Wyatt Turnquist of Winner, who wrestles for Northern State University, competed in the NCAA championships this weekend in St. Louis, Mo.
Turnquist won his opening match 7-2 over Jake Piccirilli of UNC-Pembroke.
The Winner wrestler then lost 7-4 to Jason Hanenberg of Western Colorado. Turnquist then lost a 3-2 decision to Isiah Royal of Newberry.
Bella Swedlund and Kelsey Sachtjen of Winner have been named to the first team Big Dakota Conference all conference team.
Ellie Brozik received honorable mention.
In a defensive battle, Wagner took a narrow 36-33 victory over Winner girls basketball team in a SoDak game played in Mitchell on March 1.
Behind a strong third quarter effort, the top seeded Red Raiders built a 13 point lead it used to hold off a late rally by the Lady Warriors. Winner came on strong making the final push to punch their ticket to the state tournament.
Winner cut the lead to four points (32-28 Wagner) on two free throws by Ellie Brozik.
With 1.3 seconds left in the game Wagner hung on to that three point lead.
The game was tied at 8 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Winner was held to 3 points and six points in the third quarter.
Bella Swedlund scored 18 points. Kelsey Sachtjen and Ellie Brozik each had 6 points.
Winner shot 20 percent from the field and Wagner shot 41 percent.
At the free throw line, Winner made 11 of 16 shots for 68 percent.
Sachtjen pulled down 8 rebounds and Swedlund, 3.
Brozik led the team with 5 steals and Swedlund had 3.
Winner won the turnover battle giving the ball away eight times.
Winner ended the season with a 14-9 record.
Colome boys basketball team was
defeated 49-40 by Tripp-Delmont/Armour/Andes Central-Dakota Christian in post
season play on Feb. 28.
The loss ended the season for the Cowboys.
Joseph Laprath scored 21 points to lead the Cowboys.
Billy Looking Cloud added 10 points and Caden Munroe, 6.
Colome shot 33 percent from the field and made 7 of 13 free throws for 54 percent.
Colome was outrebounded 33-27. Munroe pulled down 10 rebounds and Alec Thieman, 7.
Winner came out on top winning the Class B state dual championship.
After claiming third place in the individual tournament Friday night, the Warriors went to work and put their whole heart into winning the dual tournament.
That excitement started with coaches Spencer Novotny and Jayd Schuyler and was transferred to each wrestler who stepped on the mat. It was electric and as each wrestler won in the championship match the excitement grew.
Winner dominated Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon in round one 70-9, handled Parkston in round two 57-8. The Warriors notched the championship title with a 33-25 win over Kimball/White Lake/ Platte-Geddes.
This was the first Class B dual title for the Warriors. “We’ve gotten second the last four years in individuals, we’ve gotten second in duals to Canton the last two years and with five seniors it is awesome to get this done,” said coach Spencer Novotny. “To go out there and avenge our only loss of the season against Kimball, it’s just a great day.”
Winner had two wrestlers, Maxton Brozik at 113 pounds and Kaden Keiser at 145 pounds pick up state championships.
In addition to the two champions, Winner had five other wrestlers place at the state level.
Both Kaleb Osborn at 126 and Jack Kruger at 182, wrestled in a championship match but were defeated and took runner-up honors.
Riley Orel at 160 took third, Achilles Willuweit at 220 took fourth and Charley Pravecek at 195 took fifth.
For Kaden Keiser it was a great way to end his senior year in high school as plans to further his wrestling career in college.
Keiser was named the outstanding wrestler in Class B.
His fourth state title puts him in the record books at Winner High School. He is the first WHS wrester to four state titles. There have been others who have won three, but Keiser is the first to win four.
Friday in the semifinals of the individual tournament, Keiser set a state record for the most wins with 281. A Rapid City wrestler held the record at 280. What is neat, Keiser holds the record for both Class A and B.
“I am just grateful for everything and every opportunity I get,” Keiser told Ryan Deal of 605 Sports. “I can’t be more thankful for my friends, family, coaches and all of them.”
