Standout seeking to become only the second Arrow wrestler ever to win four state Class A titles
Sloan Johannsen's date with destiny is rapidly approaching.
It'd be a fitting end of a prep career for the Watertown High School senior who is looking to become only the second wrestler in the history of the storied Arrow program to capture four state Class A individual championships.
A fourth state title would put him in elite company, joining 16 Class B and eight other Class A wrestlers who have accomplished the feat (four titles or more) since South Dakota crowned its first state wrestling high school champions in 1960. Another championship would complete Johannsen's bid to join Rick Jensen (1971-74) as the lone four-time champions in WHS history.
"Honestly, it's been a goal of mine for a long time. It kind of all started back in middle school when I was training with the Legends of Gold club in Beresford. My main goal was always to be a state champion, Every wrestler wants to be a state champion.
"When I was there, Adam Allard (Iowa), Dakota Galt (Beresford) and Kellyn March (Canton) were also training there and they were all going for four state titles. My coach helped me realize that there's a chance to win more than just one state title."
Where Do We Begin?
Before we talk more about all of Johannsen's high school wrestling accomplishments, which are mind-boggling, let's take a journey back to the beginning.
The son of Darin and Amanda Johannsen, Sloan was introduced to the sport at a young age through the urging of his father, who was a pretty-talented wrestler in the early 1990s at Clark High School. His high school wrestling highlight came as a junior in 1990 when he placed third in Class B at 103 pounds. He was No. 1-rated as a senior before being eliminated on the first day of the state tourney.
Sloan was 4 when he first hit the mat with the Watertown Wrestling Booster Club. There were no instant indications of what the future held.
"No, I didn't," Sloan said when asked if winning came naturally. "That first year I went to six tournaments and I think I won only two matches the whole year. I don't think I won a tournament until I was in the fourth grade and I didn't really have success until I was a sixth-grader."
The success meter has kept going up since then, even if the path took an unusual turn.
Johannsen weighed only 85 pounds after completing his eighth-grade year of school in Watertown and unless he had a somewhat notable growth spurt wouldn't have been even eligible (at the time, there was a minimum weight requirement for wrestlers to be allowed to wrestle at the smallest weight, 106 pounds). Sloan's parents approached the Watertown School District about holding him back and re-taking the eighth grade. One issue is that Sloan was such a good student (4.0 grade-point average).
The next fall, he was again an eighth-grader at Beresford and trained at the Legends of Gold.
"I had been asking for awhile to go to Legends of Gold, but my parents were a little reluctant to send their only child away as an eighth-grader," Sloan said.
He returned to Watertown and entered Watertown High School in the fall of 2020.
More: Roger Merriam's 20 Favorites series segment takes a look at Watertown High School wrestling
Winning titles not as easy as 1-2-3
What the year in Beresford did, for sure, anyway was that it gave Johannsen the opportunity to win four state championships. Something that wouldn't have happened if the weight-limit rule would have kept him off the mat in 2019-20.
It didn't take long for the Arrows, under the guidance of head coach Chas Welch, to realize they had something.
"From the moment Sloan stepped on the mat, he's had a purpose and has been one of the hardest workers in the room from the very beginning," Welch said. "It was very clear he had a goal in mind and he worked extremly hard to try to make that happen."
Sloan won the first three matches of his prep career before suffering a 7-1 setback to Aberdeen Central's Rayden Zens on Dec. 5, 2020 during a dual team tournament in the Watertown Civic Arena.
Johannsen didn't lose again in the 2020-21 season, or the 2021-22 season, or the 2022-23 season. He entered his senior year in late November with a 135-1 career record that included a 132-match winning streak.
His first state title came at 106 pounds in 2021, the second at 113 in 2022 and the third at 120 last February.
"I was feeling a lot of pressure, I still am. Last year, this year. I don't want to say it's progessively gotten worse because pressure is a privilege," Sloan said. "But I do feel the expectation to perform. The bullseye is always getting bigger along with the target on your back. I feel that part of wrestling, part of any sport, is being able to take that pressure and still perform with that pressure on your back."
Another loss becomes added motivation
Last week, I had to apologize to Sloan for calling him to start preparing for this story that had been in the works since last February, maybe even since he started wrestling for the Arrows.
The interview came only a handful of days after he suffered only the second loss of his career (and the second one to Zens) when he lost on a late reversal in the 126-pound championship at the Bismarck (N.D.) Rotary Tournament.
Johannsen led 5-4 and had Zens in what he felt was a pinning combination when the referee called a stalemate.
"I was obviously down and flustered. I made a mistake and he made the perfect counter to the mistake I made," Sloan said. "He's a good wrestler. He's a scrapper who is very strong and he likes to get very physical in matches."
