O'Neill Eagles Compete At Mid-Dakota Monster

Jon Marvin works a cross-face cradle on Nathan Dressen of Rapid City Central in wrestling action in Presho, SD, this past weekend.

Four days of competition over a six day stretch.  So marks the start of the second half of the season for the O'Neill Eagle wrestling team. 

On Thursday night the Eagles started on the road at Class C fourth  ranked Battle Creek.  A short handed but scrappy bunch of Eagles battled the Braves in a losing effort dropping the dual by  a score of 41-33.  Winners for the Eagles were Jon Marvin, Joe Gillham, Blake Walters, David Fox, Spencer Knopp and Thomas Schipporeit.  "Our kids wrestled hard.  We lost some matches where they were more experienced than us, but our kids didn't lay down for them.  There certainly aren't any rewards for moral victories and we don't want to hang our hat on those kinds of things; but it was encouraging to see some of the things we have been working so hard on in the practice room start to come out in competition," commented assistant coach Tyler Cole.  

The team was back in action on Friday at a new venue, traveling to Presho, SD, for a tournament coined the Mid-Dakota Monster.  This was a two day event featuring 25 teams from across the state of South Dakota. Many of the weight classes were wrestled in 32 man brackets and eight medalists were crowned on Saturday.  The Eagles started the competition with 10 wrestlers in the field, eight of which ended Saturday with a medal around their neck.  One of the best performances was turned in by sophomore Joe Gillham.  Joe began the event as the sixth  seed in the bracket. He turned in an outstanding tournament knocking off two wrestlers seeded ahead of him in come from behind fashion to make the finals.  In his finals match he found himself behind again battling back from an early 7-0 deficit.  Joe closed the gap to one point in the second period after a quick escape followed by a lateral drop.  He looked like he might end the match in dramatic fashion, but his opponent Gene Trimbell of Spearfish/Lead/Deadwood was able to work his way off his back.  After giving up a pair of subsequent takedowns, one with nearfall points.  Gillham found himself on the losing end of 13-8 decision and runner-up honors.  

Jon Marvin also turned in another notable performance notching third place honors. Jon used his dangerous cross-face cradle throughout the tournament to take home another coveted award.  He was able to score the highest number of pins in the least amount of time for the tournament with five.  Other medalists for the Eagles were as follows:  Blake Walters fourth, Dion Nemec sixth, Corey Rowse seventh, David Fox fourth, Jesse Albarran seventh, and Thomas Shipporeit fifth.  "This was a great event for our kids.  We didn't know much about the kids we were wrestling coming in and there is definitely a difference in styles of wrestling between our two states."  commented coach Cole. "This level of competition and this kind of experience will really pay dividends as we make our stretch run into districts and state late in the year," commented Coach Cole.  

The team finished in seventh place overall, scoring 143.5 points.  Winner, SD, was the team champion.  Head coach Bryan Corkle reported that hospitality was second to none.  The team was featured at the end of the "Parade of Teams" which occurs at the start of Saturday's action, with the announcer noting O'Neill as the home of the "World's Largest Shamrock."  "They seemed genuinely excited to have us there and it showed in every way," commented Coach Corkle.