BY MIKE CARROLL
OF THE PLAINSMAN
HURON — With 10 individual placewinners, including an individual champion in Matt Katz at 170 pounds, the Huron wrestling team finished fourth during the Huron Invitational, which was held Saturday at Huron Arena.
Winner amassed 215.5 points to win the 11-team event, while Minneota (Minn.) was second at 171. Aberdeen Central was third at 154, followed by Huron at 139 and Wessington Springs/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington at 130 to round out the top five.
Clark-Willow Lake was seventh at 102.5.
“As a coach and competitor, you always want to win everything you do. Fourth place is not bad,” said Huron coach Dan McCarty. “We still have some injuries and missing kids, so it would be nice to see us at full strength, what we could’ve done. “Unfortunately it didn’t happen, but the kids that wrestled hard overall I guess we did pretty well,” he said.
Katz earned the title at 170 for the Tigers with a move in the final seconds of the championship match to get past Landon Werdel of Clark-Willow Lake with 7-3 decision.
“He keeps improving. We’ve been watching him in the practice room and been waiting for results like this and we finally got to see it,” McCarty said of the effort by Katz. “He’s such a hard worker in the practice room and it is like he finally made the transition from the practice room on to the stage.

“I thought Matt just did a fantastic job. He just kept going, going and going,” he said. “He gave up a stalling point in the third period, but he didn’t let it frustrate him. He got his opportunity and he put the kid on his back.”
Chipper Shillingstad was second for Huron at 138, while Carlos Yanes at 145 and Tyson Lien at 152 were third.
“Tyson wrestled a really good kid from Winner in the semifinals at gets beat 2-0, but he almost had back points as time was running and just didn’t quite get it,” McCarty said. “Tyson just has the mentallity that I am not getting beat. He’s just a fierce competitor and kept wrestling to win the match for third place.”
Jaren Sammons at 113 and Sebastian Cardona at 285 were fourth for Huron, while Will Radke at 113, Gabe Rieger at 182 and Tristan Cardona at 220 were fifth. Rounding out the list of placewinners for the Tigers was Daynon Huber, who was sixth at 145.
Wessington Springs/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington had eight placewinners, including Keegan Haider, who claimed the championship at 113.
Keegan Haider used a 4-1 decision against Cruz Dyer of Yankton to win the title.
Tate Haider was third for WS/W/W-W at 138, while Joey Hoverson at 106 and Carter Grohs at 132 were fourth.
Camden Jost at 145 and Landon Wolter at 152 were fifth for Wessington Springs/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington, while Rylie Stevens at 195 and Henry Eichstad at 285 were sixth.
Three wrestlers from Clark-Willow Lake reached championship matches during Saturday’s invitational.
Caleb Orris claimed a title for the Cyclones at 182, while Gage Burke at 152 and Werdel at 170 were second.
Orris capped the day by pinning Josh Crownover of Bon Homme/Scotland/Avon at the 4:36 mark of the championship match.
Ethan McElhome at 126 and Brandan Gehrke at 160 were fifth for Clark-Willow Lake, while Gunnar Kvistad at 106 and Lucas Kannegieter at 120 were sixth.
Saturday’s invitational wrapped up the regular season for both the Class A and B teams.
Huron will host the Region 3A Tournament at 10 a.m. Saturday at Huron Arena. Wessington Springs/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington will be at the Region 3B Tournament in Parkston at 10 a.m. on Saturday, while Clark-Willow Lake will be at the Region 1B Tournament at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Redfield.