If anybody's interested the South Dakota B finals are live webcast right now.
http://sports.sdpb.org/bwrestling.htm

I was interested. My roots hometown of Wagner, SD just won their third consecutive straight Class B state title. Thanks for posting bdoggy!

There are only two classes in SD, A and B.

University of Nebraska recruit, Robert Kokesh of Wagner clinched the team state title for Wagner with a pin, his fourth consecutive in the state tournament and his third consecutive state title. And Robert, a senior and great kid, is the second best wrestler in the state, the top wrestler is a junior by the name of Storley, potentially going to D-1 Lehigh - after winning his sixth consecutive state title next year barring injury.

Maybe a case to allow 7th and 8th graders to start wrestling high school competition in Nebraska? Both South Dakota and Minnesota do - and how many native born Division I champs do they have vs. Nebraska??? (About 20 or 70 to 1?).

Also a case to cut our classes from 4 to 3. The quality of our wrestling is simply diluted by too many classes.

SD will soon archive the state championship matches to watch throughout the year - without charging for the video/CD. A big plus to promote the sport. If the prior link doesn't work, try Googling "South Dakota State High School Activities Association" in a week or so, and look under wrestling.

A little story about Nebraska recruit Robert Kokesh: as a high school freshman he was poised against a senior in the semi-finals of the SD state tournament. After leading by one point late in the match, a scramble ensued where the senior was awarded a reversal and the win. It was a bad call, and the SD knowledgable fans booed the house down, as it was at best an escape in a stretch, no way a reversal.

Kokesh then motioned with his hands to the crowd to please keep it down and not boo. Then he grabbed his opponent's hand and raised it in the air. The crowd deflated and quit booing.

The event repeatedly made national news.

Just to keep things in perspective. Yes, South Dakota only has two classes, 32 in Class A and 53 in Class B. They don't have near the number of programs as Nebraska does. My guess is if they had over 200 programs like us they would have more classes.

That logic holds water. South Dakota has a state total population base of about 804,000. Nebraska is at about 1,783,000. Going by population ratios, that is about 400,000 per class for each state.

Iowa, on the other hand, has a population base of 3,000,000 and three classes. That is about 1,000,000 per class. Would seem to be a lot tougher for a wrestler to make it to the Iowa state tournament just due to density of competition.

Kansas also has only three classes in wrestling

Kansas has 4 classses 6A,5A,4A,321A. I lived in SD for a few years and attend their state tournaments a few times. It is not any harder to make it to their state tournament. Also they split the two classes up in diiferent locations. It almost has a invite atmosphere. I did like that they allow 7th and 8th graders to wrestler high school. There are a few Lincoln McIlvarys out there that will make a run as a 7th grader.

Is Pat Rollins still wrestling up there?

Pat is in North Dakota I believe

SD has a kid who has a chance to be a six time champ. Logan Storley from Webster won 103 as a freshman and has moved up each year. This year he was the B champ at 171. He is SDs first five timer who won state at 5 different weight classes. The Kokesh kid from Wagner that arm drag was talking about moved up a weight to meet Storley back in December. It was a great match won by Storley, Kokesh's only loss this year. You can watch the match here:
http://www.flowrestling.org/vi...-v-robert-kokesh-red

As a 7th grader, Storley defeated a returning state champ, a junior, at 103 lbs. by a score of 5-3 in the state finals match.

The 2010 state finals matches are now up on the SD site at:
http://sports.sdpb.org/boys/wrestling/b/index.htm

The Class B feature matches are at 130, where a pair of returning two time state champs face off for the #1 and #2 ranked state teams in a deciding match for the team title (commentary is wrong - confused Kocer with his brother - wasn't going for four), at 160 (Kokesh) and at 171 (Storley). You have to click on each weight class to see one finals match at a time.

If the link doesn't work, Google "South Dakota High School Activities Association" and starting clicking on the "wrestling" prompts.

Have to like that (Kokesh) ... wrestling up a class to go after the toughest competition. That was a heck of a match.

My take (from one watching) was that Kokesh was actually better conditioned. Storley was better on his feet, but Kokesh was just amazing from the top position.

Kokesh has a goal to join these South Dakota born wrestlers as Division I National Champions:

Randy Lewis, 2x for Iowa, Olympic gold medalist
Jim Sheer 1x for Nebraska, 5th in the Olympics
Bill Sheer, 1x for Nebraska, Olympic bronze
Lincoln Mclravy, 3x for Iowa, Olympic bronze
Brock Lesnar, 1x for Minnesota, pro "wrassler"

Lesnar never won a state title in the Class B of SD although he was a two time finalist for the U of Minnesota. There are also some Koslowski brothers, one of whom was an Olympic silver medalist in Greco, but I'm not sure how they did at Minnesota which is where I think they did their college.

I'm no historian so I'm sure I missed some, especially if they were older.

Not bad for a state with half the population, and half the classes of Nebraska?

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bdoggy
Rookie

Location: Creighton, Ne
Registered: November 01, 2002
Posts: 191 Posted February 27, 2010 07:55 PM If anybody's interested the South Dakota B finals are live webcast right

Pat Rollins clinched his 3rd state title of his high school career.

Google "Pat Rollins Wrestling" and the first listing to pop up is a story about him winning two consecutive state titles in North Dakota. That would put him 1,2,1,1 in state placings for his career, the first two in Nebraska.

As far as the Kokesh-Storley match, they have been friends for some time, and the SD talk is that they would like to wrestle together in college. Some think Storley will end up at Lehigh, many believe he will look at Nebraska hard.