Rosholt win over Langford Area. Rosholt improved to 9-3 overall.
The Raiders return to action on Friday playing Florence-Henry at Florence.
Staff Reports
Girls' basketball matchups
The recent girls' basketball game between Warner and Summit, both undefeated at the time, was just the beginning of several interesting contests on the horizon in the area.
Summit, ranked first in Class B, beat Warner, ranked second, 52-41 on Monday. Summit remained undefeated at 12-0 and Warner lost for the first time this season in either volleyball or basketball for a 12-1 basketball mark.
Warner will play Aberdeen Roncalli, which is 8-2 before game tonight against Sisseton, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Aberdeen Civic Arena. Roncalli has been receiving votes in the Class A poll. The Aberdeen Roncalli and Warner boys' basketball teams will follow at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The Summit girls continue to put their undefeated record on the line by playing Fulda (Minn.) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Dakota State Fieldhouse in Madison.
On Monday, the Sully Buttes girls will host Timber Lake in Onida. Sully Buttes is coached by Mark Senftner who previously coached at Timber Lake. Senftner led the Timber Lake girls to three state tournament appearances. Sully Buttes has played in seven state tournaments since 2004.
The Aberdeen Civic Arena will serve as the site for the Summit girls versus Herreid-Selby Area, which is ranked third in Class B. The contest will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and will be followed by the Summit and Herreid-Selby Area boys game at 8 p.m.
Sports writer Deb Smith
Top swimmers
Nine members of the Aberdeen Swim Club qualified for the Midwestern All Star Meet on Jan. 12-13 in Lawrence, Kan.
The ASC swimmers were part of Team South Dakota. Aberdeen swimmers were Molly Hogg, Marlee Jones, Dan Grebner, Noah Knapp, Katherine Erickson, Judah Aderhold, Matt Grebner, Christopher Erickson and Lilly Grebner.
"This was a successful meet for team South Dakota and our ASC swimmers had some very good events with some season best and life best times," said ASC coach Elyce Kastigar.
The Aberdeen swimmers turned in top three performances in the following three events.
Girls 13-14 100-Yard Butterfly: 3, Molly Hogg, :58.33.
Boys 10 and Under 100-Yard Individual Medley: 3, Christopher Erickson, 1:09.00.
Boys 10 and Under 50-Yard Freestyle: 3, Christopher Erickson, :27.96.
Next up for the Aberdeen Swim Club will be the Sioux Falls Snowfox Meet Friday-Sunday.
Sports writer Deb Smith
Quickly
Deric Denning scored 42 for Mount Vernon/Plankinton in a 72-57 win over Wagner Tuesday in high school boys' basketball action.
Paul Ferdinand has resigned as the Rapid City Stevens football coach. He served various roles as an assistant football coach since coming to Stevens in 1990 before taking over as head coach in 2008. The Raiders were 16-35 in five seasons under Ferdinand. He will continue teaching at Stevens.
Mark Sonnenfeld has resigned as the Rapid City Central boys' and girls' tennis coach.
Cody Martinz of Custer will play basketball for Jamestown College next fall.
First place in the Northeast Conference boys' basketball standings will be at stake when Deuel faces Clark-Willow Lake at Clark tonight. Both teams are 5-0 in the NEC.
If you have an idea for Prep Plus, please send an e-mail to jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.