The road to this year’s State Girls’ Wrestling Tournament goes through Golden Eagles Arena for 22 teams in Region 3 today.

Aberdeen Central is hosting one of five regions statewide. Action is expected to start at 3 this afternoon with two matches going on at the same time.

The new region format replaces the previous state qualifying standards for girls, based on regular-season records.

“I am in favor of it,” said Central coach Jake Flakus. “It just gives girls an opportunity to truly qualify for the state tournament, rather than just kind of getting put into a lottery pool and hoping for the best. Now girls can actually prove that they should be there by winning matches.”

Region 3 covers a major area of geography with teams as far away at Burke-Gregory, Winner, and Todd County among the field.

“They combine the A and the B regions that the boys have set up,” Flakus said.

Included in the field are statewide powers Pierre and Bon Homme-Scotland-Avon.

“Those two teams are definitely the teams to beat (Thursday). Pierre, they’re returning state champs. They have a full team,” Flakus said. “I think we have the second most wrestlers, but Bon Homme, they don’t have as many as us, but a lot of their wrestlers are really stout. They’ve got some really good competition. A lot of these other teams might only have 3-4 girls, but there’s still some good girls scattered throughout there.”

Last year the Golden Eagles qualified 10 wrestlers for the state tournament. This year, Flakus would like to add one more.

“We have 11. We’re hoping we can qualify all of them, but the main thing I told them is if something doesn’t go your way and you lose a match, you can’t be down and out,” Flakus said. “Even if you’re not suppose to make it in, or if you are supposed to make it in, regions anything can happen. Girls lose matches all the time, people get hurt. I’ve just been telling them all week that they’ve got to be ready and if they get an opportunity, that they’ve got to take it.”

Flakus said that the region tourney is something that has been a focal point all season long for his wrestlers.

“I think that they’re ready,” Flakus said. “We’ve been training for this all year and hopefully it comes to fruition.”