Tigers take down Kernels

A more-experienced Huron wrestling team proved to be too much for Mitchell on Thursday.

Powered by five pins in the final five matches, the Huron Tigers handed the Mitchell Kernels a 63-3 defeat in an Eastern South Dakota Conference wrestling dual at Mitchell High School.

"It was about what I was expecting," Mitchell head coach Travis Carpenter said. "We had a chance in 113, 120 and 126 and those are good kids. We're making progress."

The early four weight classes provided the most excitement during the dual, starting with the 106-pound matchup between Mitchell eighth-grader Kyler Bauder and Huron freshman Daynon Huber. Bauder, who beat Huber earlier this season, lost a 3-1 decision in overtime which gave Huron an early 3-0 lead.

"Mitchell came after us in the early weights and they had something to prove," Huron head coach Dan McCarty said. "I'm glad our kids battled back and came away with wins. Once we got past 126 (pounds), things started to click for us."

At 113 pounds, Huron's Tyson Lien picked up the first of eight Huron pins by pinning Mitchell's Ryan McGinnis with one second remaining.

Mitchell's Logan Sparks and Huron's Blut Htoo battled back in forth in what turned out to be the most exciting match of the night at 120 pounds. Htoo ended up winning a 12-8 decision, but narrowly escaped two close pinfalls by Sparks during the match.

"It was close," Carpenter said about the 120 match. "When you get opportunities like that, you have to take advantage of them."

The Tigers picked up decision wins by Pywe Der (126) and Kyle Corbett (138) as well as a pinfall win by Chipper Shillings (132) to lead 24-0.

Mitchell's lone win came by sophomore Briggs Havlik (145), who pinned Huron freshman Carlo Yanes to earn the Kernels six points.

"His goal is to get on the award stand at the state meet," Carpenter said about Havlik, who was coming off a third-place finish at the Jerry Opbroek meet.

Huron bounced back with a 6-0 decision win by Rick Strubel (160) over Mitchell's Cade Carpenter and then rattled off five straight pins to seal the win.

Nick Christensen (170), Colin Simons (182), Bailey Schoenfelder (195) and Josh Waagen (285) all earned pins for the Tigers.

"They've got a lot of experience up there," McCarty said about his high weight class wrestlers. "They get after it up in those weights and we're constantly looking for pins."

Mitchell had 13 wrestlers compete in the varsity dual and were only open in the 220 weight class.

While Huron scored plenty of points on its own, Carpenter was most concerned with the points his team was giving the Tigers throughout the dual.

"I'm most disappointed that we scored most of the points against us," Carpenter said. "We have to find a way to stop that. It's all about experience and not making the mistakes that we made."

The Kernels compete in the Chamberlain tournament at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Chamberlain.

Huron 63, Mitchell 6

106: Daynon Huber (H) over Kyler Bauder (M) (Dec 3-1) 113: Tyson Lien (H) over Ryan McGinnis (M) (Fall 5:59) 120: Blut Htoo (H) over Logan Sparks (M) (Dec 12-8) 126: Pywe Der (H) over Cole Gehrke (M) (Dec 9-6) 132: Chipper Shillingstad (H) over Sutton Carpenter (M) (Fall 2:34) 138: Kyle Corbett (H) over Barry Browning (M) (Dec 8-3) 145: Briggs Havlik (M) over Carlos Yanes (H) (Fall 1:02) 152: Zach Siemonsma (H) over Zach Smith (M) (Dec 6-0) 160: Rick Strubel (H) over Cade Carpenter (M) (Fall 1:59) 170: Nick Christensen (H) over Logan Rietvelt (M) (Fall 1:35) 182: Colin Simons (H) over Carter Max (M) (Fall 1:32) 195: Bailey Schoenfelder (H) over Alex Klingaman (M) (Fall 2:45) 220: Marshal Simons (H) win by forfeit 285: Josh Waagen (H) over Zeb Parsons (M) (Fall 1:15)