Four Britton-Hecla wrestlers opened their season by placing in the top four at the Clark-Willow Lake Invitational held on Saturday.
Two grapplers reached the finals and finished second – Bryce Hawkinson at 144 and Tucker Hardy at 285. Ben Suther placed third at 165 and Collin Beaner was fourth at 157. Team-wise, Britton-Hecla was seventh in the nineteam field.
The Braves were back in action last night Tuesday when they hosted Clark-Willow Lake and Redfield for their only home match of the season. This week the local matmen will compete in a tournament in Faulkton on Saturday and the Northeast Conference tournament is set for Milbank next week Thursday, Dec. 14.
“We were a little rusty,” said B-H coach Josh Hawkinson about the C-WL tournament. “I think 70% of the matches we lost we could have won. It’s those little mistakes that become drastic mistakes, and we were winning about every match we lost.”
The Braves also suffered several early-season injuries. Tanner Atkinson did not wrestle in the tournament due to a sore shoulder but was expected to go in the Tuesday triangular. Colton Chapin also had a shoulder issue and was forced to forfeit his second match at Clark but was also expected to be back in action Tuesday. Conner Glines, however, is expected to miss three to four weeks with a dislocated rib.
Hawkinson said that the biggest takeaway from the opening tournament was that his charges just need to develop some confidence.
“We have kids that have amazing shots and amazing power but just don’t have the selfconfidence to shoot them during a match. We’re getting better slowly, but I want to see more of that from them,” concluded Hawkinson. “The other thing we’re working on is control on the top and keeping weight on people with our hands.”
TEAM POINTS : Kingsbury County 171, Faulkton 157.5, Canton JV 148.5, Webster 129, Clark-Willow Lake 128.5, Groton 111.5, Britton-Hecla 78, Pierre JV 59, Tiospa Zina 4.
90-98 POUNDS : Korbin Mix (BH) pinned by Noah Scepaniak (Groton Area) 1:24; pinned by Karstyn Schlechter (Webster Area) 1:22 106 POUNDS : Lincoln Kilker (BH) dec. Tawakanhdi Eastman (Tiospa Zina) 8-4; pinned by Tayten Kurkowski (Webster Area) 2:00; pinned by Chase Henriksen (Kingsbury County) 126 POUNDS: Max Suther (BH) pinned by Tucker Baloun (Faulkton Area) 3:01; pinned by Brady Lowery (Pierre T.F. Riggs) 1:39
132 POUNDS: Bryce Heitkamp (BH) pinned Carson Malsam (Pierre T.F. Riggs) 2:32; pinned by Walker Zoellner (Groton Area) :51; pinned Damian Severson (Clark/Willow Lake); pinned by Lane Albrecht (Kingsbury County)
144 POUNDS: Bryce Hawkinson (BH) pinned Landon Cronin (Pierre T.F. Riggs) 1:43; dec. Austin Vig (Clark/ Willow Lake) 8-2; pinned by Conner Giedd (Kingsbury County) 3:25
150 POUNDS: Colton Chapin (BH) pinned by Eli Nickels (Pierre T.F. Riggs) 5:04; lost by forfeit to Aiden Van Balen (Pierre T.F. Riggs)
157 POUNDS: Collin Beaner (BH) pinned Lane Halverson (Canton) 3:20; lost dec. to Garrett Cramer (Faulkton Area) 1-0; pinned Jackson Charron (Pierre T.F. Riggs) 2:56; lost dec. to Korbin Kucker (Groton Area) 4-2
157 POUNDS: Dustin Stabnow (BH) pinned by Gage Baumgarn (Webster Area) 1:06; pinned by Jackson Charron (Pierre T.F. Riggs) 2:34
165 POUNDS: Ben Suther (BH) pinned Bryson Wallman (Pierre T.F. Riggs) :29; pinned by Kaleb Johnson (Kingsbury County) ; dec. Micah Decker (Canton) 4-3; pinned Bryce Klancke (Clark/Willow Lake) 5:26
175 POUNDS : Conner Glines (BH) pinned by Sam Larson (Pierre T.F. Riggs) 2:30; lost by injury default to Ben Hoeft (Groton Area) 190 POUNDS: Dashel Davidson (BH) pinned by Breyten Johnson (Kingsbury County) 1:56; pinned Drew Thurston (Groton Area); pinned by Isaac Nelson (Webster Area) 1:26
285 POUNDS : Tucker Hardy (BH) pinned Foster Bode (Faulkton Area) :57; pinned Gaviin Englund (Groton Area); lost dec. to Parker Bode (Faulkton Area) 4-3
