State dual roundup: Canton clips Winner Area in Class B final for second year in a row
Feb. 27—RAPID CITY — Close matches carried Canton to its second consecutive Class B state dual championship.
Winner Area picked up an early lead, but the C-Hawks racked up six wins in the span of seven matches to secure a 27-25 win Friday at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. It is also the second consecutive season the Warriors have finished as the runner-up.
Canton won five matches decided by three points or less, including two one-point wins. The Warriors went 1-3 against the C-Hawks in semifinal matches during the individual tournament Friday and the C-Hawks won all three rematches in the dual.
"(Canton) is a great team," Winner Area head coach Spencer Novotny said. "Nobody is going to say otherwise, and if they do, they don't understand wrestling. We gave it everything we had, but we just came up a little short."
After a 5-3 decision in the individual tournament earlier in the day, Canton's Seth Peterson once again earned a two-point decision against Riley Orel, this time in a 4-2 decision at 152 pounds. Winner (19-1) junior Joey Cole attempted to rally against Tanner Meyers at 182, but fell in a 5-4 decision.
In a preview of Saturday's 220 final, Canton (25-0) junior Marshall Baldwin nipped Preston Norrid, 4-1. Meanwhile, Kaleb Osborne came up one point shy of avenging an earlier loss to Ayson Rice, losing in a 6-5 decision at 120.
Winner's Achilles Willuweit earned a 3-1 overtime victory against Zach Richardson in the 285-pound individual semifinals and their dual match was also seconds away from going to overtime. But Richardson was able to throw Willuweit to the mat as time expired for a 3-1 win. Karson Keiser also lost a 9-2 decision to Canton's Teague Granum at 113 after beating him twice during the regular season.
Charley Pravecek had the lone close-match win for the Warriors, defeating Josh Merkle in a 3-2 decision at 195.
"We were in a lot of those matches," Novotny said. "I'm not mad with Achilles. He tried to throw (Richardson) at the end and gave up the takedown, but a lot of heavyweight matches are a coin toss and we lost the coin toss. I'm glad we went for it. That's how we do things — go for the win."
Pierre shocks Stevens in final match
Rapid City Stevens needed to win one of the last three matches against Pierre to secure back-to-back Class A dual championships.
Corter Doney was 81 seconds away from fending off the Governors in the final match of the night. But 138-pound opponent Hayden Shaffer caught Doney and put him down for a pin to give Pierre a 34-31 win.
The Raiders won four of the first six matches, getting a pin from Tanner VanScoy at 170 and a major decision by Riley Benson at 152. Pierre (20-4) came back with back-to-back falls by Regan Bollweg (220) and Preston Taylor (285) to take an 18-16 lead.
Stevens (13-4) rattled off three consecutive wins with bonus points to take a 31-18 lead. Pierre's Blake Judson started the rally at 126 with a 54-second pin and Kahlor Hindman set up Shaffer with an 11-1 major decision at 132.
KWLPG, Harrisburg take third
Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes rolled past Redfield Area to capture third place in Class B with a 55-15 win.
Mason Fey earned a 51-second fall to start the dual for Redfield (20-8), but forfeits in three of the next four matches put KWLPG in front. In total, Redfield forfeited six matches.
KWLPG's Kameron Styles scored a fall against Colin Frericks in 4:26 at 285, while Kyler Konstanz had a 13-4 major decision against Evan Jaton at 120. Iden Myers (113), Lucas Lenz (126) and Levi Nightingale (195) all won by decision for KWLPG, which finished the season 19-3.
In Class A, Harrisburg took third place with a 68-6 win over Brandon Valley.
The Lynx have six wrestlers in championship matches in the individual tournament Saturday and opted not to wrestle them in the dual.
Dylan O'Connor (106), Korbyn Ockenga (126), Jace Jones (160), Ryan Hirschkorn (170) and Trey Stauffacher (182) all had pins for the Tigers, who finished 33-7.
Brandon Valley ends the season 30-4.