Zens and Johannsen both were at 106 pounds in 2020-21 and are back in the same weight class for the first time this winter. They have wrestled many times and Johannsen holds a big advantage, including a win earlier this year at the Rapid City Invitational. Still, Zens is currently No. 1-ranked in the class and obviously wouldn't mind standing in the way of Johannsen's bid for history.
Still, Johannsen (25-1 on the season after a win Thursday at Milbank) is determined to turn the loss into something positive.
"It was kind of a kick in the butt, a reminder that this isn't guaranteed. I knew it never was, but it was more of a reality check for me," Sloan said. "I felt like I've put a lot of pressure on myself because of the win streak but people aren't going to remember that. It's been kind of mental switch for me. I can't get that win streak back so I'm back to the one goal and that's being a four-time state champion."
Helping Watertown's program return to the top
Johannsen rebounded from the loss with a win in an Eastern South Dakota Conference dual at Pierre last week that ended in a loss for the Arrows, but still hasn't wiped out the squad's bid to challenge for championships in both the state Class AA dual tournament and Class AA individual tournament.
The dual tourney, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 10 at Brookings, is being held separate from the individual state tournament (Feb. 22-24 at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls).
"We just have a young team, but we're still putting up results," Sloan said.
The Arrows, who share the state Class A record for most state team championships with 10, have qualified for the state dual tourament each of the past four years (taking second once and reaching the semifinals twice) and have been fourth or better in each of the individual tourney, including a runner-up finish last winter. It was Watertown's best finish since winning the 2003 state title, part of a stretch from 1992-2003 that included five state titles and three runner-up finishes.
Johannsen's played a role in the program's recent revival. Before he arrived, the Arrows had only one indivdiual state champion since 2013 (Ty Althoff in 2020).
"You always hear about elite wrestlers and talk about them living the lifestyle the right way, from nutrition to school and all that," Welch said. "Sloan is certainly a great example of living the way you want to work toward what you want.
"He's elite and very technically sound on his feet as well as the mat, both on the top and the bottom. A lot of it is him having the commitment to have a lot of different ways to score. He can wrestle out of a lot of sports because he never quits moving."
Welch is quick to point that wrestlers like Johannsen do wonders for program. He's not alone with the current Arrows. The cast includes Gage Lohr, a defending state champion who is 22-0 at 120 and has (just saying) a chance to become a five-time state champion; junior 285-pounder Micah Hach, a defending runner-up who is 20-1 with his only loss coming to Brandon Valley's Navarro Schunke (who has chance to become the first five-time Class A champ in state history); and senior Brock Eitreim (13-3 at 195), a three-time state place winner who placed third in the state last winter.
"It's a good situation for sure, those guys win a lot of matches," Welch added. "It's more than just wins and losses, it's the way they approach wrestling. They want to learn and get better and are trying to be the best they can be. The ripple effect has been extremely positive and very impactful, probably more so that I expected. Guys like Sloan set the expectation for our team success. The expectatation now for us to be near the top every single year."
Headed to the next level
It's fairly typical that talented wrestlers like Johannsen go on to the next level and it's something he made official in November when he announced he'd join head coach Rocky Burkett and the Northern State wrestling program in Aberdeen.
Johannsen did attract attention from NCAA Division I programs, which he declined to talk about, but chose Northern for a variety of reasons. Zens, by the way, will also be heading to Northern. Johannsen said Burkett has plans for both wrestlers, who likely won't be asked to battle for one spot.
"It was honestly just the education system with Northern building a new medical arts building and taking over some programs from Presentation College. I am wretling, but It's not my main interest in college. Northern has a very good medical program and I really liked the professors I've met. I liked other colleges, but I feel Northern is the best spot for me to not only compete, but also get a good education."
Johannsen said his long-term goal is become a dermatologist and anybody who has followed his journey to put his name among some of the best in not only Watertown history but also state history, should no better than to be against him being successful in whatever he chooses to do.
First things first and that's completing high school. Johannsen is now 160-2 in his career and is only 18 wins away from eclipsing Sawyer Hoffman (2011 grad) for the most victories in program history.
Then there's that goal of challenging for a fourth state title.
"It's been Sloan's goal throughout his high school career and for as long as he's been around," Welch said. "He's certainly doing everything right to make sure that happens."
Johannsen said he's never met Jensen, who wrestled collegiately at South Dakota State University. Steve Olson, a longtime former assistant with the Arrow wrestling program, was a former middle school teacher for Johannsen and has kept him informed.
"Mr. Olson is probably my favorite teacher I've ever had. He's an awesome guy and a great person," Sloan said. "He's informed me quite a bit about Rick Jensen, but I've never met the guy."
Whether Johannsen and Jensen ever meet remains to be seen, but it's a good thing for Sloan that he's at least in position to join the former Arrow standout as a four-time state champion.
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: Sloan Johannsen looks to end prep wrestling career with his fourth state title
