Greenway wins second straight championship for the Kernels

ABERDEEN — Mitchell senior Jason Greenway ended his wrestling career as the South Dakota Class A 160-pound champion.

“It feels pretty good to end my high school and wrestling career on that big of a win,” Greenway said.

The win capped off Greenway’s second state title, as he won the 152-pound division in last year’s tournament. He became only the ninth wrestler in Mitchell history to earn multiple state titles.

“I came out a lot more confident than I did last year,” Greenway said.

Last season, Greenway was not favored to win the title but upset Rapid City Stevens’ Jarrett Jensen 12-10 in the championship match.

This year, Greenway defeated Hartman Katz from Huron to claim the 160-pound title.

“It felt like there was a lot more pressure (this year),” Greenway said. “Last year, I went out there and had the mindset that if I won, good for me, and if I lost, no one would care. They were just happy that I got there.

“This year, I knew that people were coming out gunning for me, so there was a lot more pressure.”

Greenway didn’t show any signs of feeling pressured in the championship. He cruised to a 9-1 victory.

“I’ve wrestled Katz a couple of times before and I knew that if I had to take him down that I could. I was just trying to help the team,” Greenway added.

His performance helped Mitchell finish fifth in the team standings, a mark the team had set as a goal.

“We were trying really hard to hold on to fifth and place a little higher than last year,” he added.

The Kernels finished sixth place as a team in last year’s state tournament.

In Saturday’s semifinals match, Greenway defeated Sturgis Brown’s Clay Kopplin 6-2 to move on to the finals

Tags: sports, updates, kernels, wrestling