Aberdeen Central got off to a solid start, but had no answer for Pierre’s experience in the upper weights at Golden Eagles Arena Thursday night.

The Governors won the final eight matches of the evening to grab a 57-10 Eastern South Dakota Conference victory.

“Pierre is always a quality team. They’re going to come and fight, and they’re coming to fight to win,” said Central coach Donnie Bowden. “That was kind of our message for this week: we have to come ready to fight. We have to get to another level of physicality.”

Bowden said while the Eagles lost those matches, he is seeing progress. He said his wrestlers just need to be more aggressive.

“You can kind of see it’s coming. We’re young and inexperienced a little bit at some weights, but we’re starting to find some footing. We’re starting to get deeper with some more quality kids, but we have to put our foot in the ground and do it now,” Bowden said. “We can’t use an excuse that we’re young and inexperienced, because we all weigh the same at the end of the day.”

The Eagles led 13-10 before Pierre exerted its will the rest of the way, recording six pins and a technical fall to rack up some big points.

“We knew that ultimately that’s where Aberdeen is a little lacking is just experience up top,” said Pierre coach Shawn Lewis, “so we figured that if we were going to score a bunch of points that’s where we needed to do it.”

The most exciting match of the dual took place at 132 pounds where Central’s Brock Martin rallied for a 5-3 overtime victory. Martin trailed 3-1 before recording a takedown with two seconds left in regulation to tie the score.

“As the clock was winding down I was thinking I just have to go. I have to get some shots in,” Martin said. “I think I can I finish on any one, so I got my shots and I finished. It was a tough match.”

Once the match went to overtime, Martin not only had momentum, he also possessed a mental advantage. Before the extra period started, Martin raced back to the middle and got in position, while his opponent took his time.

“I just like getting to the middle,” Martin said. “If they take they’re time getting to the middle, I know I’ve got them.”

Martin finished off the dramatic win by scoring a takedown with 18 seconds left in OT.

The senior has had close wins before, but never at home.

“It’s a great way to start off a home dual, so it feels pretty good,” he said.

Central also received a tight 11-8 win from Tate Huff at 113 pounds, followed up by a 15-6 triumph from Rayden Zens in the next match.

Lewis knew those early matches would be tightly contested.

“We knew that those were going to be some fun matchups. They have some really good kids even though a few of them are young,” Lewis said. “We definitely did not look past them. We figured that they’d be good matches.”

Madyson Gillen was the lone Central girl to win a match on the night. The sophomore dominated her opponent on the way to recording a second-period pin.

“When she attacks she’s tough to beat,” Bowden said. “She’s tough to deal with.”

While still relatively new to the sport, Gillen comes from a wrestling background and tries to instill that toughness into her teammates.

“You just have to keep encouraging and build, and you always just try to stay positive and keep working harder and harder, and tell them it’s OK to go strong and its OK to go hard at practice,” Gillen said, “because you have to go hard in matches, too.”

Gillen, who said her best move is a double leg, is currently 8-3 on the season and rated third in her weight class. She believes the best is yet to come.

“I do think I’m getting better,” Gillen said. “I’ve improved a lot since last year.”

The Central boys travel to Valley City, N.D. for a tournament on Saturday, while the Central girls will head to a tourney in Ashley, N.D.

Boys

Pierre 57, Aberdeen Central 10

106: Alex Oedekoven (PTFR) over Ridley Waldo (ABCE) (Dec 9-2); 113: Tate  Huff (ABCE) over Jacob Mason (PTFR) (Dec 11-8); 120: Rayden Zens (ABCE) over Noah Williams (PTFR) (MD 15-6); 126: Nate  Williams (PTFR) over Jacob Bellefeuille (ABCE) (MD 17-6);

132: Brock Martin (ABCE) over Tristan Spencer (PTFR) (SV-1 5-3); 138: Blake  Judson (PTFR) over Mason Schrempp (ABCE) (Fall 2:16); 145: Chase Carda (PTFR) over Logan Opitz (ABCE) (Fall 2:24); 152: Jaxon Ducheneaux (PTFR) over Cordell Rychlik (ABCE) (Fall 2:00); 160: Jayden Wiebe (PTFR) over Dylan  Schaunaman (ABCE) (Fall 3:54);

170: Lucas Chamberlin (PTFR) over Ayden Gisi (ABCE) (Fall 3:09) 182: Chance Carda (PTFR) over Beau Price (ABCE) (Fall 0:19) 195: Gavin Stotts (PTFR) over Bryce Beitelspacher (ABCE) (TF 15-0 3:40) 220: Elijah Boutchee (PTFR) over Samson Flakus (ABCE) (Dec 6-4) 285: Joshua Rydberg (PTFR) over Jacob Krenz (ABCE) (Fall 4:36).

Girls

Pierre 45, Aberdeen Central 6

106: Sydney Uhrig (PTFR) over Eva Hinkle (ABCE) (Fall 0:51); 113: Madyson Gillen (ABCE) over Nevaeh Baade (PTFR) (Fall 2:41); 120: Dani Ringstmeyer (PTFR) over Olivia Barnes (ABCE) (Fall 0:39); 126: Kezrey Benning (PTFR) over (ABCE) (For.);

132: Gianna Stangeland (PTFR) over (ABCE) (For.); 145: Abbigail Lewis (PTFR) over Jaci Cox (ABCE) (Fall 0:21); 152: Ireland Templeton (PTFR) over (ABCE) (For.);

170: Emalee Larson (PTFR) over Katrina Gibson (ABCE) (Fall 1:13) 195: Marlee Shorter (PTFR) over   (ABCE) (For.) 285: Ciara McFarling (PTFR) over (ABCE) (For.)