Boys win season-opening Bill Young Invitational

Once again the Custer boys wrestling team has won the home Bill Young Invitational Wrestling Tournament, and several on the team took spots on the podium.
With a combined 192.5 points, Custer won the tournament, ahead of Sturgis with 187 and Belle Fourche with 183.
“I didn’t think we would [win] this year because we had a lot of voids and we even pulled Riley [Scott] out of the tournament and that’s a 30-point getter. Pulling that off without him is pretty good,” said head coach Jared Webster.
Cole Scott and Myles Woodward wrestled in the 106-pound weight class, with Scott scoring four points for the team with a win in his first match over Auden Sawatzky of St. Thomas More (STM) by pin in 1:13. Scott lost his next matches and did not place.
Woodward got a bye into the second round, where he won over Dane Johnson of Burke-Gregory by fall in 1:18. He then lost his next two matches, but got a win in the fifth place match, again over Johnson by pin in 2:11.
Jackson Trant wrestled at 113 pounds and contributed nine points to the team over the tournament. He got a bye into the second round, in which he lost to Sturgis’ Quintin Kelly by pin in 52 seconds. Trant then received a bye through the next two rounds, where he met up with Jackson Truax of Spearfish and won  the match by 6-3 decision. In the third place match, he met Kelly again and was pinned in 2:17 to take fourth place.
Levi Hartshorn and Tyler Trant wrestled in the 120-pound weight class. Hartshorn lost his two matches by pin and did not place. Trant received a bye into his second round, where he pinned Dyson Eixenberger of Newell in 2:28. In the semifinal match, he met up with Sturgis’ Trik Elshere and won by pin in 3:19. In the championship round, he faced off with John Ryder Weiss of Hot Springs and won quickly by pin in just 26 seconds.
Riley Trout and Memphis Morgan wrestled in the 126-pound weight class and both placed in the tournament. Morgan got a bye into the second round and pinned Gus Haivala in 3:31. In the semifinal, he lost to Bodie Vanderboom of Newell by pin in 1:59 to put him in the consolation semi with teammate Trout. Trout won the match by 9-8 decision. Morgan then went to the fifth place match and won in sudden victory against Newell’s Cody Jones.
Trout won all but one match in the tournament. After winning by tech fall against Mickgavin Pritzkau of Rapid City Stevens in his first match, he advanced to his quarterfinal match with Jones of Newell and lost by tech fall. Trout then wrestled his way back to the third place match, defeating Alex Hawlins of Hemingford by pin in 2:39, Derick Merrical of Lakota Tech by 12-9 decision and teammate Morgan by decision. In the third place match, he defeated Cory Ronish of Hill City by major decision (12-2).
Ethan O’Connor, Mandan Sandven and Leighton Poper wrestled at 132 pounds and all placed, with Poper wrestling in a second bracket.  
O’Connor scored 20 points for the team over six matches. After quickly pinning Grayson Trojanowski of Rapid City Stevens in his first match, he lost to Douglas-Rapid City Christian-New Underwood’s Coy Eddy in the quarterfinal by pin. O’Connor then won the next three matches by pin and medical forfeit to put him in the third-place match with Garet Hutson of Belle Fourche. In the end, Hutson won by pin to give O’Connor fourth place.
Sandven received a bye into the second round and won against Hemingford (Neb.’s) Micah Woodbeck by tech fall (19-4). In the next match, he lost to Drew Janke of Lead-Deadwood by pin in 1:57. Sandven then ceded his next two matches by medical forfeit.
In the 132-B weight class, Poper placed second. He lost his first match to Lakota Tech’s Matthew Dillon by tech fall (20-4), but won his second and final match with Max Sirignano by pin in 1:06.
Tray Weiss wrestled at 138-pounds and earned first place. He won his first two matches by pin; the first win was against St. Thomas More’s Leo Esposito in 1:11 and then over Peyton Percy of Lead-Deadwood in three minutes flat. In the next two matches he won by tech fall. The first was over Gage Studer of Sturgis and then over Mason Ryman of Rapid City Stevens.
Robert Carter and Colton Dorrance wrestled at 144 pounds and neither placed in the meet.
At 150 pounds was Leighton Sander, scoring 23.5 points for the team. He won his first match by pin over Jayden White Face of Hot Springs by pin in 2:38 and then went on to pin his next opponent, Sturgis’ Parker Anderson in 1:35. Sander won by tech fall (17-0) in the next match with Douglas-Rapid City Christian - New Underwood’s William Thompson to put him in the championship round with Riley Dighton of Belle Fourche. Sander earned second place after the match, losing by one point in a 8-7 decision.
David Lewis wrestled at 157 pounds and nabbed 19 points for the team. He lost his first match by pin, but redeemed himself over the next several matches, pinning the next three opponents: Little Wound’s Paul Fast Wolf in 1:46, Mahpiya Luta’s Antonio Morales in 33 seconds and Hot Springs’ Keller Peterson in 2:22. He won the next match by injury default to put him in the third place match with Paiden Sandal of Douglas-Rapid City Christian-New Underwood. Sandal won the match by pin, giving Lewis fourth place.
Blaise Arp wrestled in the 165-pound weight class and scored 20 points in the tournament. After losing his first match to Landyn Mahaffy of Sturgis by 13-8 decision, he went on to win each match after to wrestle back to third place. After a bye in the second round, he pinned his next four opponents: Mahpiya Luta’s Blake Pourier in 33 seconds, Rapid City Stevens’ Kaleb Salazar in 2:32, Belle Fourche’s Zach Tonsager in 2:07 and Hemingford’s Grayson Hunter in 2:23.
Brady Novak wrestled at 175 and scored 14.5 points. He won his first two matches by pin over Stevens’ Colter Jundt and Little Wound’s Wicahpa Whirlwind Horse Pullium. He then lost his next two to put him in the fifth place match with Pullium, which he won again by tech fall (16-1).
At 285 pounds was Zayden LaPlaca. LaPlaca did not place but earned seven points with two wins over Farron Center of Pine Ridge by pin and Braden Yeager of Hot Springs by pin.
The previous night on Thursday, the team also competed in the Custer duals with Harding County, Gregory and Hot Springs. The Wildcats won each dual: over Hot Springs by 65-17, Harding County by 45-33 and Gregory by 60-24.
Webster was happy with the wins, but said that until everyone is wrestling in their right weight classes, it’s hard to know what kind of team they have for duals.
“It’s gonna be tough until we get everybody in the right spot. Once that happens, we could have a good team or we could have some major holes. We’ll find out when the time comes,” said Webster.
In the meantime, the team has plenty to work on still early in the season.
“We have a lot of stuff to work on. There’s a lot that needs to happen. We have a lot of beginners this year that need a lot of mat time,” said Webster.
On Friday and Saturday the team competes at the Rapid City Invite at Rapid City Stevens.