A group of area wrestlers captured individual championships at the Lee Wolf Invitational Saturday at Golden Eagles Arena.

Aberdeen Central’s Rayden Zens and Madyson Gillen, and Webster’s Caleb McGregor and Annie Witt each claimed titles during the event which featured teams from South Dakota and North Dakota.

Zens won the 120-pound championship with a 5-0 victory. The sophomore said he learned from a previous match that he needed to be more aggressive in the final.

“Going into that match, I knew I needed to start shooting,” Zens said. “The game plan was just to score as many points as possible.”

Central coach Donnie Bowden said the sophomore put himself in good positions throughout the day.

“Rayden might have wrestled the best positionally that he’s done all year. He went out there and attacked,” Bowden said. “He got to exactly where he needed to be. He was never in danger in any one of those matches.”

Zens has now won back-to-back tournaments, taking one in Iowa last week. There was no denying which meant more to him.

“This is a lot bigger tournament and a lot greater competition than in Iowa,” Zens said, “and to win at home.”

Nobody had a more challenging path to a championship than McGregor, who overcame a major deficit to record a pin in the final at 220 pounds.

McGregor fell behind early and trailed 10-1 at one stage before pulling off the dramatic come-from-behind win.

“It definitely wasn’t my match from the start. I kind of got into some dumb positions,” McGregor said. “I knew it wasn’t quite the best, but the biggest thing is when you get down like that – you make little mistakes – is you trust yourself, have enough confidence so you come out there and do your best.”

McGregor was sporting a bloodied head wrap following his title match from an injury suffered earlier in the day.

“My head definitely hurts,” McGregor said. “In my semifinal match a kid tried to throw me and I lowered my hips and his teeth came in and cut through his lip and into my eyebrow. I have to go get stiches later tonight.”

Still, the pain was lessened a bit thanks to his new Lee Wolf title.

“It’s definitely up there, top five,” McGregor said of where that match ranked throughout his career. “It’s good to have.”

Gillen dominated her opponent in winning her championship.

Gillen had not faced any of the foes she saw on Saturday, but she still wanted to stay aggressive.

“You just have to go out there not worried about it,” she said. “You just have to go on strong.”

Gillen used a move that she had not tried before, but it worked to put herself in position to record the pin.

“I just grabbed her neck and her arm, and flipped her over the best I could,” Gillen said.

The tourney title was the first for Gillen in her two years of wrestling. She was excited that her first one came at the Lee Wolf.

“It’s the one that counts,” Gillen said.

Bowden said the key for Gillen is just having confidence in her abilities.

“That’s the biggest thing with her is just getting her to open up and be aggressive, and believe in her abilities to go score points,” he said.

Witt made quick work of her opponent in the title match. The senior measured up her foe, took her down and pinned her in less than a minute.

“I was looking for a good shot. That’s what I’ve been working on lately,” Witt said. “She just fell down and it all tied together nicely.”

And to think that it wasn’t that long ago that Witt didn’t even know what a shot was.

Witt, who played basketball in the past, decided to go out for wrestling this season. It was a definite learning curve, but Witt now has three tournament championships to her credit.

“I think I’m getting more confident,” she said, “and I hope I’m getting better at some stuff.”

She said one of the biggest challenges was just learning the wrestling terminology.

“At first the biggest thing for me was not knowing what I was doing. The names of everything was very confusing,” Witt said. “They’re like go for a shot, and I’m like I don’t know what a shot is and I don’t know how to do it. So baby steps.”

Witt is enjoying her journey into the sport and encourages others to give it a try.

“If any other younger girls or anyone is looking or even interested, just do it,” Witt said. “I was so nervous, but I’m so glad I did it and I hope that everyone else if they have that chance does it.”

Winner won the boys’ team championship with Canton second. Canton won the girls’ team title with Pierre runner-up.

Central finished sixth in boys’ team points and fifth in girls’ team points.

While satisfied with the places, Bowden felt his team left a few points out on the mat.

“It’s kind of one of those performances when you wrestle at home you kind of get a little tight. You see more of your friends, you see more of your family, that kind of stuff,” Bowden said. “It’s different than being on the road. When you’re on the road you get a little bit more focused because you’re away from everything. We’re going to have to learn how to compete, because we’re going to be right back at it in three days competing against a couple of different opponents.”

Central hosts Brandon Valley and Yankton at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday in a rescheduled dual from earlier this season.

To see complete tournament results, click on the following link:

https://www.trackwrestling.com/predefinedtournaments/MainFrame.jsp?newSession=false&TIM=1643529231988&pageName=%2Fpredefinedtournaments%2FPrintTeamScores.jsp&twSessionId=yqyytdoeje