Team finishes eighth in Florida

By Greg Seubert

A trip to Florida has paid dividends for the Weyauwega-Fremont wrestling team.

The Indians placed eighth out of 35 teams at the Bill Scott Memorial Holiday Classic, held Dec. 16-17 at Lyman High School in Orlando.

It was the second straight year that the team traveled to Florida to take on some of Florida’s best high school wrestling programs.

Lake Highland Prep, the third-ranked team in the nation, won the tournament with 312 points, while the Indians finished with 96.

Dylen Kicherer made it to the 220-pound finals for the second year in a row. He pinned his first four opponents, but came out on the short end of an 11-4 score in the final to Lake Highland Prep’s Ben Goldin.

Meanwhile, Cian Fischer pinned five opponents and placed third at 113.

“Those two boys have really shown that they can wrestle with anybody they meet,” coach Tim Potratz said. “They have been fun to watch.”

Ten W-F wrestlers won at least one match in the tournament and seven won two or more, according to Potratz.

“Five of our wrestlers were one match away from placing in the top eight at their weight to earn a medal,” he said. “As a team, we recorded 16 wins by pins, which helped us move up in the team standings. Of the seven teams that placed above us in the team standings, five of them are currently ranked in Florida.

“The team really competed well in this tournament,” he added. “It was a bigger and tougher tournament than it was last year and we placed higher as a team and wrestled better than we have all season. The kids can be very proud of their efforts this past weekend.”

Carter Greening finished 2-2 with a pair of pins at 106, Easton Groskreutz won a match at 120, Justin Kempf finished 2-2 at 126, Logan Kicherer won a match at 126 and Adam Batten posted a 2-2 record with a pair of pins at 132.

“The strength of the team was shown by the next group of kids who won one or two matches to keep the team in the top 10 all weekend and were fighting for that one more win that would get them on the podium,” Potratz said.

Tyler Wetzel (160) and Austin Bartel (195) were 2-2 with a pin and Kyle Loehrke went 3-2 with a pair of pins at 170.

“Our middleweight kids struggled for wins, but stayed aggressive and battled hard in their matches,” Potratz said. “We had some great individual efforts from these kids who are mainly sophomores competing out of state in a huge tournament. They are doing good, solid wrestling moves and fighting for every win they can get. The coaches and parents are really proud of all the kids. What a fun trip.”