TEA – Flandreau’s six regionals wrestlers scored 66 teams points to place eighth in the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s Region 1A tournament and three of those wrestlers qualified for the State A Championships this week, Feb. 22-24.
The state meet kicks off Thursday with first-round matchups beginning at 10 a.m. at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls.
Teague Bergjord placed second at 113, Karter Headrick took third at 190 and Brayden Wiese was fourth at 132. A fourth wrestlers, Zach Pederson, will attend the SDHSAA Class A meet as an alternate in the 120 pound class.
Two Flier seniors will both wrestle in their third and final State Championship.
Julie Pitsenberger met the criteria to attend the Class A Girls championship in the 132 pound weight class.
And wearing the Flier singlet a final time will be Wiese who’s been coming over from Colman-Egan to join the Fliers for the past six years.
Bergjord and Headrick will participate in their first state meet.
West Central won the Region 1A title with 223.5 points followed by Tea Area with 217. Watertown, Brookings, Sioux Falls O’Gorman and Jefferson and Madison rounded out the rest of the top seven teams.
In the region meet, Bergjord finished in second place at 113 pounds pinning Max Stroup of Watertown at 3:49 of the quarterfinals and winning by a 6-4 decision over O’Gorman’s Keanu Lee in the semifinals. Bergjord lost by a 10-6 decision to West Central’s Bentley Klinkhammer in the championship and has a 29-17 record this season.
Headrick finished third for the Fliers after winning three of his four matches at 190 pounds. Headrick pinned O’Gorman’s Aidan Kanable at 5:16 of the quarterfinals before he was pinned by Watertown’s Brock Eitreim at 1:46 of the semifinals. Headrick rebounded to pin Tea Area’s Keegan DeYoung at 4:03 of the consolation semifinals and won by a 10-4 decision over West Central’s Gabe Gebhard in the third-place match to improve to 40-11 this year.
Wiese finished fourth at 132 pounds by splitting his four matches. Wiese won by a 15-6 major decision over O’Gorman’s Slaton Jones in the quarterfinals before he was pinned at 1:20 of his semifinal match with Sioux Falls Jefferson’s Graham Wilde. Wiese punched his ticket to state with a 4-2 decision over Madison’s Henry Meyer but lost by a 16-1 technical fall to O’Gorman’s Slaton Jones in the third-place match. Wiese is 31-21 on the season.
A pair of Fliers took sixth, Gabe Frias and Justin Klein, and just missed the chance to wrestle at state.
A pep rally for the wrestlers will be held on Wednesday. The first one is at 1 p.m. at the Colman-Egan School and the second one at 2:15 in the Flandreau High School gym.
Other Flier wrestlers’ Region 1A results
120: Zach Pederson, LBF 3:43 Levi Quam, Brook; Bye; WBF 3:38 Alex Siemonsma, WC – 5th place, State alternate
126: Gabe Frias, Bye; LBF 1:22 Aidan Wells, SFJ; Bye; Won 4-2 Sawyer Johnson, Brook; LBF 1:45 Jade Wilkens, Mad; LBF 3:54, Trevin Audiss, Tea – 6th place
165: Justin Klein, Won forfeit; Won 12-10 SV Judah Larson SFJ; LBF 3:34 Dawson Eimers, Tea; LBF 3:39 Tucker Urdahl, Wtn; Lost 3-0 Judah Larson, SFJ – 6th place
