Category Archives: Sports

Winner boys basketball team was defeated by Parkston 58-49 on Dec. 22.

Cameron Kuil scored 15 points, Drew DeMers, 13; Isaac Naasz, 7 and Trevor Bertram, 6.

“We thought our kids played really hard and actually beat Parkston in many statistical categories,” said coach Brett Gardner. “We fouled a little bit too much and they took advantage of it by making it 25 of 46 free throws.”

Naasz pulled down 11 rebounds and Kuil, 8.

The Warriors were 13 of 31 for 38 percent from the two point range and made 6 of 28 three pointers.
At the free throw line, Winner was 7 of 11.

Luke Engel had 4 steals and DeMers, 3.  Kuil had 4 assists, DeMers and Bertram, 3 each

Gardner says the team needs to get ready for the Hill City game. Winner will play Hill City in the Snowball Classic in Winner at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 30.

The Purple team defeated the Golden Oldies 96-80 in the 23rd annual Winner Warrior alumni game Friday night.
Ben Connot scored 27 points, Zach Horstman, 20; Nathan Galbraith, 12; Tanner Fritz, 10.  Leading the Gold team were Blake Tideman, 27; Tyler Kucera, 17 and Jordan Sinkler, 16.
“It was great to see all the former faces on the court again,” said coach Brett Gardner. “We love the alumni game because former Warrior athletes get to lace it up and have some fun over Christmas break. The young Purple team now leads the all time series 13-10. We look forward to next year.”

Winner area wrestlers competed in a triangular in Burke earlier in the week.

Winner Area defeated Wagner by a score of 54-25.

Winner area defeated Burke/Gregory 63-18.

Winner High School boys basketball team had a big opener as they defeated Wagner 63-27 on Friday.

The Warriors made 13 of 25 2 points shots for 52 percent and 11 of 23 3 pointers for 47 percent.
At the free throw line, Winner was 4 of 14.

“We were very pleased that our student athletes came out of the gate ready to play, said coach Brett Gardner.

All 12 of the players got in the game.

The Colome girls basketball team opened the season as they fell to Corisca-Stickney 61-28 on Dec. 6.

The Cowgirls were 7 of 44 from the field and made 7 of 16 free throws.

Andes Central/Dakota Christian defeated Colome 49-30 on Thursday.

Winner High School girls basketball team opened the season with a 60-46 victory over Wagner on Friday.
The Lady Warriors had a big second quarter as they outscored the Red Raiders 21-6.

Winner shot 46 percent from the field and 71 percent from the free throw line.

The next action for Winner will be Thursday night when they host Burke/South Central.

Wyatt Turnquist Defeated 4-3 in KWLPG Finals

Winner Area wrestling team opened the season by taking second place at the Kimball tournament on Saturday.

First place went to Atlas Willuweit, Kaleb Brozik and Tre Doren.  Taking second were Wyatt Turnquist and Avery Gilchrist.  Kaden Keiser and Jayden Schroeder placed third.  Landon Debus and Aaron Gilchrist placed fourth.  Trevor Peters, Riggin Shippy, Chet Bryan, Achilles Willuweit and Nick Blare all took fifth place.

“We had a great tournament on Saturday. We wrestled really well but we still have a lot of little things to work on,” said coach Spencer Novotny.

All three wrestlers who won first place had records of 3-0.

Atlas Willuweit won the championship match with a 10-3 decision over Hunter Pranger of Mount Vernon/Plankinton.  Brozik won the 170 pound championship match with a 7-1 decision over Kaylor Pinney of Philip area.  Doren at heavyweight won his championship match with a 3-1 overtime win over Austin Moore of Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes.

Turnquist and Avery Gilchrist also wrestled in the championship match. In the finals, Cadyn Coller of Philip Area won by decision 4-2.  Gilchrist was pinned in the championship in 48 seconds by Keagan Fitch of Philip Area.

Keiser won his third place match with a 5-1 decision over Bradyn Lhotak of Wagner.  Schroeder won by pin in 3:30 over Blake Crowser of Philip Area in the third place match.  Debus was defeated 11-0 by Cody Donnelly of Philip Area in the third place match.

Aaron Gilchrist was pinned in 2:03 by Hunter Wright of Redfield/Doland in the third place match.  Peters won by decision 5-3 over Wyatt Stevens of Wessington Springs/Woonsocket.  Shippy won by fall in 45 seconds in the fifth place match. Shippy pinned Austin Severson of Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes.  Bryan was also in a fifth place match and won by pin in 1:44 over Geoffrey Devries of Philip Area.

Achilles Willuweit won the fifth place match in a pin in 56 seconds over Warren Soulek of Kimball/ White Lake/ Platte-Geddes.
Blare won a 3-2 decision in the 5th place match. He won over Alex Cruz of Redfield/Doland.

