TSCHETTER FINISHES 7TH AT 132 LBS.
JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER
Riley Tschetter went to state to win, and win he did — not once, not twice, but three teams. The result? Seventh place for an eighth grader who was among the youngest medal-winners there.
Competing in his second State Wrestling Tournament at the Denny Sanford Premeir Center in Sioux Falls last Thursday and Friday, Feb. 24 and 25, Tschetter finished 3-2 in the 132 lb. weight class and won key matches en route to his spot on the podium.
He won in his opening-round match by riding out Lyman sophomore Kellen Griffith to claim a 4-3 decision, lost in the quarterfinals to Burke/Gregory junior Owen Hansen — who would go on to win his second-straight state title — and then got to the medal round with a 5-3 decision over Garretson junior Preston Bohl in a win-or-go-home match.
Tschetter could have ended up wrestling for third place on Friday, but he would have had to win his first two matches of the day. Instead, he was pinned by Faulkton Area senior Parker Geditz that morning and found himself wrestling for seventh against Deuel sophomore Jaxon Quail — and winning. After a scoreless first period, Tschetter went up 1-0 on an escape in the second and then sealed the deal by winning three more points on a near fall late in the match to give him the 4-0 decision.
“It was all there,” head coach Chris Sayler said about Tschetter’s effort in that seventh-place match, which could also be used to summarize his entire showing in Sioux Falls. “He wrestled five minutes hard; he pretty much controlled the entire match. Even when (Quail) got in a good shot, he fought him off and came out of a scramble situation. Nothing to complain about.
“Anything to win,” Tschetter said of his mentality going into his matches. “I just went out, worked hard and tried to get used to wrestling in that atmosphere.”
And that atmosphere? Tschetter loved it.
“It was just an overall great experience,” he said. “It’s great to wrestle in that environment with lots of people. I was just hoping to get my first state win. Everything else was just extra.”
Sayler wasn’t surprised by Tschetter’s success last week.
“He’s just a hard worker — up in the weight room every morning at 5:30,” said the coach. “Even on days we wrestle, he’s up there, and he’ll be up in the weight room again on Monday at 5:30 getting back to work.
“That’s what makes him a great athlete, and he’s a multi-sport athlete; he doesn’t focus on one thing,” Sayler continues. “Now he’s going to move on to baseball and from baseball to football and then back to wrestling. He just goes from sport to sport.”
Tschetter wasn’t the only grappler to represent Marion/Freeman at state. Menno junior Owen Eitemiller competed in the 152 lb. division and Marion freshman Emma McConniel made history as the first female to represent the Rebels at the state tournament.
The 2021-22 season was the second-ever for SDHSAA-sanctioned female wrestling.
“It was great,” Sayer said of McConniel, who lost her first match by fall after battling the stomach bug the night before, came back to pin her consolation-round opponent, but was then eliminated in the second-round consolation. “I was hoping we could kill two birds with one stone and get, not just our first qualifier, but our first girls place-winner right away. But we’re going to go back after it next year. I expect big things out of her.”
The same holds true of Eitemiller, who lost both his matches by a combined score of 9-4.
“We got the draw we wanted to,” Sayler said of Eitemiller’s opening-round match against Clark/Willow Lake senior Gunner Kvistad, whom he wrestled to a single point during the regular season. “We just wrestled tight and didn’t open up enough and go after some shots that we should have.
“He’s got one more year,” the coach continued. “He’s been here now, so the expectations are going to be higher next year. Expectations are going to be on the podium.”
