Fargo, N.D. (NewsDakota.com)—The South Border (SB) Mustangs placed 9 of 10 wrestlers that competed in the state tournament and topped the field with 149.5 team points, well ahead of runner-up Williams County (WC) with 116 and third place Velva with 114 points. The Mustangs crowned 2 individual champions with seniors Cole Stock at 152 pounds and Shane Nitschke at 215 pounds. Stock entered the state tournament as the number 3 seed and defeated Cyrus Roseland of Hettinger-Scranton (HS) by fall at 1:00 in the opening round. Stock (38-8) would defeat Maddux Shockman of LaMoure-Litchville-Marion (LLM) 4-1 in the quarterfinals and also a 4-1 SV-1 win over Corbin Clifton in the semifinals before knocking off Trenton Klatt of New Salem-Almont (NSA) 9-3 to capture the title. Nitschke would pin his way to the 215 pound title with falls over Brennin Thuesen (WC) in the opening round at 1:04, Andre Doll of Napoleon-Gackle-Streeter (NGS) at 2:27, CL Weinberger (NSA) at 1:04 in the semifinals, and Carter Engebretson of Harvey-Wells County (HWC) at 3:38 in the title match. Nitschke finishes his senior year with a 33-3 record. Other SB placers included Jared Schilling (SOPH) 5th at 114, Rylan Vetter (FR) 4th at 127, Ryker Vetter (JR) 7th at 139, Brody Hoffman (SR) at 160, Brody Michaelson (JR) 8th at 172, Cole Nitschke (JR) 5th at 285, and Blake Goebel (FR) 3rd at 107.
The 4-12 teams were NSA with 109, Oakes 90.5, Lisbon 87, Northern Lights (NL) 83, Bowman County-Beach (BCB) 78, Kenmare-Bowbells-Burke Central (KBBC) 71.5, HWC 71, Bishop Ryan (BR) 67, and Carrington 66.5. LLM was 18th with 54 and Ellendale-Edgeley-Kulm was 21st with 48.5.
Oakes finished with 6 placers and a state champion at 133 with sophomore Mathias Dahlstrom. Dahlstrom would get three straight technical foul wins to reach the title match. A 19-4 win over Ethan Taszarek (EEK)at 4:00, 17-2 at 2:29 over Paul Melin (KBBC), and 20-2 over Jack Bombach of Killdeer. Dahlstrom (39-3) defeated Kruiser Burns of Grafton in the finals 7-3. Other Tornado placers were Ben Wagner (JR) 6th at 114, Zane Awender (SR) 5th at 139, Zade Heier (JR) 5th at 152, Max Cline (SR) 8th at 215, and Trygg Dahlstrom (7TH) 6th at 107.
Lisbon would finish with 4 state placers with Noah Anderson (JR) 127 and Eli Lyons (JR) 160 both taking third place. Cruz Reinke (FR) 139 and Griffin Greenley (JR) 145) both finished in fourth place.
Carrington had 5 state placers with Corbin Clifton (SR) at 152 placing third with the highest finish. Skye Kramlich (SOPH) 107, and Dru Carr (SR) 121 both finished in 5th place. Nic Garber (SOPH) 145 finished in 6th place. Garber lost in the semifinals on Thursday night and had to medical forfeit out of the tournament on Friday due to a back injury. Callen Garber (SR) 172 finished in 7th place. The Cardinals for the first time since 2008 did not get a wrestler into the finals.
LLM would place 4 wrestlers with Cael Hebl (SR) taking 4th at 172, Henry Lettenmaier (SOPH) 160 and Maddux Shockman (SR) 152 both finished 6th. Logan Potts (SOPH) 127 finished in 7th place.
EEK finished with 3 placers and Walker Miller (SOPH) the highest award with 3rd place at 114. Ivan Carruth (JR) 215 finished 5th and Seth Irey (SOPH) 285 finished in 6th place.
Other championship matches had Dalton Feist (SR), NGS over Tristian Miller (FR) (WC) 8-3 at 114.
121–Bode Henderson (SOPH) NL, 7-0 over Hayes Weinberger (SOPH) NSA
127–Charlie Irwin (SR) NSA 10-1 MD over Cohen Bell (JR) Stanley
139–Sawyer Owens (JR) HCV fall 5:03 over Brextyn Yanish (FR) Velva
145–Kash Brown (SOPH) WC 6-0 over Carson Hildre (SR) Velva
160–Lincoln Spear (SOPH) KBBC 15-11 over Sawyer Noll (SOPH) BCB
172–Rocker Aguilar (SR) WC 7-3 over Tanner Menge (FR) Kindred
189–Cole Henderson (SR) NL 11-7 over Christian Mertz (SOPH) HWC
285–Cade Okeson (JR) BR fall 1:07 over Matthew Jacobs (SR) WC
107–Jace Boynton (8th) BCB 9-4 over Isaiah Hackman (8th) Velva
The state dual tournament will start at 10:00 A.M on Saturday morning with pre-match starting at 9:45 on AM 1220 KDDR (THE TORNADO), AM 1600 KDAK (THE CARDINAL) and www,newsdakota.com