Top area wrestlers begin South Dakota wrestling meet looking to avenge state-finals losses
Feb. 25—RAPID CITY — Twenty-eight wrestlers leave the state tournament as champions. Twenty-eight more leave with an experience that can be haunting or motivating with little in between.
Burke/Gregory's Owen Hansen, Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes' Spencer Hanson and Winner Area's Achilles Willuweit returned to the Class B individual state tournament Thursday intent on eradicating a sour taste that has lasted a year.
All three wrestlers reached the state finals last season, but took various paths. Hansen was the undefeated favorite, Hanson an unlikely underdog and Willuweit eyeing a spot in Winner's state championship club. Yet, they all have been itching to return to capitalize on an opportunity lost.
"Making it to the finals last year made me realize I had gotten a lot better," Hanson said. "Making it to finals drove me. I knew I wanted to win state and I knew I could make it to the finals, so it drove me all summer to drive harder. It finally gave me the realization of what I was as a wrestler."
RESULTS: Thursday's first-round action and team scores
The KWLPG coaching staff was not surprised by Hanson's run to the 160-pound finals last season, but Hanson was. He scored a 2-1 sudden-victory win over Bennett County's Weston Ireland — a 45-match winner — in the quarterfinals and then stunned Clark/Willow Lake's No. 2 seed Gage Burke in a 3-2 decision in the semifinals.
Hanson worked hard for his 37-12 record in 2020, but reaching the state finals unlocked another gear. He has no shame in falling to Winner's two-time state champion Sam Kruger in an 11-2 major decision, but Hanson realized he belonged.
The senior improved his record to 35-3 after pinning Harding County's Richard Long in 2 minutes, 22 seconds of his 182-pound opening match Thursday to begin his climb back toward another trip to the finals.
"It makes it a lot more fun," Hanson said. "When you're the top seed, I don't like that. Everyone's coming for you. But when you know you're good and you can have good matches with people, it's nice. You trust yourself and your ability."
While Hanson's state finals loss created a new dream, Hansen's loss was a nightmare. He was one minute from a 120-pound state title and capping a perfect season. Then Parkston's Riley Weber recorded a takedown, and with eight seconds left in the match, pinned Hansen.
The match was the lone blemish on his 40-1 record and the Burke/Gregory sophomore stewed all summer, yearning to get back on the mat. Moving up to 126 pounds this year, Hansen is 36-3, earning a technical fall over Potter County's Lincoln Stuwe in the first round Thursday and he says failing to return to the finals would be crushing.
"It's the worst feeling of my life and I've been working all summer to flip that around," Hansen said. "It's constant, it's all the time, it's always running through my head — I always have wrestling on mind. ... I've got a job to do."
Willuweit came from the middle of a 285-pound bracket that was turned upside down when Lead-Deadwood's top-seeded Rob Lester fell to Webster Area's Joey Hubsch in the quarterfinals. Willuweit defeated Hubsch to be one five Winner Area wrestlers to reach the finals last season.
With less than 30 seconds left in the third period against Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon's Micah DeBoer, Willuweit earned an escape to force overtime. But DeBoer notched another escape in the second extra period and a nearfall in the third to end Willuweit's state title dream.
He attributed the loss to not working hard enough to come back from a shoulder injury earlier in the season, so Willuweit made plans to focus on wrestling over the summer until COVID-19 wiped all but a trip to visit relatives in Marshfield, Wisconsin, which is also a town with a strong wrestling program.
Willuweit chooses not to think about last year's loss and it was nowhere near his mind when he topped Sioux Valley's Connor Logan with a 1-minute, 56-second pin Thursday.
"I'm trying to think of the match in front of me," Willuweit said. "It's going to be another tough year for me. I'm going to have a tough semifinals match and hopefully I'll make it out of there. ... You just have to live and forget."
