BV girls nab 13th; Coach proud of team’s growth, grit

There was no missing Coach Derek Outland on the floor of the South Dakota High School State Wrestling Tournament, held March 26-28 at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

On championship Saturday, the usually conservatively-dressed Lady Lynx head coach was sporting a black suit, white dress shirt and a Brandon Valley-red “blinged out” tie selected by his athletes. Outland smiled when asked about the flashy accessory.

“The girls chose it for me,” he said. “They wanted something a little sparkly.”

The sparkle fit the occasion. The Brandon Valley girls wrestling team turned in a strong showing, placing 13th as a team and producing six state placers, all while showcasing the rapid growth of BV’s yet young girls’ program.

Although the Lady Lady didn’t take a step on the podium late Saturday afternoon, they were the frontrunners among all 59 teams in the tournament by out-performing their seed.

“As a team, we finished 25 spots higher than anticipated at the start of the tournament,” Outland shared, adding the next best performance was 11 spots higher than seed.

A trio of BV girls – Gracie Peters (110 pounds), Leah Nelson (120) and Sally Beal (190) – all placed in their respective weight classes, although their pre-tournament seedings said otherwise.

“Every one of the girls either reached or exceeded their seed placement,” Outland said.

Beal, a freshman, entered the tournament unseeded and battled her way to a sixth-place finish.

“Sally had a great tournament,” Outland said. “She came in not seeded, and then to finish sixth was just a great effort by her. Honestly, watching her, I’ve almost seen the growth from her every single match. She’s just getting better and better and better. She’s understanding positions and finding ways to win these tough matches.”

With three more high school seasons ahead of her, Beal’s trajectory is promising.

The youngster of the state qualifiers, Peters, an eighth-grader, endure a bumpy path this season to her season-ending podium performance.

After suffering an injury late in the season, Peters saw limited action on the mat.

“She got hurt right at the very end,” Outland explained. “Leading up to regions and state, she wrestled very, very little because we were trying to get her healed up.”

Peters struggled at regions, not looking like herself. But with a days to recover, BV’s determined 110-pounder flipped the switch at state.

“She knocks off the three seed in the first round, knocks off the six seed in the quarterfinals, and she just battled in a lot of tough matches,” Outland said.

Though she finished sixth, Outland said Peters holds herself to an even higher standard.

“She would tell you she was disappointed finishing sixth,” he said. “She wants more. She’s got a really high standard for herself now.”

Junior Brenna Reker (130) delivered one of the tournament’s most dramatic moments.

In a wrestle-back match, she absorbed a brutal head-to-ribs collision late in the match but fought through it.

“She basically took a head shot, spear right to the ribs,” Outland said. “It was pretty rough. She got up, finished the match, but was really sore afterward.”

After being cleared to wrestle, Reker returned Saturday to wrestle for seventh place, and the match went to overtime.

“Coach (Rache) Mastalir was telling me that they were talking about how Brenna didn’t have any overtime matches this year, and Brenna kind of likes overtime,” Outland said. “When it went to overtime, she looked over in the corner and had this slow smile.”

Moments later, she hit a fireman’s carry and secured the pin.

At the same time Reker was on the mat, teammate Kendall Clayton (135) was competing on an adjacent mat for seventh place.

“She got behind in that match, but then got on top, got a couple of turns and was able to hang on and get the ‘W,’” Outland said.

Clayton placed seventh.

“She would tell you she was disappointed in taking seventh,” Outland said. “Because she wanted to go out on the right note. She’s one of our captains, and she would tell you she’s really proud of how the team wrestled this weekend, and that it means an awful lot – even more than the individual – that all of the place winners did it together.”

Nelson, a freshman followed a similar script: unseeded and immediately facing the No. 1 seed in the opening round.

But she bounced back.

“She came back after that and wrestled just a perfect match against a girl that had beaten her earlier in the year, and punched her ticket to be a state placer as a freshman,” Outland said.

Hamner, the team’s lone senior qualifier, saw her tournament end earlier than she hoped, but her impact went far beyond the bracket.

“Lily’s been one of our captains,” Outland said. “People that don’t know her, she’s battled through a lot of things. She’s had injuries, and she had a couple surgeries this summer that she’s had to work back from just to get back with us.”

Like several of her teammates, Hamner – unseeded in the 170-pound bracket – drew the No. 1 seed in the first round.

“She came back and gave herself a chance, but couldn’t quite finish the tournament the way she wanted,” Outland said.

Renoah Gabriel’s (100) state appearance was impressive in itself. After dislocating her elbow at the team’s home tournament in early January, she worked hard to get back to the mat, and to state.

“Ordinarily that’s a season-ending injury,” Outland said. “But she was able to come back and rehab it. She came back literally just for regions, qualified there, and then gave it a shot here at state.”

Shaylee Arredondo (105), who began wrestling a year ago, continues to impress.

“If you didn’t know she started wrestling last year, you wouldn’t believe it,” Outland said. “She’s come a long, long ways in a couple years and does a lot of things really well.”

