Weiss wins third consecutive state championship

The Custer High School boys wrestling team competed at the Class B State Wrestling Tournament in Rapid City this past weekend, coming away with 16th place as a team. Individually, two wrestlers also placed—with Leighton Sander earning sixth place and Tray Weiss earning his third consecutive state championship title. In team points, it garnered 40 points; Canton ran up a total of 189 points to take the team championship.
Head coach Jared Webster said that the tournament had its “ups and downs” but he was proud of the work the team did.
Cole Scott wrestled at 106 pounds and did not place, losing both matches by tech fall to Winner’s Apollo Willuwiet, and Kimball’s Rhys Truman.
At 120 pounds, Tyler Trant did not place, but earned four points for the team with a win over Harding County’s Revyn Ford by pin in 50 seconds.
“With Tyler, I believe we could get him on the top, but you know just some days we have bad days and life will go on after wrestling,” said Webster.
Weiss carved himself a path to victory in the 132-pound weight class over the course of four matches. In the first, he pinned Marion-Freeman’s Keaton Preheim in 1:18. In the next match, he pinned Chase Hurd of Miller-Highmore-Harold in 1:25. The third match he won by 6-1 decision over Gannon Gilligan of Kingsbury County and in the final match, he beat out Wessington Springs-Woonsocket’s Jackson Carter by one point in 9-8 decision.
“That was good being able to finish being a three-time state and champ. That’s a lot of pressure on the guy’s back. To be able to do that that many times is awesome,” said Webster.
Leighton Sander, wrestling at 144 pounds, earned sixth place. In the first match, he beat out Kingsbury County’s Greyson Nielson by 4-0 decision. Next, he beat out Gavin Risse of Bennett County by 4-3 decision before a string of three losses left him with sixth place.
“Leighton had an excellent first day taking out the number one kid to make sure that he had a place on the podium in the top six,” said Webster.
At 157 pounds was David Lewis, who did not place. He lost his first match to Deuel-Deubrook’s Gavin Kloos by 15-0 tech fall and the second to Groton’s Walker Zoellner by 4-0 decision.
Blaise Arp wrestled at 165 pounds and did not place. In his first match he met up with Tate Tolsma of Mount Vernon-Plankington-Corsica-Stickney and lost by pin in two minutes. In the next match he lost by 7-4 decision to Thor Fish of Hot Springs.
Lane Geisner wrestled at 190 and did not place. In the first round he was beat out by Dylan Murray of Redfield by pin in 1:12 and was pinned in the next match by Xavier Yount of Tri-Valley in 1:44.
Zayden LaPlaca wrestled at 285 pounds and did not place, but scored three points with a win by 15-7 major decision in his first round match over Jacob Johnson of McCook Central-Montrose. The next match had him pinned by Canton’s Hunter Richmond in 51 seconds and in the third match, he lost to Winner’s Derek Fenenga by 8-2 decision.
Looking back at the season, Webster said it’s been a good one despite several injuries and illnesses which have followed the team this year.
“We had a hard one with injuries, sickness and all that, but overall it was a good year,” Webster said. “It’s going to be a bummer to see the seniors go, but they’ve got a bright future ahead of them and we’re excited to see where the world takes them.”
Looking toward the next year, Webster is looking forward to getting more wrestlers on the mat in the pre-season in preparation
“We’ve got to get a lot of these young kids wrestling in the summer and just getting a lot of match time before next year rolls around,” said Webster.