MITCHELL – It was a bit of a role reversal for Aberdeen Central on Thursday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles, known for the strength in the lower weights, got a big boost from their upper weights to fuel a 40-33 Eastern South Dakota Conference wrestling win over Mitchell.
“Today was really great for our upper weight guys. It gave them a chance to get some wins and get some confidence, and come out and get a nice dual win,” said Central coach Donnie Bowden. “It’s been a while since we had a good dual hard team victory like we did today.”
The dual started at 152 pounds and it did not take the Eagles long to set the tone for the day. After dropping its first match, Central received five straight wins from Dylan Schaunaman, Ayden Gisi, Ryker Meister, Bryce Beitelspacher and Samson Flakus.
That gave the Eagles a nice cushion heading into their lower weights where Tate Huff, Rayden Zens and Mason Schrempp added victories to secure the dual win.
“It was good for our upper weights to go out there and get those wins,” Bowden said, “because our strength has been in our lower weights this year, but today they picked up the slack.”
Bowden said it was a solid dual victory as the squad received contributions from up and down the lineup.
“Everyone gave effort. Everyone contributed to the win,” he said. “Everyone went out there and fought hard to get done what they could get done.”
The Eagles compete in the Bismarck Rotary Classic Jan. 7-8.
Bowden believes his wrestlers are headed in the right direction.
“It was good to get back on the winning side of things. It’s really nice to see the improvements that we’ve been making start coming together a little bit,” Bowden said. “This is kind of the time when I said you’ll be able to start seeing them, and I think you’re just going to keep seeing things trend this way.”
Aberdeen Central 40, Mitchell 33
152: Tucker Vilhauer (MITC) over Cordell Rychlik (ABCE) (Fall 1:19); 160: Dylan Schaunaman (ABCE) over Conner Thelen (MITC) (Fall 5:33); 170: Ayden Gisi (ABCE) over Kendell Fick (MITC) (Fall 1:11); 182: Ryker Meister (ABCE) over Seth Foote (MITC) (Dec 10-3);
195: Bryce Beitelspacher (ABCE) over Brok Elwein (MITC) (Fall 1:50) 220: Samson Flakus (ABCE) over Connor Degen (MITC) (Fall 6:00) 285: Carson Podhradsky (MITC) over Jacob Krenz (ABCE) (Fall 4:00) 106: Spencer Eldeen (MITC) over (ABCE) (For.) 113: Tate Huff (ABCE) over Cruz Alhizer (MITC) (Dec 14-9);
120: Rayden Zens (ABCE) over Kaileb Hubbard (MITC) (MD 12-2); 126: Mason Schrempp (ABCE) over Penn Long (MITC) (Fall 1:10); 132: Brock Sparks (MITC) over Brock Martin (ABCE) (Dec 10-8); 138: Brandon Sparks (MITC) over Elias Biegler (ABCE) (Fall 3:21); 145: Jagger Tyler (MITC) over Noah Kramer (ABCE) (Fall 2:36).
