REGION 2B WRESTLING RETURNS TO FREEMAN SATURDAY
JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER
Between teams, team personnel and fans, as many as 1,500 people are expected to pack the Freeman High School gym this coming Saturday, Feb. 19 as the local school district hosts the Region 2B Wrestling Tournament for the third time since 2014. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. sharp with action beginning at 9:30 a.m.
The finals are expected to be underway by 5 p.m.
“Wrestling packs it out,” said Marion/Freeman head coach Chris Sayler, who will watch his Rebels compete alongside — and against — grapplers from 10 other teams in the day-long tournament that will reward the top four finishers in each weight class with a spot in the state tournament in Sioux Falls Feb. 24-26.
In addition to the top four, the fifth-place finisher in each division is thrown into a pool that includes counterparts from the other regions, and the highest seeded wrestler steps in as a wild card at state should the qualifier either not make weight or get injured.
This is the third year the state has used a wild card option.
Marion/Freeman is scheduled to have eight wrestlers compete, with five of them expected to be seeded. That’s what you want, said the coach.
“You don’t want to get thrown in the mix; you don’t want to get blindly drawn in,” he said. “You want to get that seed so you’re in the right spot in the bracket to be a good position. If you’re not seeded you might have a fight on your hands; you might draw the No. 1 seed, where your back is against the wall.
The Rebels’ lineup, year in school and possible seedings for Saturday is as follows: n rody Gossen (7) at 106 (top 6 seed)
n osh Popkes (7) at 113
n eaton Prehiem (9) at 120 (top 5 seed)
n inley McConniel (9) at 126
n iley Tschetter (8) at 132 (2 seed)
n ac Sayler (11) at 145
n wen Eitmiller (11) at 152 (top 4 seed)
n im Epp (12) at 160 (top 5 seed)
Of those eight, only Tschetter has state tournament experience. Today ranked 10th in the state, he qualified for the big show as a seventh grader a year ago and is again wrestling at a high level.
“You look at the kids who are in there and it’s all juniors and seniors, and he’s an eighth grader,” said the coach. “So it’s pretty cool seeing that.”
Sayler is hoping other rise to the occasion in what will be the biggest meet of the season.
“I’m hoping that we can turn some things around,” he said. “We’ve been kind of flat the past couple of weeks; that’s just the grind of the season. We’ve had some good times and some tough times, and right now we’re going through some tough times, but we wrestled pretty well the other night in Salem.
“I preach all the time that we’ve got to have that sense of urgency; we’ve got to be scoring points and fighting and scratching and clawing — whatever we need to do to earn every point.”
It should be noted that this is the second year for sanctioned girls wrestling, but the girls will not compete at the region tournaments. State qualifiers will be chosen based on in-season performances and are not distinguished between Class A and Class B, but rather thrown into one group.
The state will look at the top 16 girls in each weight class to determine the tournament field, and Sayler believes Marion freshman Emma McConniel (who is wrestling alongside sophomore Sarah Cremer and freshman Madison Crooks) has a good shot at getting in.
“She’s looking the best,” he said, noting that McConniel knocked off a ranked wrestler from Aberdeen at Harrisburg last week. “That was really neat to see so hopefully she gets in. That would be big.”
Host team
Saturday’s big event in Freeman requires careful planning and organization from Sayler, Freeman Public Athletic Director Kristina Sage and Rick Weber of Flandreau — the Region 2B chair.
“It takes a lot of people,” said Sayler. “There are things that Kristi and I have to do, but a lot of the work is done by Rick Weber. He lines up workers for Track Wrestling and other background stuff. We’re more responsible for table workers, gate, concessions, things like that.
“It’s a joint effort. The chair has his job and the host has theirs.”
Sayler said the fact that the region tournament is returning to Freeman for the third time in eight seasons — and the second in the past three — is testament to the quality facility Freeman Public has.
“The first time we had it here people were very impressed,” he said. “Some of those schools never come here and they had a lot of good things to say. We’ve got a big enough layout, great parking, plenty of locker rooms — just overall a nice facility.”
But things have changed slightly since Freeman last hosted in 2019.
A makeover of the gym resulted in the loss of about 120 seats and the spacious mezzanine is more crowded now because of the weight facility that occupies the majority of the space.
“So there have been some changes to our gym since the last time we had it,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
In addition to Marion/Freeman, Region 2B includes Canton, Chester Area, Elk Point-Jefferson, Flandreau, Garretson, Howard, McCook Central/Montrose, Parker, Tri-Valley and Viborg-Hurley/Irene-Wakonda.
