Flandreau Invitational

Isaac Lukes breaks down Carter Ziebarth (Flandreau) to work for the fall.

Scott Howe works a monkey tail turn on Nathan Dubbelde (Pipestone Area)

Flandreau Results

We traveled to Flandreau on Saturday to wrestle in the annual Flandreau Booster Club tournament.  Overall, I think the day went fairly well for our first tournament.  We were able to crown three champions and place five other wrestlers in the top four.  It is finally nice to get out and wrestle our schedule and analyze what we are doing good and what we need to improve on.  As we continue to address our weaknesses, the team should continue to improve week-to-week.  The team went out and competed hard all day and were rewarded with a fourth place finish.  Pipestone Area won the tournament with 176 points followed by Howard (148.5), Flandreau (147.00), and Garretson (122.5).  Below are the individual results and comments.

103 - Thomas Howe wrestled a nice tournament.  Considering he is giving up around 12 pounds every time he walks onto the mat, he showed that he has the ability to wrestle with his opponents.  His drive and determination can help make up for the size that he lacks.  He was able to pin two opponents which really helped our team score.

Lost to Bailey Neises (Howard) 4-2

Won by fall over Hayden Hull (Sioux Valley) 0:41

Won by fall over Richard Redlin (Deuel) 2:35

Lost to Bailey Neises (Howard) 2-0 Finished in 4th place

112 - Colby Pierret is another one of our young guys that gives up quite a bit of weight.  Colby started the day of strong, but made one mental mistake that ended up causing him to lose the first match.  I believe with more experience Colby will improve greatly over the year.

Lost by fall to Eli Westendorf (Sioux Valley) 4:45

Lost by fall to Walker Kor (Pipestone Area) 0:55

119 - Cody Bonte wrestled a bit tentative in the first tournament of the year which caused him to not place.  When Cody opens up and wrestles hard, he wins quite a few matches.  I don't see him doing this too many times and look forward to him overcoming his slow start.

Lost to Brady Bos (Pipestone Area) 2 - 1

Won by Fall over Eli Dooyema (Luverne) 3:43

Lost to Jake Scofield (Flandreau) 7 - 4

135 - Tanner Donelan opened his tournament season with a solid performance.  He recorded two pins on his way to winning his weight class.  Tanner's ability to add bonus points to our team total will help us out all season.

Won by Fall over Dwayne Redlin (Deuel) 2:47

Won by Fall over Donovan Kullnat (Howard) 3:15  Finished in 1st place

140 - Scott Howe wrestled his way into the finals only to fall to Kyle Scofield of Flandreau.  Scofield was voted outstanding wrestler of the tournament for this win.  It shows the respect the other coaches have for Scott as Scofield was awarded that for his unexpected win.  Scott really didn't open up like he did in his earlier match.  Scott is too much of a competitor to let that happen again.

Won by technical fall over Nathan Dubbelde (Pipestone Area) 15 - 0

Lost by decision to Kyle Scofield (Flandreau) 6 - 1  Finished in 2nd place

145 - Isaac Lukes wrestled pretty solid all day in what proved to be a fairly tough weight class.  Isaac goes out and works hard every match.  With a few more weeks of practice under our belts, he will most likely come up on the right side of the close matches he had.  Even with that, he was still able to finish in 4th place.

He also had two falls to help along our 4th place finish. 
Won by Fall over Keegan Welch (Elk Point/Jefferson) 1:12

Lost by decision to Jadon Evans (Pipestone Area) 6 - 2

Won by Fall over Carter Ziebarth (Flandreau) 2:10

Lost by decision to Derek Peterson (Luverne) 3 - 1  Finished in 4th place

152 - Dylan Peterson is our third wrestler to give up a fair amount of weight.  He wrestled hard in both matches and just came up a little short losing in overtime once.  Dylan continues to work hard and has a great attitude.  His time to win those matches will come shortly.

Lost by Fall to Mike Jopson (Flandreau) 1:15

Lost by decision in overtime to Ryan Donnelly (Elk Point/Jefferson) 9 - 7

160 - Ben Westhoff wrestled unnattached for us here today.  Ben went out and wrestled extremely hard each match, but just came up a bit short.  He made a few mental mistakes with his positioning that hurt him at times.  Those mistakes can be fixed and I look for Ben to improve upon Saturday very soon.

Lost by Fall to Bradyn Neises (Howard) 2:29

Won by decision over Ben Christensen (Flandreau) 5 - 4

Lost by decision to Gavin Lee (Elk Point/Jefferson) 4 - 2

160 - Jess Kruid showed quite a bit of promise in the first tournament of the year.  He lost to a two-time state runner-up in the semifinals, but gave a great effort.  Even though Jess is a senior, he doesn't have lots of experience at the varsity level.  I think we will see him improve every time he goes out to wrestle.

Won by decision over Ben Christensen (Flandreau) 7 - 1

Lost by major decision to Bradyn Neises (Howard) 10 - 2

Won by Fall over Tyson DeGroot (Sioux Valley) 2:07

Lost to Gavin Lee (Elk Point/Jefferson) 3 - 1  Finished in 4th place

171 - Brady Bonte was our second champion of the day.  Brady has been kind of notorious for starting the year off slowly so it was nice to see him wrestle well early.  Brady can be very hard to beat when he wrestles under control.  He tendencies to get a little sloppy at times cause him trouble.  As he eliminates those errors, he will only get better throughout the season.

Won by Fall over Colton McCreary (Elk Point/Jefferson) 1:10

Won by decision over Dylan Kor (Pipestone Area) 5 - 0

Won by decision over Spencer Schmahl (Deuel) 8 - 4  Finished in 1st place

189 - Zach Lukes also wrestled unnattached for us on Saturday along with being about 17 pounds light for his weight class.  Zach wrestled some smart matches knowing that he was giving up a size advantage.  I was very pleased with his efforts, and they were rewarded with a trip to the finals of the tournament.  I think that once he can settle into a weight class he will really have a nice season.  As a returning state qualifier, he looks to improve each week to finish his season on a high note.

Won by Fall over Garret Werkmeister (Howard) 1:04

Won by decision over Sheldon Johnson (Flandreau) 11 - 7

Lost by fall to Ethan Storment (Garretson) 3:41  Finished in 2nd place

189 - Ethan Storment was our third champion of the day.  Ethan wrestled an aggressive tournament and was rewarded by pinning all three opponents.  He seems to be starting the year off with quite a bit of confidence after coming off his state qualifying season from last year.  This finals match was also exciting because it was an all Garretson final with Ethan and Zach both representing our team.

Won by Fall over Ethan Sundleaf (Elk Point/Jefferson) 3:10

Won by Fall over Tyler Evans (Pipestone Area) 1:41

Won by Fall over Zach Lukes (Garretson) 3:41  Finished in 1st place

215 - Matthew Bankes was our final place winner of the day.  He wrestles with a lot of heart and determination each time he goes out there.  Even after being returned to the mat very hard in his semifinal, he continued to battle throughout that match.  Unfortunately, he is also very undersized for the weight class he is in.  I feel he will improve through out the season and really contribute to our team's success.

Lost by technical fall to Jon Gorter (Pipestone Area) 20 - 4

Won by decision over Jesse Simon (Flandreau) 10 - 8  Finished in 3rd place