Aberdeen Central closed out the home portion of its wrestling season by facing a pair of Eastern South Dakota Conference powers Friday night at the Aberdeen Civic Arena.

The Golden Eagles fell to Harrisburg 44-15 and to Watertown 53-12.

“Hats off to both of those teams. They came out and attacked. They put us in bad situations and capitalized off it,” said Central coach Donnie Bowden. “I thought we fought hard and wrestled hard at times, but now we just have to be able to be consistent and finish matches and finish situations. There were a couple of matches where we were right there to win, we just didn’t take advantage of situations.”

Bowden said that has been the story for his wrestlers during the latter part of the season.

“That’s kind of been where we’ve been for the last month,” he said. “Instead of getting on the other side of it, we’re still in those 50-50 positions and come out on the short end of it.”

Mason Schrempp won both of his matches on the night at 126 pounds, including a dramatic come-from-behind win over his Watertown foe with a reversal with 21 seconds remaining.

“I could tell that he was getting high with his legs, so I just had to shake him off,” Schrempp said. “Just don’t stop wresting. I knew it was kind of coming down to the wire, so I needed a sense of urgency at the end.”

Schrempp trailed by one with time winding down. He said the key is to never give up.

“You just have to wrestle,” he said. “You just have to non-stop move and wrestle, and keep your head up. You just can’t give up on those situations.”

Tate Huff split his two matches on the night, defeating his Harrisburg opponent before running into Sloan Johannsen of Watertown, one of the state’s premier wrestlers at 113 pounds.

Huff said he learns from wins and losses, but that he probably gains more knowledge from a setback.

“You can learn a lot from a loss,” he said. “It shows you what you can do better and everything like that.”

Huff is part of strong lower weight delegation for the Eagles and trains with Rayden Zens, who continued his strong season with a pair of victories.

Huff said practice partners are important.

“I think it’s crucial,” Huff said of having someone to push him to make him better. “It gets us as good as we are. A good practice partner is as good as you can get.”

Central’s other match winner on the evening was Logan Opitz against Watertown.

Bowden said his wrestlers are fine with their conditioning. They just need to finish off tight matches.

“Overall, I think we’re in pretty darn good shape. I don’t think we faded in very many matches due to shape, it’s just getting into situations that we want to wrestle in,” he said. “We’re just wrestling other people’s matches right now.”

Central’s girls competed in Harrisburg. Eva Hinkle and Autum Gauer won matches for the Eagles. The girls will wrestle in a tourney there today.

Central’s boys will travel to Huron for an invitational to close out the regular season before heading to the Region 3A tourney next weekend.

“We’ll go down there, and hopefully gain a little confidence, improve a little bit and then get ready for next week,” Bowden said of the Huron event.

Harrisburg 44, Aberdeen Central 15

106: Tyler Wurth (HARR) over Adam Moore (ABCE) (TF 17-0 2:55; 113: Tate Huff (ABCE) over Emory Johnson (HARR) (Dec 11-4); 120: Rayden Zens (ABCE) over Lincoln Peters (HARR) (Fall 5:36); 126: Mason Schrempp (ABCE) over Dylan O`Connor (HARR) (Fall 2:30);

132: Teegen Stauffacher (HARR) over Brody Aesoph (ABCE) (Dec 11-5); 138: Peyton Tryon (HARR) over Elias Biegler (ABCE) (Dec 6-0); 145: Logan O`Connor (HARR) over Logan Opitz (ABCE) (TF 15-0 5:44); 152: Brandon Simunek (HARR) over Cordell Rychlik (ABCE) (SV-1 4-2); 160: Soren Aadland (HARR) over Dylan Schaunaman (ABCE) (MD 12-1);

170: Colin Horrocks (HARR) over Ayden Gisi (ABCE) (Dec 7-3); 182: Ryan Hirschkorn (HARR) over Ryker Meister (ABCE) (Fall 1:38); 195: Aiden Schroeder (HARR) over Bryce Beitelspacher (ABCE) (Dec 4-2); 220: Ayden Viox (HARR) over Samson Flakus (ABCE) (Fall 3:43); 285: Josh Larsen (HARR) over Jacob Krenz (ABCE) (Dec 7-4).

Watertown 53, Aberdeen Central 12

120: Rayden Zens (ABCE) over Braden Le (WATE) (Dec 9-4); 126: Mason Schrempp (ABCE) over Weston Everson (WATE) (Dec 4-3); 132: Nathan Briggs (WATE) over Brody Aesoph (ABCE) (MD 10-0); 138: Carson Hansmann (WATE) over Elias Biegler (ABCE) (MD 11-2);

145: Logan Opitz (ABCE) over Landen Lewis (WATE) (Fall 1:45); 152: Ian Johnson (WATE) over Cordell Rychlik (ABCE) (Fall 0:52); 160: Jax Kettwig (WATE) over Dylan Schaunaman (ABCE) (Dec 8-5); 170: Jackson Maag (WATE) over Ayden Gisi (ABCE) (Dec 5-3); 182: Mac Young (WATE) over Ryker Meister (ABCE) (Fall 0:55);

195: Brock Eitreim (WATE) over Bryce Beitelspacher (ABCE) (Fall 3:55); 220: Draven Bau (WATE) over Samson Flakus (ABCE) (Fall 2:23); 285: Micah Hach (WATE) over Jacob Krenz (ABCE) (Fall 1:28); 106: Leo Stroup (WATE) over Adam Moore (ABCE) (Dec 5-0); 113: Sloan Johannsen (WATE) over Tate Huff (ABCE) (Fall 4:35).

GIRLS

Harrisburg 18, Aberdeen Central 12

106: Eva Hinkle (ABCE) over (HARR) (For.); 113: Double Forfeit 120: Susu Kamara (HARR) over Kaylee Efraimson (ABCE) (Fall 1:24); 126: Chloe Ellingsen (HARR) over Ula Martin (ABCE) (Fall 4:52); 132: Double Forfeit; 145: Double Forfeit;

152: Double Forfeit; 170: Morgan Lantaff (HARR) over Katrina Gibson (ABCE) (Fall 5:35); 195: Double Forfeit; 285: Autum Gauer (ABCE) over (HARR) (For.).