Coach Novotny said the team’s technique was pretty good. “I knew going into this weekend that we wouldn’t be in great condition but we worked through it and even had some over time matches that we didn’t run out of gas in.”

The coach said the team is going into a busy week. The team will wrestle in a triangular in Gregory on Thursday and in the Rapid City tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Winner High School boys basketball team will open the season on Dec. 9 at Wagner.

The Warriors, who finished last season with a 19-6 record, will return eight lettermen including seven seniors. The lettermen are: Drew DeMers, Cameron Kuil, Trevor Bertram, Isaac Naasz, Chase Kingsbury, Luke Engel, William Schroeder and sophomore Brandon Volmer.  In addition to the seven seniors, there are 3 juniors, 10 sophomores and 14 freshmen.  Seniors who graduated from last year’s team are Devon Leiferman and Lattrell Terkildsen.

Last season the Warriors had an interesting run to the state tournament. They knocked off Todd County at home, then beat Red Cloud on their home court and in the championship defeated Little Wound in the ice arena at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
At the state tournament in Rapid City, the Warriors came up short in the first game against St. Thomas More. The Warriors placed sixth at the state meet. This was the second consecutive year Winner played in the state tournament.

Coach Brett Gardner, who is starting his third season at the Warrior helm, says the seven seniors have both varsity and state tournament experience. The three returning starters are DeMers, Kuil and Naasz.  Gardner says: “We have great leadership. We should be athletic and fast. We might not be as tall as other teams so we have to be faster. We will use our athleticism to our advantage.”  The coach says the team will play an up tempo style this year. “We want to get some fast break points on transition.”
Gardner says the Warriors have good shooters in DeMers, Bertram and Engel. “They need to knock down some shots with Cameron, Chase and Isaac needing to get to the rim and finish layups. Willy Schroeder is also a good shooter,” said Gardner.  The coach says the team will lean on seniors to do a lot of things.  “Our goal is to compete every night and defend the full 32 minutes, knock in some shots and have some fun,” said Gardner.

The first week of practice the team has been working on footwork and fundamentals. “We pride ourselves on defense. Fundamentals, foot work, team work and defense is what we are concentrating on,” said the coach.  Gardner says Winner has an awesome schedule and plays in two conferences—Big Dakota and SESD.

The Warriors will play 20 games and have 11 home games.  Winner will be in two classics—the Snowball Classic in Winner and the Hanson Classic in Mitchell.  As he looks at teams in Class A, Gardner says Class A is stacked this year. “Class A is the best it has been in five years. St. Thomas More returns all its players, Madison is back, Sioux Falls Christian returns a lot in addition to Sioux Valley having a lot of returners.”  Assistant coaches will be Trent Olson who is starting his 14th year and Blake Tideman who is beginning his third year.

The 2016-2017 boys basketball schedule includes:
Dec. 9—At Wagner
Dec. 16—At Miller
Dec. 17—Sully Buttes, home
Dec. 22—Parkston, home
Dec. 27—at Bon Homme
Dec. 30—Snow Ball Classic in Winner
Jan. 3—Chamberlain, home
Jan. 6—Bennett County, home
Jan. 7—Gregory, home
Jan. 10—at Valentine
Jan. 19—Pine Ridge, home
Jan. 21—Hanson Classic in Mitchell
Jan. 24—Todd County, home
Jan. 27—MVP, home
Feb. 4—at CEB
Feb. 7—St. Francis, home
Feb. 10—at McLaughlin
Feb. 14—Platte-Geddes, home
Feb. 17—Mobridge-Pollock, home
Feb. 20—at Crow Creek
Feb. 27—Regional
March 16-18—State A in Sioux Falls

The Colome High School boys basketball team will open the season on Dec. 13 when they host Marty.

The Cowboys have eight returning lettermen—Isaac Kortan, Kelly O’Bryan, Will Cahoy, Andrew Laprath, Jackson Kinzer, Holden Thieman, Layton Thieman and Beau Bertram.  The only loss from last year is Reed Harter.  Added to the team this year is Kolton Salonen who played last season for Gregory.

There are 21 athletes on the team this year. The seniors are: Holden Thieman, Kortan, Garrett Salonen, O’Bryan, Cahoy and Tristan Munroe.  The juniors are : Laprath, Jeremiah Yeaman, Salonen. The sophomores are Beau Bertram, Kinzer, Wyatt Cahoy and Calvin Ringing Shield.  Jacob Beckers is the only freshman.  There are five 8th graders on the team: Rhett Bertram, Allen McKenzie, Nathaniel Hanson, Mike Supik and Linkyn Petersek.

