MILLER - The team favorite in Region 3B heading into Saturday's competition, the Winner Area wrestling team did not disappoint.
The Warriors had four region champions at the state-qualifying meet, cruising to the region title with 180 points. Parkston led a tight contest for second place, scoring 130 points. Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes finished third with 128.5 points.
Winner did most of its damage early in the final round, with Kaden Keiser leading the championship matches off with a 14-3 decision over Parkston's Riley Weber at 106 pounds. That was followed up by Atlas Willuweit's 13-3 major decision victory over Parkston's Tucker Murtha.
The Warriors kept the winning going with a title from Trevor Peters at 138 pounds, defeating BHSA's Kaleb Crownover 6-4 in overtime, while Sam Kruger won the 145-pound championship with a 7-1 victory over Miller/Highmore-Harrold's Landon Sivertsen.
"It was pretty important that we scored bonus points in matches and ended matches quickly, if we could," said Winner Area coach Spencer Novotny, as his team sent 10 wrestlers to the state meet. "It progresses through our entire team and everyone is working for that one common goal as a team."
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Parkston's Brady Schoenfelder won the 195-pound class with a 6-1 decision over Wagner's K.J. St. Pierre. The Trojans qualified eight wrestlers to the state tournament and five wrestled for the region championship.
"We competed and I think we can make some more progress toward next weekend," Parkston coach James Boehmer said. "We'll get in some more practice in and focus on what we need to do at state."
KWLPG had a big day, starting with Jackson Nockels' victory over Winner's Wyatt Turnquist at 126 pounds in a 12-8 decision. Ty Namanny, wrestling at 170, downed Parkston's Lucas Bietz with an 11-3 major decision.
Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon, Wagner and Burke/Gregory finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, as a team and were separated by one total point.
Josh Crownover won the 160-pound title for BHSA with a 3-1 decision over the weight class' defending state champion Dawson Semmler, of Parkston.
Lance Soukup claimed the 113-pound title with an injury default from BHSA's Jordan Rueb in the final. Dawson Lensing won the 285-pound title with a pin of Burke/Gregory's Ridge Oliver in 1 minute, 21 seconds.
Burke/Gregory landed a pair of region winners, with Jackson Eklund winning the 132-pound championship with a first-period pin of Sunshine Bible Academy's Teigan Clark in 1:12. J.J. Beck had an 11-3 major decision victory over Parkston's Slayton Neugebauer for the 182-pound championship.
Mount Vernon/Plankinton/Corsica-Stickney was represented at the top of the podium by Jesse Hastings. The standout sophomore pinned Wagner's Jace Johnson in 52 seconds to claim the 220-pound championship.
