Custer County Chronicle

’Cats lose heartbreaker to Christian

Published by admin on Wed, 02/05/2025 - 9:41am

In a game that saw the score go up by as much as seven points, the Custer High School basketball team faltered down the stretch in what to date was the team’s biggest game of the season as it fell to Rapid City Christian 69-65 Jan. 28 at Hart Ranch.
“As I look through the stats, I’m wondering how we lost that game,” Custer head coach Paul Kelley said. “There are two that stand out: number one is turnovers—over half came in the first half. The other was they shot 19 more free throws than we did.”

Wildcat girls stun Christian, fall to St. Thomas More

Published by admin on Wed, 02/05/2025 - 9:40am

After a season of close calls that continued to fall in favor of their opponent, lady luck finally shone upon the Custer High School girls basketball team last Tuesday.
Actually, little luck was involved. It was more fight and determination, as the Wildcats outscored the Rapid City Christian Comets 22-14 in the final frame to roar back from a game-long deficit and steal a 55-53 win over the Comets at Hart Ranch.
To say head coach Tayton Vincent was happy his team was finally able to pull out a close game after so many near misses is an understatement.

Wildcats thump Chadron, hang on against Wall

Published by admin on Wed, 01/29/2025 - 5:39pm

Heading into last Saturday afternoon’s game against the visiting Wall Eagles, Custer High School boys basketball head coach Paul Kelley knew the Eagles would rely heavily on bombing away from the three-point line.
Boy, did they ever.
The Eagles made 11 three-pointers—six from Emmet Dinger—to give the Wildcats all they wanted and then some in the ’Cats’ 66-58 win.

Boys fifth at Winner Invite, Weiss shatters win record

Published by admin on Wed, 01/29/2025 - 5:38pm

The Custer boys wrestling team headed east to Winner last week, encountering some newer East River competition in the mix with familiar West River wrestlers. The team came away with mixed results with plenty of both wins and losses. Many did not place, but those who did placed highly, and a big highlight for the team was in celebrating Tray Weiss breaking a Custer High School record for most career wins in wrestling. With 236 career wins, Weiss has now overtaken head coach Jared Webster’s previous record of 233.

Girls team loses pair of home games

Published by admin on Wed, 01/29/2025 - 5:37pm

Close, but no cigar.
What has been seemingly a season-long recurring theme reoccured last Saturday afternoon in the Armory, as the Custer High School girls basketball team played well enough to win but made just enough mistakes to lose another close game, this time to the visiting Wall Eagles by a score of 52-45.
If keeping games close provided seeding points, the Wildcats would likely sit near the top of the Class A standings.

Hite wins another championship for girls

Published by admin on Wed, 01/29/2025 - 5:33pm

The Custer High School Wildcat girl grapplers headed to the state’s capital of Pierre last week to compete in the Governor Girls Invite, with many coming away with high placements at the meet. The tournament is one of the largest girls tournaments of the season, and the team encountered competition from schools of all sizes across the state.
At 100 pounds Kiera Thorp did not place but contributed three points with a win over Beresford’s Aubrey Braaten in 49 seconds.
As for team points, the Wildcats scored 84 points to be fifth out of 37 total teams at the tournament.  

Wildcat boys finish third at conference meet

Published by admin on Wed, 01/22/2025 - 10:02am

The Custer High School boys wrestling team travelled to Philip and to Hill City this week to compete in the Philip Invitational on Friday and the Black Hills Conference on Saturday.
At the conference meet the boys earned third place with 133 points, coming in behind winners Belle Fourche with 169.5 points and Douglas-Rapid City Christian-New Underwood with 160.5 points.
Individually, several wrestlers earned a spot on the podium at the meet.

Wildcat girls finish in second place

Published by admin on Wed, 01/22/2025 - 10:01am

The Custer High School girls wrestling competed in the Black Hills Conference meet in Hill City this past weekend, coming in at second place behind Spearfish.
“On the team side, I thought the girls did really well. We were extremely lucky in our draws. We had a lot of first round matches, and kind of came out on fire. We knew Spearfish was going to be really hard to catch,” said girls coach Clayton Sander.

Wildcats thump Crusaders, fall to Cavaliers

Published by admin on Wed, 01/22/2025 - 9:59am

Don’t let one loss turn into two.
That was the mantra last  Friday night at the Custer Armory as the Custer High School basketball team looked to turn the page on a bitterly disappointing loss to St. Thomas More the previous night. The Wildcats did just that, jumping out to a large early lead and cruising to a 65-35 win over the visiting Maȟpíya Lúta Crusaders.

Girls get back in win column

Published by admin on Wed, 01/15/2025 - 3:13pm

The Custer High School girls basketball team put an end to a six-game losing streak last Saturday in Newcastle, Wyo., blasting the Dogies 51-14.
The Wildcats trailed 8-6 at the end of the first quarter but dominated the rest of the game, as the Dogies only scored six points the rest of the game—two in each of the final three quarters. Custer exploded for 26 points in the second quarter alone.