Last year the Cowboys were 16-7 and won the district for the first time since 1978. The Cowboys lost to Corsica-Stickney in the region championship.  Coach Drew Weber says the Cowboys have a deeper and more experienced team this year.

Two seniors are injured and will return to the team later in the season. Weber says when Kortan and Holden Thieman return they will provide more depth to the team.  According to Weber, one thing the team needs to improve on is shooting. “We have to have someone step up and knock down some outside shots,” he said. Last year that outside shooter was Harter.  “Offensively our goal is to move the ball, be quick with a lot of movement,” said Weber.  On defense, Colome will play man to man.  What the team has this year and lacked in others is more height and length.

The Cowboys will play in several classics this year in addition to the Jones County Tournament. Colome will be in the Snowball Classic in Winner, the Highmore Classic and the DSU Classic in Madison.  Derek Graesser is the assistant coach.

The Colome boys schedule includes:
Dec. 13—Marty, home
Dec. 15—at Gregory
Dec. 17—at Cody-Kilgore
Dec. 30—Snowball Classic in Winner
Dec. 31—Wessington Springs, home
Jan. 3—at Lyman
Jan. 9—Crow Creek, home
Jan. 12-14—Jones County Tournament
Jan. 17—at Jones County
Jan. 24—Kimball/White Lake
Jan. 27—at Platte
Jan. 28—at DSU Classic
Feb. 3—AC/DC
Feb. 4—at Highmore Classic
Feb. 7—at North Central
Feb. 11—at Menno
Feb. 14—at Burke/South Central
Feb. 23—Tripp/Delmont/Armour, home
Feb. 27-28—Districts
March 7—Regional

Nine returning letter winners will lead the Winner Lady Warriors basketball team as they open the season Dec. 9 at Wagner.  This will be a girls and boys double header.

The Lady Warriors finished second last year at the state tournament as the fell to St. Thomas More in the championship game.
Winner finished the season with a 21-5 record.  Gone from last year’s team are Allison Cox, Bailey Volmer, Sydney Fritz, Kylie Horstman, Haylay Halverson, Calah Covey and Edith Eagle Hawk.

The nine letterwinners are: Gabby Kocer, Samantha Schuyler, Alexis Richey, Abby Marts, Chloe Bartels, Madyson Frazier, Kyren Meek, Rachel Sherman and Sidney Hollenbeck.  Last year Sherman did not play due to a torn ACL.

Even though Winner does not have any returning starters coach Larry Aaker says there are five to six girls who have seen significant playing time. “They came into the game a lot and played a reserve role,” he said.  There are 26 girls out this season including 6 seniors, 3 juniors, 8 sophomores, 8 freshmen and 7th grader Bella Swedlund.

Aaker says in the line up is a good mix. There are a couple of guards, couple of post players. Some of the older girls are good defenders and are scrappy. Some of the younger girls have good offensive skills. “Hopefully they can progress on the defensive side. By the end of the season if we can get a good mix we will be in good shape,” explained Aaker.  In practice the girls have been working on the press, defense and shooting drills.

Aaker looks for the Lady Warriors to play an up tempo game. “The key for us is shooting layups and not spend too much time in the half court.”  Aaker looks for some good shooters this year and feels the Lady Warriors will shoot more 3 point shots than they have in the past.

Winner is a member of both the Big Dakota and SESD Conference. The Lady Warriors were the Big Dakota champs and placed second to MVP in the SESD.  As he looks at the Class A teams in the state, Aaker says there are a lot of good teams with probably St. Thomas More being the favorite. According to Aaker, other top teams will be Webster who Winner played in last year’s state tournament, West Central, McCook Central/Montose and Hamlin.  Assistant coaches will be Sam Olson with Rob Cox as a volunteer assistant.

The 2016-2017 schedule includes:
Dec. 9—at Wagner
Dec. 15—South Central, home
Dec. 17—Sully Buttes, home
Dec. 22—Parkston, home
Dec. 27—at Bon Homme
Dec. 30—Snowball Classic in Winner
Jan. 3—Chamberlain, home
Jan. 5—at Todd County
Jan. 7—Gregory, home
Jan. 10—at Valentine
Jan. 14—at Dakota State Classic
Jan. 17—Bennett County, home
Jan. 19—Pine Ridge, home
Jan. 23—at Miller
Jan 27—MVP, home
Feb. 2—Crow Creek
Feb. 4—at CEB
Feb. 9—at Platte-Geddes
Feb. 10—at McLaughlin
Feb. 17—Mobridge-Pollock, home
Feb. 21—Region
Feb. 23 and March 3—Region
March 9-11—State A in Brookings