Keiser is now one of 11 wrestlers in state history to earn four state championships.
“I’ve dreamed of this moment for a long time and it just finally happened,” he said. He will continue his wrestling career at Appalachian State in North Carolina.
Wyatt Turnquist of Winner has been named to the NSIC wrestling first team all-conference.
Turnquist wrestles for Northern State University.
The all conference team was selected by the league coaches with the top point receivers at each weight class being named first team and the next named second team.
Turnquist wrestled in the NCAA Super Region V tournament Feb.26 in Moorhead, Minn. The top three finishers in each weight class will advance to the NCAA championships March 11-12 in St. Louis, Mo.
In the final NCAA Division II Coaches Rankings prior to the postseason, the Northern State University wrestling team came in with 11 points and receiving votes in the team poll. In addition, three Wolves are ranked individually including No. 11 Kolton Roth (141), No. 8 Wyatt Turnquist (149), and No. 10 James Burks (157).
Turnquist posts a team best 16-2 record in 2021-22 with nationally ranked victories over No. 4 Speelman of Augustana and No. 7 Bailey of UIndy. In addition, the junior is 9-0 in NSIC action and holds a team best four technical fall wins.
Northern State competes next Saturday, Feb. 26 from the NCAA Super Region V Tournament in Moorhead, Minn.
By Dan Bechtold
Editor
For a wrestler this is the greatest weekend of the year.
It is state tournament time and this year the state meet will be held Feb. 24, 25 and 26 in Sioux Falls at the Premier Center.
All the work, sweat and dreams come down to this one weekend.
Winner, one of the top teams in Class B, won the Region 3B tournament and qualified 11 wrestlers for state. Those who qualified are: Max Brozik, Kason Keiser, Kaleb Osborn, Konnor Osborn, Kaden Keiser, Jack Peters, Riley Orel, Joey Cole, Jack Kruger, Charley Pravecek and Achilles Willuweit.
“We had a strong push at the end to win the regional tournament,” said coach Spencer Novotny.
He added the team had its ups downs throughout the day.
Maxton Brozik, Kaleb Osborn, Kaden Keiser, Riley Orel and Achilles Willuweit took care of business and were crowned regional champs.
Jack Kruger had to wrestle the No. 1 kid in the state came up short taking second place.
“Jack Peters wrestled a really good tournament and came from seventh seed to qualify for the state tournament. He beat two rated guys to punch his ticket,” said Novotny.
The coach noted Joey Cole wrestled through an injury showing his leadership and qualified for state.
Konnor Osborn wrestled really well and earned his first state tournament appearance.
“Karson Keiser and Charley Pravecek both wrestled tough but came up short of making the championship match,” said Novotny.
Jude Sargent had a tough day and was one match short of placing. He did come back to get 5th place at 138 pounds and in so doing the state chose him as an alternate for the 138 pound weight class. This means that if someone gets hurt, sick, or doesn’t make weight, Jude will be entered in their spot for the tournament. Each weight class has one alternate.
Novotny added Ash Kaiser and Stetson Shelbourn put it all out there this weekend but couldn’t get through to state. However, both Ash and Stetson are still going to get to wrestle at the state dual tournament on Saturday and will be valuable to the team in that aspect.
Novotny says state week is a fun week. “We were fortunate to qualify for the state dual tournament so we will have all 14 varsity guys and our three alternates in practice this week. It will be 14 going to state plus Gus Bartels, Ryken Orel and Parker Mathis.
In the dual tournament, Winner will wrestle Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon at 11a.m. The semifinals will start at 1 p.m. and the championship at 3 p.m.
The individual tournament will be held Thursday and Friday.
The coach said Winner got some good draws and some bad draws for the individual tournament. “We are ready to roll. This is what we have been working for all season and it is finally here. We will be led by our five seniors that will be wearing their Winner Warrior singlets the last weekend of their career. Our younger guys are hoping to turn a few heads this weekend and get to the podium,” said Novotny.
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