Jeremy Karll

“We got five kids into the finals, but we were still the underdog in most of those matches,” Winner Area head coach Spencer Novotny said. “I’m happy with the effort. I think a big thing for us was that we came back through and we didn’t get a bunch of seventh and eighth-place finishes.”

“Right after (third at last year’s state tournament) my coaches were like, ‘Well, we’re not going to shoot for second, so might as well go for the championship,’ ” Christensen said. “I progressed and got a lot better. Wrestling both of my coaches, they’re great partners. I just got a lot better and…

These four area wrestlers are having breakout campaigns this year.

WINNER -- Class A No. 3 Winner survived a five-set match on Thursday, as the Warriors took down Kimball/White Lake. Set scores were 18-25, 25-13, 25-18, 20-25 and 15-9.

BROOKINGS -- Canistota/Freeman and Britton-Hecla each had chances to go up two scores throughout the game, yet giveaways kept each within striking distance.

“I thought we battled real good in the first half,” Adam Nelson said. “... Ultimately, foul trouble got the best of us. One call changed the basketball game. That foul on Drayton changed the basketball game for us.”

“I think that second half showed we can play with anybody in this tournament,” said Brady Fritz. “Coming into the tournament, we felt like people thought, ‘Oh, Winner’s going to come in here and they’re not going to be able to compete with teams like Dakota Valley.’ But I think after that, we…

Winner opens the state tourney against Dakota Valley today.

“You definitely want to make sure you get the first one,” Mitchell coach Cole Knippling said. “You don’t want to be the eighth-place team. I’m proud how we did it, to have some seniors step up and have awesome shooting games.”

Although COVID-19 is still a looming threat and a mask mandate is in place at Huron Arena, the first day of the tournament was loud and lively. Concerns over whether the tournament would be postponed or canceled were replaced with concerns of whether a team would win or lose.

“That was one of the allures of the job,” said Mitchell coach Cole Knippling, who needed to replace six seniors in his first year last season. “Even though we were graduating everybody, you knew there were kids still coming, too.”

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“When they called off last year, getting into the gym right after they called it,” Aberdeen Christian’s Malek Wieker said. “I had more motivation, like I have to get back there. That’s what I want. That’s the final goal.”

“He has a rare quality that you very seldom see in athletes,” Schuyler said. “I’ve coached 23 state finalists at the high school level and 11 champions, and he has something rare that gives him the ability to be successful. A lot of people have that hard work. He has hard work plus the ability that…

Warriors clamp down on Mustangs for third straight berth to Class A tournament

“That game was a big learning experience for us,” Knippling said. “A lot of times our posts were stacked on top of each other and we didn’t have very good spacing. Hopefully we’ll have better spacing this time around. I think we definitely learned from that game and got better going forward.”

“It’s amazing to be a state champion, but honestly it hasn’t clicked in my head yet that it’s over,” Hanson said. “I’m just more happy about winning it. I’m sure later tonight I’ll get a little sad that it’s over, but I’m glad I came out on top.”

Mitchell falls to 14-4 this year.

“It’s good for us to feel confident and get on a roll instead of starting slow,” Mitchell senior guard Adaya Plastow said. “We started as ourselves and were able to come out and play.”