Hortonville defeats Appleton West
By Greg Seubert
Hortonville ran its string of dual wrestling match wins to five Jan. 2 with a 46-30 Fox Valley Association victory over Appleton North.
The Polar Bears headed into the 106-pound match on Parents’ Night down 12-0. Hortonville forfeited to Calvin Hansen at 220 and Wes King pinned JP Degeneffe in 1:24 at 285.
The Lightning forfeited the 106-pound match to Wyatt Skebba and Austin Spindler tied the score at 12-12 after pinning North’s Anthony Perry in 1:06 at 113.
Hortonville forfeited to Colin Gross at 120 and trailed 21-12 after Michael Smith’s 8-4 win over Jesse Cleereman at 126 pounds, but took a 24-21 lead on first-period pins by Braden Bellile and Austin Wasmund at 132 and 138, respectively. Bellile took care of Mohammad Zaidan in 1:52, while Wasmund pinned Elijah Talbot in 1:09.
North regained the lead with Eric Esser’s pin of Kyler Brown in 3:40 at 145, but the Polar Bears took the lead for good – 28-27 – on Jacob Collar’s 11-3 win over Cole Verhyen at 152.
Hortonville added to its lead with first-period pins in the next three matches. Landon Thern pinned Matt Reischl in 1:49 at 160, George Huza pinned Jackson Schipper in 1:32 at 170 and Dylan Gocke pinned Gabe Cihlar in 1:15 to make it 46-27.
North’s Demetrius Davis wrapped up the meet with a 12-8 win over Zach Diedrich at 195.
The Polar Bears will head to Oshkosh North Thursday, Jan. 9, for an FVA dual with the Spartans before travelling to Fond du Lac Thursday, Jan. 16, for conference matchups with Kaukauna, Appleton West and Fond du Lac.
