The evening of Friday March 27th saw many awards for the Bronc wrestlers.
5 athletes earned their first time Varsity letters with wrestling emblems, 2 athletes earning their first Varsity letter in wrestling while already having earned a letter in another sport, therefore receiving their first wrestling emblem for their letter, and 13 athletes earning bars to place under their emblems on their letters.
Bars are earned in subsequent years of Varsity lettering after initially earning your sport’s emblem. Athletes earning their letter and emblem were Preston Lake, Jaxon Linch, Jace Olson, Dillon Streeter, Charlie Huston and manager McKenzie Ewalt.
Those earning their emblems for wrestling after lettering in a previous sport were, AnnaBelle Dighton and Jasmine Reason. Those earning bar one were, Teedin Humble, Dylan Park, Caden Swaney, Kolby Tibbs, and manager Ambree Kirstine.
Athletes earning bar 2 were Spencer Bush-Graslie and Koby Bowden. Four athletes received their 4th bar, Garet Huston, Riley Dighton, Lucas Tonsager and Kyra Vandenberg.
Two athletes, Riley Dighton and Dylan Park, earned Academic All-State by being a Senior athlete who participated for at least 3 years and maintained a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
As a team, both the boys and girls teams earned South Dakota High School Athletic Association Academic Achievement awards, which requires 3.0 GPAs as a group.
The boys earned a 3.12 team GPA and the girls earned a 3.27 team GPA. Three athletes earned Black Hills Conference All-Conference for a championship title at the Black Hills Conference meet, Riley Dighton, Lucas Tonsager and Kyra Vandenberg.
Three athletes earned a sweatshirt for 20 pins or more in the season, Caden Swaney with 20 pins on the season, Riley Dighton with 27 pins on the season, and Kyra Vandenberg with 29 pins on the season.
Team awards were as follows: Men’s Wrestler of the Year–Riley Dighton, Women’s Wrestler of the Year–Kyra Vandenberg, Men’s Underclassmen of the Year–Jace Olson, Woman’s Underclassmen of the Year- AnnaBelle Dighton, Men’s Most Improved Wrestler–Caden Swaney, Women’s Most Improved Wrestler- AnnaBelle Dighton, Men’s Grit Wrestler of the Year–Caden Swaney, Women’s Grit Wrestler of the Year- Jasmine Reason.
Most team points earned for the men was Riley Dighton with 218 points and most team points earned for the women was Kyra Vandenberg with 232. Most takedowns for the men’s team was Caden Swaney with 90 and for the women was Kyra Vandenberg with 79. Most match points for the men’s team was Caden Swaney with 442 and for the women, Kyra Vandenberg with 423.
Coach Cory Nueharth thanked the managers, Ambree Kirstine and McKenzie Ewalt, for their dedication to the team over the season, as well as families, businesses in the community who helped with donating items and providing venues.
And the high school athletic department and booster club, the AAU and Grappler clubs and other individuals who helped out throughout the season to help make it a success.
He mentions upcoming off-season opportunities for workouts, open mats and competitions to help the team out for future success. Nice work on a great season Bronc wrestlers!
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