Arrow boys, girls grapplers each can take plenty of good memories from the 2023-24 season

Not everything went perfect for Watertown High School's boys and girls wrestling teams in 2023-24, but it's still safe to say they enjoyed successful seasons.

The Arrow boys went 12-5 overall and 5-3 in Eastern South Dakota Conference duals and placed second (duals) and eighth (individual) in state Class AA wrestling tournaments.

In only their second year, the Arrow girls went 9-4 duals and moved up two spots for a sixth-place finish in the state girls tourney.

Here's a look at the season for each team:

Some returning stars, mixed with newcomers for boys

The Arrow boys, under the direction of head coach Chas Welch and assistants Aaron Atlhoff and Scott Stone, mixed a group of returning standouts with a number of newcomers to the varsity.

"We definitely got some new faces into the lineup this year and they got a chance to see what being a varsity wrestler is all about," Welch said. "That should only help us in the future, getting some good experience for the younger kids. They'll continue to work hard and get us back to the top. That's our perennial goal."

They weren't able to win the ESD dual championship and their eighth-place finish in the indivdiual tourney at state came after four consecutive top-four finishes including a runner-up finish in 2023.

Watertown won team titles in the Sioux Falls Washington Warrior Invite and Sioux Falls Lincoln Floyd Farrand Invite in December and took second in the Marv Sherrill Dual Tournament, third in the both Bismarck (N.D.) Rotary Invite and Lee Wolf Invite at Aberdeen and fourth in the Bishop Heelan Invite at Sioux City (Iowa) and the Yankton Invite.

A highlight from Watertown came during the second weekend in February when they knocked off third-seeded Rapid City Stevens 43-21 and second-seeded Pierre 38-29 in the state Class A dual team tournament before falling to top-seeded Sturgis 55-13 in the championship.

"State duals was a weekend where our whole team wrestled up to its capability," Welch said. "When we did that, we were an awfully good team."

The following week, Watertown's bid for a fifth-straight Region 1A title ended with third-place finish. The Arrows closed out season the next weekend in the state individual tournament at Sioux Falls.

Srate Individual Wrestling: Area wrestlers bring home four titles, eight runner-up finishes in three-day state tourney

The girls keep getting better and better

Girls wrestling throughout the nation is thriving and it's the same in South Dakota.

In only their second year, Watertown became one of the best girls' programs in the state under head coach Dexter Gaikowski and assistants Nate Atlhoff and Nick O'Connor.

The Arrows won the Yankton Girls Invite and took second in the Floyd Farrand Invite, third in both the Battle for the Paddle and the Eastern South Dakota Conference tournamennt, fourth in the Bismarck Rotary and Lee Wolf Invite and fifth in the Rapid City Invite.

Watertown also went 9-4 in duals, including 1-2 on the way to a sixth-place finish in the Unofficial State Girls Dual Tournament.

"The girls took a big leap, there's no doubt about that," Welch said. "Dexter has a room full of young ladies who worked really hard and that was very evident in the results.

State Dual Wrestling: Watertown boys second in state Class A dual tourney

Top wrestlers for the Arrow boys

Freshman Gage Lohr went 47-0 with 22 falls and won his second-straight Class A individual state championship at 120 pounds, joining senior Sloan Johannsen (46-2 with 25 falls, second at 126), junior Micah Hach (47-2 with 40 falls, second at 285) and senior Brock Eitreim (31-9 and fourth at 190) as state place winners.

Freshman Chase Mathews (31-19 at 106), junior Leo Stroup (27-18 at 138), senior Tucker Urdahl (29-21 at 165) and junior Ethan Wientjes (18-30 at 215) were other state qualifiers.

Other regulars included freshman Max Stroup (17-22 at 113), senior Derek Hanson (25-13 at 132), sophomore Cooper Kettwig (14-19 at 144), sophomore Markus Pitkin (29-15 at 150), freshman Landen Lewis (23-6 at 157) and senior Andrew Stricker (12-26 at 175). An injury kept Pitkin out of the region and state tournaments.

Johannsen, Eitreim, Hanson, Urdahl and Stricker all graduate. Johannsen ended his career as one of the top wrestlers in the history of the program. His came up one match short of becoming only the second wrestler in school history to win four state championships and surpassed Sawyer Hoffman as the program's all-time career wins leader with a 181-3 record. Eitreim also was a four-time state place winner.

"Sloan had an incredible career," Welch said. "Our senior class got a lot of wins for us over the years and it's always tough to see them go. These seniors just worked extremely hard and have a lot of good memories of their high school careers."

Top wrestlers for the Arrow girls

Watertown had 12 girls wrestle at the varsity level in 2022-23 and that number grew to 16 this year, with seven of those qualifying for the state tournament.

Eighth-grader Olivia Anderson (46-2 at 100) and sophomore Allison Konrad (43-3 at 185) each made bids to become the first Watertown girl wrestler to win a state title before finishing as runner-ups.

Freshman Eden Hach (31-10) place fifth at 250, seventh-grader Brooklyn Randall (31-15) sixth at 107 and junior April Peterson (29-14) seventh at 152.

Sophomore Katelyn Yexley (30-16 at 138) and seventh-grader Nevaeh Schanbeck (10-28 at 145) also qualified for state.

Other Arrows included seventh-grader Vanessa Anderson (15-13 at 100), seventh-grader Logan Schell (7-12 at 100), senior Kaitlynn Payne (4-21 at 107), freshman Audrey Mack (17-21 at 114), senior Hayden Thomas (22-19 at 120), freshman Avah Grismer (8-23 at 126), junior Josie Althoff (0-18 at 126), junior Jeryn Fieber (4-21 at 132) and sophomore Emma Wientjes (4-20 at 165).

Season Summary Page 1: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478613-stats-report-23-24-season-summary?responsive=1&title=1

Season Summary Page 2: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478614-stats-report-page-2?responsive=1&title=1

Season Summary Page 3: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478615-stats-report-page-3?responsive=1&title=1

Season Summary Page 4: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24478616-stats-report-page-4?responsive=1&title=1

Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Season recap for Watertown High School's wrestling teams