RAPID CITY — The Winner Area wrestling team sent two seniors to the mat in the Class B championship round on Friday night.
In each case, Riley Orel and Jack Kruger did what they’ve done all year. Not only did they win a state title, but Orel grinded out an overtime victory at 160 pounds and Kruger exploded for a second-period pin that capped a flurry of takedowns to claim the 182-pound class.
“It’s so awesome to see those guys go out as seniors on top of the podium,” Winner Area coach Spencer Novotny said. “They’ve been there the whole time and they’ve helped create the culture of our program. To see them both get a win, it’s a great feeling.”
Orel finished his individual season at 55-2, while Kruger wrapped his campaign at 33-2.
Kruger won his match with a fall of 3:38 over Canton’s Josh Merkle. Kruger was already leading 6-2, executing his gameplan of trying to earn as many takedowns as possible, but he saw an opening for a pin exactly as it played out in the 2022 state quarterfinals when Kruger faced Merkle.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I was telling myself to keep scoring and take every opportunity I got, and then I got the chance to go to the cradle and get the pin,” Kruger said.
Novotny said it’s an example of how dangerous Kruger can be when he opens up his offensive attack.
“Sometimes, he doesn’t want to open up but when he does,” Novotny said. “He really turned up his offense this year and that really set him above these kids.”
The only points of the Orel match were scored on escapes. After a 1-1 tie going to overtime and no scoring in the sudden-victory period, Orel rode out Lewis in the tiebreaker and then escaped during his 30-second period and then held off Lewis’ takedown chances.
Novotny joked that Orel “did exactly what I told him not to do” by letting it stay close late in the match.
“I don’t think I could hear my heart beat in the overtime, and that’s probably not a good thing,” Novotny said. "But if there’s anyone that’s in that position that knows what to do, it’s Riley. That’s how he wrestles.”
The match was also notable for how it ended. When the final whistle sounded, tears flowed quickly from Orel’s face and he hugged Lewis on the edge of the mat, drawing cheers from the crowd for the sportsmanship.
“He’s one of my good buddies. … Every time I face him, it’s a good match,” Orel said. “We’ve gotten very close through wrestling.”
ADVERTISEMENT
They have been frequent opponents. Friday night’s match marked the sixth time that Orel and Lewis have met in the last two seasons. Orel has won all six matchups, each of them by fewer than two points. It was the fourth time they’ve met this season and three of those matches were decided by the tiebreaker format in overtime.
“It was an explosion of emotions, really. It’s the best way I can explain it,” Orel said of the end of the match. “It was about coming back from when I was younger. I made it to the finals as a freshman and I didn’t make it back until this year, so this is something that meant a lot to me this year.”
For Kruger, it’s a state title of his own after his older brother Sam won three consecutive state titles from 2019 to 2021. A season ago, Kruger was second in the weight class at the state meet.
“Since I was just tiny, I was always dreaming about winning a state title and I was finally able to make it happen,” Kruger said.
The Trust Project
