(Luke Hagen) Wagner’s Robert Kokesh works to pin McCook Central/Montrose’s Dominic Blindert in the 160-pound Class B state championship match Saturday in Sioux Falls. Kokesh’s pin sealed the Red Raiders’ third straight championship, which was the first time a Class B team has won the team championship three years in a row since 1971-74 when Faulkton accomplished the feat.
SIOUX FALLS — The stress level for the Wagner wrestling team wasn’t as high this year.
Not quite as bad, at least.
One year after winning the title by one-half point, Wagner trailed Canton for the entire tournament. It looked as if the Red Raiders’ bid for a three-peat would fail.
Though, there was a glimmer of hope. With two head-to-head matches against Canton, and two other wrestlers in the finals, back-to-back-to-back state titles still was a possibility. When Robert Kokesh pinned McCook Central/Montrose’s Dominic Blindert in the 160-pound finals, it was reality.
Under its own fortune, Wagner won the Class B state wrestling championship Saturday in Sioux Falls with 141 points, which was eight more than Canton.
“We didn’t have to wait and sit for someone else to do our dirty work,” Wagner coach Ernie Valentine said.
Last year in Aberdeen, the Red Raiders’ second title in the string of three came down to the last match of the night. When Philip Area’s heavyweight Mick Trask held Redfield’s Randall Waldner to a 9-4 decision, Wagner’s lead held by one-half point.
Saturday, Wagner claimed its own fate.
Alex Kocer (130) and Mitch Breen (140) won their head-to-head matches with Canton opponents, and Kokesh’s pin outstretched the lead too far, giving the Red Raiders No. 3 in the past three years.
“That’s better than winning the individual championship,” Breen said of the team title. “Being with your teammates and winning it together is the most important thing.”
Everything started at 130.Kocer’s match with Canton’s Jeremiah Peterson — possibly the most highly anticipated match of the tournament — wasn’t all it lived up to be.
Wagner’s sophomore, who had already won two state championships, dominated the second and third periods, turning Canton’s undefeated senior three seperate times to win 12-2.
“During Kocer’s match, I had an adrenaline in my body that I’d never felt before,” Breen said. “It’s probably one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had.”
Kokesh felt the same.
“When he got that win, I don’t think I’ve ever been so into a match in my entire life,” he said. “I got an adrenaline from that match.”
Kocer trailed early against Peterson. He allowed the first takedown, but got back points off tilts in the second and third periods, fueling his teammates.
Like his team, Kocer’s title is his third in a row.. He won the 103-pound class as an eighth grader, the 119-pounder last year and surprised many by cruising past Peterson.
By the end of his high school career, he could possibly be in a class with only four other people by winning five or more Class B state championships. He also won the outstanding wrester award for the second consecutive year
“I’ve been running tilts my whole life,” Kocer said. “That’s what I like to do. I’m not much of a pinner.“I planned on hopefully getting some tilts, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to get them until I actually got him mad. It seemed to work, so I kept doing it.”
Breen — who was pinned in last year’s state championship match — nearly got stuck again in his match. Midway through the second, he was caught staring at the ceiling with his Canton opponent squeezing with full force.
He scooted out, got a reversal to end the period and tie the match and picked up two near fall points early in the third for a 7-5 win. Breen’s win gave Wagner a two-point advantage in the team race.
“I felt my back hit for sure one time,” Breen said. “I looked up at the score clock and it had just flashed 1:32. I knew if I got pinned there was no way we had a chance at the team title.“I held on a little longer and then tried to roll my shoulders and ended up getting out.”
Added Valentine: “Last year, we were in a similar position and we did end up getting pinned. Mitch gutted it out, got tough and became a man. He got off his back and came through to get the win for us.”
With any sort of win — a decision, a major or a technical fall — Kokesh knew he could seal his and the team’s third straight championships.
But any sort of win isn’t what he wanted. He wanted to show the state tournament crowd that pinning his opponent wasn’t as tough as it seemed to be the year before.
With his signature move, the double-chicken wing, Kokesh’s second-period fall over Blindert helped the Red Raiders become the first team to three-peat in 37 years.Faulkton — the first and only other team to three-peat — did it from 1971-’74, the first three years the state instituted a two-class system.
After his pin — the pin that helped him earn the most falls award — Kokesh stood up and waved to the entire Sioux Falls Arena, signaling his final prep wrestling in the state. Next year, Kokesh will be in Lincoln, Neb., wrestling for the Huskers.
“He put a lot of pressure on himself and he wasn’t happy with himself last year,” Valentine said of Kokesh’s technical-fall win over Parkston’s Josh Schieffer. “That thing haunted him and he wanted to put that pin on for the team, and it didn’t happen. “This year, he came back and he wasn’t letting it slip. He finished it off for us.”
Steven Holzbauer (171) lost in the finals to Webster’s Logan Storley, a five-time state champion. Tyler Dion (103) took seventh, David Kocer (112) took third and Derek Dickerson (135) took fourth. Austin Soukup (125) and Bryant Soulek (285) were each knocked out in wrestlebacks.
