Wega-Fremont loses conference meet
By Greg Seubert
Thanks to the Shiocton Chiefs, an outright Central Wisconsin Conference championship is no longer a possibility for the Weyauwega-Fremont wrestling team.
The Chiefs headed to Weyauwega Jan. 18 for a CWC meet that also included Rosholt, Pittsville, Tri-County and Wittenberg-Birnamwood and stayed undefeated in the conference dual meet standings with a 40-33 win over the Warhawks.
Weyauwega-Fremont also headed into the matchup with the Chiefs with an undefeated dual meet mark after opening the meet with an 84-0 win over Tri-County.
“The meet went back and forth, with each team taking the lead,” coach Tim Potratz said. “In the end, Shiocton won the tough matches. That put Shiocton in the driver’s seat to win the conference title unless we win the conference tournament to force a tie for the title.”
Shiocton 40
Wega-Fremont 33
Shiocton opened the meet with Blake Carton’s pin of Caleb Abbey in 1:47 in the 165-pound match, but the Warhawks came back in the next match with Carter McDaniel’s pin of Israel Sanchez in 2:36 at 175.
The Chiefs took the lead for good with Ilijah Sanchez’s 22-8 major decision over Jared Bohringer at 190 and Austyn Neubert’s pin of Tellyer Alix in 2:35 at 215.
Vanden Hoffman needed only 33 seconds to pin Shiocton’s Owen Carlson in the 285-pound match that cut the Chief’s lead to 16-12.
The teams exchanged wins at 106, 113 and 120. Weyauwega-Fremont’s Jaydon LeNoble dropped a 16-12 decision to Holdyn Volkman, the Warhawks’ Josue Azuara pinned Lexi Riehl to cut Shiocton’s lead to 19-18 and Shiocton’s Mason Demerath pinned Rylan Konen in 1:38.
The Warhawks forfeited only uncontested match at 126 before Jake Buss and Carter Birdyshaw picked up wins at 132 and 138, respectively. Buss handed Jackson Reif a 7-5 loss and Birdyshaw pinned Zach Reif in 3:04.
Birdyshaw’s pin cut the Chiefs’ lead to 31-27, but Weyauwega-Fremont never got any closer, as Shiocton sealed the win with wins at 144 and 150. Jordan Jahnke pinned Aiden Marquette in 2:58 and Matt Wilke’s 9-5 win over Alex Loehrke gave the Chiefs a 40-27 lead heading into the final match at 157, which Connor Johnson won with a pin of Shiocton’s Logan Leeman in 1:50.
“It was a great high school wrestling match between two of the top Division 3 teams in the state – Weyauwega-Fremont at No. 5 and Shiocton at No. 7 – in front of a full house,” Potratz said.
Wega-Fremont 84
Tri-County 0
Five pins and nine forfeits added up to a win over the Penguins.
Pins for the Warhawks went to Azuara over Kyu Vang in 52 seconds (113), Buss over Brianna Garcia in 19 seconds (126), Ezra Balthazor over Cayden Weis in 1:48 (138), Johnson over Aidan Brewer in 3:16 (157) and Jared Bohringer over Jovanni Mata in 3:19 (190).
LeNoble (106), Konen (120), Dewayne Borntreger (132), Marquette (144), Loehrke (150), Abbey (165), McDaniel (175), Alix (215) and Hoffman (285) won their match by forfeit.
The Warhawks will head to Rosholt Thursday, Jan. 25, for CWC duals with Amherst at Rosholt.
Weyauwega-Fremont will wrap up its dual meet schedule Friday, Jan. 26, by hosting Winneconne, currently ranked ninth in the state in Division 2, at 7 p.m.
The Warhawks’ junior varsity and youth wrestling programs will also host their annual invitationals at Weyauwega-Fremont High School. The JV tournament is set for Saturday, Jan. 27, and will include more than 20 teams, while the youth tournament is set for Sunday, Jan. 28.
“This is a great event that will feature our youth club and middle school wrestlers and over 300 wrestlers overall,” Potratz said.