Sturgis Boys, Canton Boys and Girls lead State Wrestling standings after day one

Sturgis enjoys a healthy lead after the first day of the State A Boys Wrestling Tournament. The Scoopers are looking for a 3-peat as State Champions and tallied 98.0 points on Thursday in the first and second rounds to run out to a 27-point advantage over second-place Brandon Valley’s 71.0. Watertown is just a half-point behind in third at 70.5, with Aberdeen Central in fourth at 54.5 and West Central another half-point behind in fifth. The Pierre Governors are in eighth place at 40.0, but just three behind sixth place O’Gorman. Three Governors earned their way into the semifinals Friday going 2-0 on the first day, including top-ranked Alex Oedekoven at 144 pounds, Jordan Schafer at 150 and Porter Hunsley at 165. Four other Govs won their first-round matches before falling in the quarterfinals and being sent to the consolation bracket.

Meanwhile eight-time defending champion Canton holds a seven point lead over Winner after the first day’s action. Both teams will have six wrestlers in the semifinals Friday morning, but Canton also has five more wrestlers than Winner still going in the consolation rounds. The C-Hawks lead with 72.0 points to Winner’s 65.0. Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes is third with 53 points and five semifinalists. Other Central South Dakota teams include Wessington Spring/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington with 23.5 and Miller/Highmore-Harrold at 23.0, both with two in the semis. The Badlands Brawlers of Philip/Kadoka/Wall totaled 21.5 and have one semifinalist and Faulkton Area scored 21.0 with a pair of semifinalists to position themselves in the top 15 as well.

Canton also leads the first-day standings in the girls State Tournament with 64.0 points, setting the pace ahead of Watertown in second with 56.5. Pierre is the four-time defending champion, but is not expected to make it five this year with a younger lineup that has also been hurt by injuries heading into the weekend. The Governors scored 36.0 on day one and do have three wrestlers – Shaylee Speck, Lexie Hillmer and Abbi Lewis – competing in Friday’s semifinal round. Sully Buttes scored 22.5 points, led by sisters Tahnie and Cateri Yellow Hawk, both of whom also went 2-0 on Thursday.

Friday’s Day Two schedule begins at 9:30 with first-round consolation matches followed by the second-round wrestlebacks in the first session. The all-important semifinals commence at 3:00 along with third-round wrestlebacks and conclude with the fourth-round consolation matches to follow. Placing matches begin Saturday at 10:00 with the championships scheduled for a 1:00 start time. Live coverage of all championships will be heard on KPLO-FM and viewable at https://drgnews.com/kplo.