Seventh-grader Cordelia Hofer (125) also gained invaluable state tournament experience.

“Honestly, I think qualifying for her was kind of her big accomplishment for the year,” Outland said. “Getting here, seeing the bright lights, seeing what the competition looks like, that’s only going to get her excited for next year and the years to come.”

The Lady Lynx placed 13th overall and will graduate just one state lineup competitor in Hamner.

“We’ve got six placers who are all coming back,” Outland said. “Three of those are seniors, but three of those are awfully young.”

He believes the state tourney weekend was about something bigger than placement.

“I would say this was an awful lot about fulfilling their potential,” Outland said. “We’ve been telling them all year long that this team had great potential, that we really believed in them, even when nobody else did. When you look at how the seedings went, we knew these girls had it in them.”

“We’ve got a long way to go yet, make no bones about that,” he said. “But more and more girls are getting excited about the sport, and we’ve got a great core group, and they’re going to keep working hard and hopefully keep climbing that ladder.”

SD State Girls Wrestling Tournament

Feb. 26-28 • Sioux Falls

Top 20 team scores: 1.) Canton, 169; 2.) Watertown, 131.5; 3.) Spearfish, 104; 4.) Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon, 94.5; 5.) Madison, 90; 6.) Lemmon, 84; 7.) Aberdeen Central, 81.5; 8.) Rapid City Central, 79.5; 9.) Hot Springs, 73; 10.) Sturgis Brown, 72; 11.) Pierre T.F. Riggs, 66.5; 12.) Harrisburg, 58; 13.) Brandon Valley, 55; 14.) Clark/Willow Lake, 50; T15.) Brookings & Rapid City Stevens, 46; 17.) Custer, 39.5; 18.) Sioux Valley, 36; 19.) Sully Buttes, 32.5; 20.) McCook Central/Montrose, 32; 21.) Lead-Deadwood 30; 22.) Kingsbury County, 28; 23.) Yankton, 27.5;24.) Vermillion, 27; 25.) Todd Co./White River, 25; 26.) Sioux Falls Jefferson, 24; T27.) Lennox & Stanley Co., 2.5; T29.) Belle Fourche, Groton Area Huron, Viborg-Hurley, 22. 

Lady Lynx results

100: Ella Coomes (Mad) p. Rinoah Gabriel (BV), 1:13; Aliyah Stevenson (Tea) p. Gabriel, 2:25.

105: Shaylee Arredondo (BV) dec. Savannah Rondell (RCC), 9-1; Liza Krueger (Grot) dec. Arredondo, 7-0; Arredondo p. Londyn Allen-Hunsaker (STCO), 2:14; Vanessa Anderson (Wat) p. Arredondo, 1:48; Seventh place: Arredondo p. Sydney Caven, 2:44.

110: Gracie Peters (BV) dec. M. Jacobs (RCC), 11-7; Peters dec. Chalie Sah (Hur), 3-1; Madison Little (AC) dec. Peters, 4-1; Mataya Jacobs (RCC) p. Peters, 3:41; Fifth place: Kaia Hunter (BC) dec. Peters, 3-1.

120: Olivia Anderson (Wat) p. Leah Nelson (BV), 1:37; Nelson md. Brandy Marshall (ITech), 10-1; Nelon wins by forfeit over Alexis Brenan (Yan); Brooklyn Smith (RCS) dec. Nelson, 4-0; Seventh place: Danny Borja (Mit) p. Nelson, 3:34.

125: Kami Erickson (Brk) p. Cordelia Hofer (BV), 0:50; Addie Sander (Cust) p. Hofer, 2:21.

130: Brenna Reker (BV) dec. Jocelyn Thoms (Len), 5-0; Regina Stoeser (Har) p. Reker, 0:50; Reker p. Mohrgan Werdel (M/H-H), 4:03; Sophie Knittel (IPS) md. Reker, 11-2; Seventh place: Reker p. J. Thoms (Len), 6:26(OT).

135: Kendall Clayton (BV) tf. Dora Bonen (MOPO), 17-2 (5:19); Lexie Hillmer (Pie) p. Clayton, 5:53; Clayton tf. Ragan Peacock (Har), 15-0 (1:21); Naomi Miller (CWL) dec. Clayton, 2-0; Seventh place: Clayton dec. Hailey Fortney (WC), 11-6.

170: Rhiannen Heimdal (Har) p. Lilian Hamner, 0:57; Hamner p. Nevaeh Schanbeck (Wat), 2:47; Sophia Larsen (Can) p. Hamner, 2:25.

190: Marlee Heltzel (Spear) p. Sally Beal (BV), 5:05; Beal p. Rayna Miller (V-H), 2:49; Beal p. Murielle Hagen (STBR), 4:49; Beal md. Josie Becker (DR), 15-4; Jessica Mike (Cust) p. Beal, 2:52; Fifth place: Hope Kemnitz (BH/S/A), 4:30.