Wrestling season still alive

By Greg Seubert

It’s been quite a season so far for the Weyauwega-Fremont wrestling team.

And the Indians are showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The team hosted a WIAA Division 3 regional meet Feb. 9 and placed first out of seven teams. The Indians were scheduled to face Crandon and two of the state’s top wrestling programs – Coleman and Stratford – Feb. 12 at a team sectional in Auburndale, with the winner to advance to the WIAA State Team Wrestling Meet March 1-2 in Madison.

W-F also sent eight wrestlers to the finals at the regional and ended up with five champions: Carter Greening (113 pounds), Cian Fischer (120), Justin Kempf (132), Tyler Wetzel (182) and Austin Bartel (285).

Those five wrestlers, along with second-place finishers Easton Groskreutz (126), Logan Kicherer (145) and Skylor Maynard (195) advanced to the Bonduel Sectional, set for Saturday, Feb. 16, at Shawano High School.

Manawa had three champions in Colten Klemm (106), Bryan Griffin (138) and Eli Yoder (170) and three others that placed second: Kevin Klemm (113), Corey Beyer (182) and Andrew Elmhorst (220). All six wrestlers also advanced to the Bonduel Sectional.

Waupaca headed to Amherst for a Division 2 regional and will send a pair of wrestlers to the Wrightstown Sectional: champion Colby Bernhardt (132) and runner-up Brock Sanger (195).

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Manawa's Colten Klemm (right) controls his 106-pound match with Almond-Bancroft/Pacelli's Derek Clark Feb. 9 at a WIAA Division 3 regional wrestling meet at Weyauwega-Fremont High School. Klemm went on to win the 106 title and will join five other wrestlers from Manawa and eight from Weyauwega-Fremont Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Bonduel Sectional in Shawano. Weyauiwega-Fremont also won the team regional championship and advanced to a team sectional scheduled for Feb. 12 in Auburndale. Greg Seubert Photo

Division 3
W-F Regional
Team scores in Weyauwega were Weyauwega-Fremont (229), Shiocton (205.5), Manawa (178), Wittenberg-Birnamwood (147), Rosholt (108), Tri-County (73) and Almond-Bancroft/Pacelli (44).

Four of the Indians’ championships came by pin. Greening pinned Kevin Klemm in 49 seconds, Fischer pinned Rosholt’s Bo Niewiadomski in 2:41, Kempf pinned Tri-County’s Ryan Applebee in 1:37 and Wetzel pinned Beyer in 23 seconds. The Indians’ fifth championship came on Bartel’s 2-0 win over Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Allen Uttecht.

Groskreutz dropped a 5-4 decision to Shiocton’s Ethan Flannery in the 126 final; Kicherer fell 3-2 to Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Will Urquhart and pinned Shiocton’s Parker Moder in 57 seconds in the wrestleback round; and Tri-County’s Patrick Leisbsle pinned Maynard in 1:48, but Maynard wrapped up second place in the wrestleback round by pinning Shiocton’s Trevor Reif in 42 seconds.

W-F’s Adam Batten (138), Ean Marker (152) and Ben Strehlow (160) placed third.

“All three of these boys wrestled their hearts out,” coach Tim Potratz said. “They were so close to moving on. It is so disappointing that kids that work as hard as they have not get to wrestle at sectionals. These three boys really stepped up big for our team this year and we would not have been a dominant team without their efforts.”

Max Meyerhofer (170) placed fifth.

“We did not wrestle as well as we could have in the tournament,” Potratz said. “We let some matches get away that we could have won. We are very proud of the effort from all our boys.”

Colten Klemm beat Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Pierson Potrykus to win his championship, while Griffin beat Shiocton’s Jared Jahnke 9-3 and Yoder beat Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Jeremy Landowski 12-7.

Kevin Klemm and Beyer did not need a wrestleback match after being pinned by Greening and Wetzel, respectively. Shiocton’s Tyler Hess pinned Elmhorst in 5:37 at 220 and Elmhorst also did not need a wrestleback match.

Manawa’s other wrestlers included Gavin Linjer (120), Ryan Pynenberg (132), Colin Moser (160) and Alex Meidl (285), fourth; and Jeremy Grimm (126) and Kaden Kaczorowski (195), fifth.

Division 2
Amherst Regional
Tomahawk won the regional with 270 points, followed by Nekoosa/Assumption/Port Edwards (246.5), Lakeland/Mercer (130), Mosinee (121), Amherst (120.5) and Waupaca (110).

Bernhardt won his championship with a 10-0 major decision over Tomahawk’s Alex Bishop, while Tomahawk’s Eric Decker pinned Sanger in 1:18 in the finals.

Waupaca’s other wrestlers included Ronald Mason (138), third; John Schmidt (113), Ben Habighorst (120) and Garret Miller (145), fourth; Devin Eisentraut (152), Gabe Pierotti (170) and Kai Badgley (220), fifth; and Emmalee Schmid (160), sixth.