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Sunday, December 22, 2024 at 2:14 AM

MATMEN KICK OFF SEASON

    The Britton-Hecla wrestling squad will kick off the 2024-25 winter sports season when it competes in the annual Clark-Willow Lake Tournament in Clark on Saturday.
    Coach Josh Hawkinson’s crew will also travel to Redfield to do battle with Redfield and Clark-Willow Lake in a triangular on Tuesday.  Two home dates are on the Braves schedule this season – a tournament on Friday, Jan. 17, and a quadrangular on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
    Teams competing in the C-WL tourney include the Cyclones, Groton Area, Faulkton Area, Tiospa Zina, Pierre, Canton, Webster Area, and Kingsbury County.
    Hawkinson calls his team young but experienced with just one senior – Dashel Davidson – on the roster.
    Other returning letterwinners include juniors Bryce Hawkinson  and Ceci Anderson; sophomores Ben Suther and Tucker Hardy, freshman Colton Chapin and Lincoln Kilker, and eighth graders Max Suther and Liam Paxton.
    Letterwinner Tanner Atkinson suffered an ACL injury in football and will be lost for the season.  Chapin had surgery on his knee and may return sometime after Christmas, while eighth grader Carter Nelson was also lost for the season due to a knee injury.  Collin Beaner was the only senior to graduate from last year’s team.
    “We don’t have much depth but have a variety of sizes of kids and it looks like we’re going to be able to fill a majority of the weight classes,” said Hawkinson who is beginning his seventh year at the helm of the Braves.  “I think our biggest strength is that we are starting to mature a little bit and have some older guys and good leadership.  Hopefully that will impact some of the younger kids and give them the drive to want to make themselves better.”
    Hardy is the team’s only returning state placer, taking eighth at heavyweight last season with an overall 37-17 record, and he was ranked third in this year’s preseason rankings.  Hawkinson, who was 39-12 a year ago, also qualified for state for the third time at 144 pounds.  Coach Hawkinson’s goal is to get at least three qualified for the state meet this season.
    “If we could get three state qualifiers that would be a win in my book and if we could get more than one to place in the top eight that would be great,” said Hawkinson.
    There have been some major changes in scoring for wrestling beginning this season.  Scoring changes mirror those that were made in college wrestling the past several years.
    All takedowns will now count three points instead of two and near falls will be worth four points instead of three.  Another big emphasis is that if wrestlers have one point of contact, like holding a foot or arm while in-bounds, they are still able to score points or pin their opponent if they bounce out of bounds.  In the past three points of contact were required.
    “The changes will affect our strategy in that we will try to spend more time on our feet and get good at defending and taking kids down,” noted Hawkinson.  “If we can get good on our feet and concentrate on conditioning we will be hard to contend with.”
    In their opening matches this week Hawkinson wants to see how the younger kids perform under fire and also determine how much rust the veterans need to shake off.
    “With the new kids I just want to get them in a match and see how they perform.  They came from not knowing anything on day one and to where it looks like a wrestling match when they are competing in the room.  I also want to see how much rust the experienced guys have, figure out what we have to work on, and see how out of shape we really are.”
    Eleven grapplers are set to wrestle in the Clark Tournament and Redfield triangular.  Kilker will be at 106, freshman Carter Grobe at 113, junior Jade Tisher at 126, Hawkinson at 144, Max Suther at 150, Davidson at 165, Ben Suther at 175, Paxton at 190, and Hardy at 215.  Henry Kilker and Jarrik Jones will both wrestle at 98 pounds at Clark but that special weight class will be non-scoring.
    Hawkinson pointed at developing confidence as a key to success this season.
    “Confidence on our feet is going to be huge this year, and we just have to get the kids in the right mindset,” stressed the Braves’ coach.  “We have a handful of kids that just need to believe in themselves and the ability they have.  I can see it, and other coaches can see it.  We just have to make them see it so they can develop that confidence.”


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Temperature: 18°F Town: Britton, SD

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