Waupaca has three champions in Weyauwega
By Greg Seubert
Ripon won the Akey Duals, a six-team wrestling invitational held Dec. 10 at Weyauwega-Fremont High School. W-F placed third behind Ripon (5-0) and Chilton/Hilbert (4-1) with a 3-2 mark, while Waupaca, Seymour and Wausau East finished with records of 2-3, 1-4 and 0-5, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Indians picked up a Central Wisconsin Conference win Dec. 8 by handing Menominee Indian a 61-18 defeat in the home opener.
Akey Duals
The Indians’ day started with a disappointing 42-39 loss to Ripon in a dual that W-F led all the way until the final match.
W-F rebounded with a 48-30 win over Seymour 48-30, but then dropped a 48-33 decision to Chilton/Hilbert. The Indians followed that loss up with a 71-10 win over Wausau East and a 57-23 win over Waupaca.
“Our team took a tough loss today that all the kids knew we should have won and turned it into a positive going forward,” coach Tim Potratz said. “We came back as a team and wrestled better each round as the day went on. Our team got tougher after that loss and we won’t look back.”
W-F crowned four individual champions and had two second-place finishes and one third-place finish.
Freshman Carter Greening improved to 9-1 on the season with a 5-0 mark at 106; Cian Fischer recorded four pins and a technical fall at 113 to win the meet’s Outstanding Wrestler Award; Easton Groskreutz won the 120-pound weight class with a 4-0 record; and Dylen Kicherer went 5-0 to place first at 220.
Justin Kempf and Tyler Wetzel placed second at 126 and 160, respectively, with 4-1 marks Brayden Marker placed third at 152.
Kaleb Schoenick (138), Kyle Loehrke (170), Patrick Kepler (182), Austin Bartel (195) and Charlie Lewis (285) had two wins each.
“All the kids on the team contributed to the team’s success today, even the kids who only won one match or none at all,” Potratz said. “The strength of this team is in our numbers and in our team first attitude. The coaches saw improvement across the board as these young kids get better with every dual we wrestle.”
Waupaca defeated Wausau East 45-24 and Seymour 38-28, but also fell to Chilton Hilbert 53-26 and Ripon 51-25.
Colby Bernhardt (126), Logan Bernhardt (145) and Derrick Rotta (195) won championships for the Comets, while Jimmy Intribus (138) placed second.
Logan Bernhardt recovered from an injury in the second round during Waupaca’s match with Chilton/Hilbert. He won that match by disqualified and went on to post a 4-0 record.
Colby Bernhardt had the most pins in the least amount of time, 5:01.
W-F 61, Men. Indian 18
The Indians won 11 of the 14 matches against the Eagles.
Fischer (113), Groskreutz (120), Kempf (126), Phillip Romero (132) and Kicherer (220) won their matches by pin, while Greening (106) and Wetzel (170) also picked up wins. The Eagles also forfeited matches to Ean Marker (138), Jacob Kuckkahn and Terry Kruse (152).
Menominee Indian’s points came on Antonio Mahkimetas’ pin of Brayden Marker in 45 seconds at 160, Leander Moon’s pin of Kepler in 1:18 at 195 and a forfeit to Alonzo Haack at 285.
The W-F wrestling program honored the 1991-92 conference championship team before the meet.
The team headed to Orlando, Florida, Dec. 14 for the 33-team Bill Scott Memorial Holiday Classic. Wrestling will begin at 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16, and continue through the finals, scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17.