Wildcats place in top 15 at Rapid City Invitational

There was a time in his early years as head coach of the Custer High School wrestling team when Jared Webster hoped to get a single Wildcat wrestler through to the second day of the Rapid City Invitational wrestling tournament.
That is no longer the case.
Three Wildcats wrestlers placed and the Wildcats finished in 13th place as a team at the two-day meet that is undoubtedly one of the toughest the Wildcats will wrestle in all season.
“They are up there where I thought they would be,” Webster said of his Wildcat wrestlers. “We saw great results out of them. There were a couple of close matches that could have gone either way. We had quite a few who placed for us so I can’t complain about that.”
The teams that placed in front of Custer in the tournament, which features schools of all classes from four states, is a who’s who of regional wrestling. Among those teams are Pierre, Sturgis, Rapid City Stevens, Winner Area, Philip Area and Rapid City Stevens.
Making the team’s finish even more impressive is the fact that the team didn’t field a full lineup, as some of its varsity grapplers were absent from the meet due to sickness or ACT testing.
The Wildcats got their best finish from Tray Weiss, who wrestled his way to a fourth place finish at 113 pounds.
Weiss won his first two matches by pinfall and major decision before losing a 7-3 decision to eventual tournament champion Isaiah Sisneros of Lakewood, Colo.
Weiss then won a pair of major decisions and scored a pinfall over Toryn Zebroski of Sturgis before losing a close 3-2 decision to Alex Oedekoven of Pierre when Oedekoven scored a late reversal.
Tyler Trant picked up a fifth place finish for the Wildcats at 106 pounds, rebounding from a 17-0 technical fall loss in the opening round to win four straight matches (three by pinfall) before losing to Korbin Bunch of Sturgis in the consolation semifinals. From there Trant defeated Max Schoenhard of Rapid City Stevens via a 3-0 decision to secure fifth place.
Jonathan Lewis placed fifth at 170 pounds, scoring a pin and two decisions in his first three matches before losing a decision to defending state champion Burk Blasius of Winner Area.
Lewis then lost a tough ultimate tie breaker (triple overtime) match to Riley Orel of Winner Area before winning his fifth place match by forfeit.
Parker Noem was the final placewinner for Custer, finishing in eighth place. Noem won his first two matches via decision and pinfall before losing a 9-5 decision to Sheridan’s Colson Coon.
Noem came back from that loss by scoring a technical fall over Philip Area’s Quinn Moon 15-0 before forfeiting his final two matches due to injury.
Webster said Noem is nursing some “nicks” and will be just fine.
“We don’t want to cause any more injuries,” Webster said.
The Wildcats have a busy schedule ahead of them this week, starting with a 5 p.m. triangular in Lead Thursday that includes Belle Fourche.
On Friday the team will head to Hot Springs for duals agains the host Bison, Miller-Highmore and Lyman. Those matches begin at 1 p.m.
Finally, the team will head back to Hot Springs Saturday for the Hot Springs Extravaganza tournament, which begins at 1 p.m.
“I like to get them on the mat as much as we can,” Webster said.