RAPID CITY – While Aberdeen Central did not advance anyone to the finals of the girls’ state wrestling tournament, the Golden Eagles will not be returning home sans hardware after advancing five girls through to the placing rounds following day two of the tournament Friday at the Monument.

Central will have two wrestlers vying for third place when action resumes in today’s third and final day of wrestling. Two more will be wrestling for seventh and one for fifth.

“Like all wrestling days, there’s some ups and downs,” said Central coach Jake Flakus. “I thought our girls wrestled good some rounds and not so good in others, but that’s the way wrestling goes.”

Madison Little (100 pounds) and Lilly Nelson (165) will both wrestle for third after dropping their semifinal matches. The pair bounced back in the consolations to earn the next best thing – a chance at third.

“It shows that they’re able to bounce back and take the loss for what it is and be mad about it,” Flakus said, “but be ready to wrestle two hours later and not let emotions control them.”

Flakus also pointed out the efforts of Rakyrah Wallace (138 pounds), who lost a quarterfinals match, but fought her way through the wrestlebacks to earn a chance at fifth place.

“She had some big matches yesterday,” Flakus said, noting also that one of Wallace’s opponents today was a girl that Wallace had only beaten 1-0. “Today, (Wallace) pinned her.”

Jasmine Maas (126) and Lin Paw Jone (145) will contend for seventh place in their respective brackets.

Three other area wrestlers will have a chance to bring home championship hardware after advancing to the title matches of their brackets. That group includes Groton’s Liza Krueger at 100 pounds, who made the championship bout after finishing third at that weight a year ago.

Sully Buttes Cateri Yellow Hawk has a similar story, finishing third at 126 a year ago. Yellow Hawk will wrestle for first at that weight today.

Sisseton’s Vi Anderson is in the finals at 114 pounds.

In the team race, Pierre holds a dominant lead over the remainder of the field, sitting with 120.5 points. Aberdeen Central sits in seventh with 63 points.

Doland is tied for 14th with 32 points after both of its qualifiers, Kyla Logan (138) and Reganne Miles (165), advanced to the third place match of their respective weights.

Placing matches will conclude the 3-day state tournament today.

“One thing I’ve been telling them all year is to wrestle in a way they can be proud of themselves and can accept the results,” Flakus said. “I don’t want them to leave any regrets or what ifs out there. That’s the mindset I want them to have.”

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

https://www.trackwrestling.com/predefinedtournaments/MainFrame.jsp?newSession=false&TIM=1740808913414&pageName=%2Fpredefinedtournaments%2FTournamentHub.jsp&twSessionId=xekofrpupz