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Mid-States Classic at West Allis
Iowa-Grant's Blake Welu finished second at 182 lbs.. and Logan Mills third at 120 as the Panthers finished third at the 42-team Mid-States Invitational Wrestling Tournament held Wednesday and Thursday at Whitewater.
Burlington won with 193.5 points to runner-up Mukwonago's 168. Iowa-Grant was third at 161.5.
The rest of the team scores were: New Trier 156, Wrightstown 144.5, Kenosha Tremper 141, Elkhorn 135.5, Delavan-Darien 130, Har-vard 128.5, Pulaski 120.5, Belvedere North, IL 94.5, Vernon Hills 94.5, Fort Atkinson 90, Wausau East 89, Oconomowoc 74, Sun Prairie 73, Freeport 71, Ozaukee 68, Whitewater 65, Oregon Illinois 63, East Troy 61.5, Oregon 56, Nicolet 53, Kettle Moraine 52, Watertown 52, Or-fordville 46, Milwaukee Riverside 45, Sheboygan South 43, Brook-wood 41, Reedsburg 39, West Bend East 39, Marquette 39, Cedar Grove-Belgium 33, Chicago Math-er, IL 29. Clinton 25, Janesville Parker 24, Pecatonica-Argyle 23, Beloit Turner 22, Lake Mills 22, Belleville 14, Jefferson 14, Maine East 12.
Records and places (top eight) for I-G were: 106-Jordan Jenks 2-2; 113-forfeit; 120-Logan Mills 3rd, 7-1; 126-Luke Nowak 3-2; 132-Tucker Sarbacker 7th, 5-2; 138-Murilo Luques 0-2; 145-Jake Yelinek 4th, 7-2; 152-Cody Belken 1-2; 160-Brandon Pierick 6th, 3-3 (injured); 170-Logan Bollant 6th, 3-3; 182-Blake Welu 2nd, 4-1 (lost 7-5 overtime); 195-Derek Peat 7th, 4-2; 220-Cody Rider 6th, 4-3; 285-Ben McFall 2-2.
"This is a very tough tournament and it is always full of tough wrestlers. When you wrestle very good competition, your weaknesses can be exposed and some of our weaknesses as a team were very obvious. On the other hand, what works for you also shines through very brightly, and some of our guys seem to be understanding that," were the overall comments about the tournament by I-G coach Ryan Allen.
"I thought third was a very respectable finish. There were many good schools there and to place in the top three really shows that we have some good wrestlers on this team. However, I feel that we could have done a bit better. Some guys on the team got a little bit caught up in the moment in their matches just didn't wrestle like they could have. We have several wrestlers on this team that need to realize that they are very good when they just wrestle and stop thinking so much."
"Blake Welu looked good in getting to the finals. Logan Mills and Jake Yelinek did a great job wrestling all the way back to the third place match. Also Cody Rider did an excellent job at 220, taking fifth place."
As far as any injuries at this point of the season, Allen said, "Brandon Pierick injured his shoulder in the semi-final match so we ended up defaulting out of that match and the rest of the tourney. I don't think he will miss any more matches with this injury, but only time will tell. We have about two weeks off now, so hopefully he can get that healed up."
In talking about the season so far, Allen concluded by saying, "Well we know we have a great team here. We just need to make sure we do the right things to be ready to wrestle at regionals."
Pecatonica-Argyle had two wrestlers win their first two matches - Lucas McKeon and Nick Gilbertson - and Tristan Rosenstiel won every other match of his four, but none of them placed.
Their records were: 126-Jeremy Wand 0-2, 145-Tristan Rosenstiel 2-2, 152-Jeremiah Tollakson 0-2, 170-Brodie Gross 1-2, 182-Lucas McKeon 2-2, 195-Ben Meyer 0-2, 220-Nick Gilbertson 2-2.
"I was proud of our kids who advanced to the second day of the tourney - also of others also," commented Campbell. "Tristan Ros-enstiel lost to a state qualifier from Iowa-Grant, and I felt Lucas McKeon and Nick Gilbertson also did very well to get into the quarterfinals for us. They both just missed placing - losing close matches. We only had 7 guys wrestling total at the tourney so to have 3 guys do that well was great for us."
The Pec-Argyle wrestlers will l be in action again this Saturday (Jan. 7) - in Prairie du Sac, at the Sauk Prairie Invitational Tournament - and then return home to host the Dodgeville Dodgers Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. in Argyle.
Northern Exposure at Merrill
Mineral Point wrestlers finished 4th in the 2nd Bracket finals at the 24-team Northern Exposure Wrestling Tournament held in Merrill Wednesday and Thursday.
They lost to Badger 47-16 and to Bay Port 37-27 in the championship round.
During pool wrestling, the Pointers went 4-1, losing to Lodi in their final match.
Scores were: Mineral Point 43 Waterford 25, Mineral Point 52 Brookfield East 15, Mineral Point 69 Appleton West 6, Mineral Point 51 Pittsville 27 and Lodi 46 Mineral Point 16.
Cody Bertram went 7-0 at 145 as did Robby Chubb at 182.
The rest of their individual records were: Reid Suddeth 4-3, Morgan Mewis 4-3, Deven Walrack 6-1, Blake Chambers 1-5, Jake Riley 0-1, Ross Siegenthaler 2-5, Tucker Pickel 3-4, Todd Tibbits 5-2, Garrett Rose 5-2, Colton Kenyon 3-4, Nate Cody 1-5, Brenyn Schmit 4-3, Brian Steffes 4-3.
Merrill won the Championship Bracket with Badger winning the 2nd Bracket, West Allis Central the 3rd Bracket, Medford the 4th Bracket, New London the 5th Bracket and Appleton West the 6th Bracket.
In the finals, Merrill edged Oconto Falls 36-32 for the championship with Two Rivers getting by Lodi 35-30 for third place.
"I thought we wrestled well. We finished about where I felt we should," said Pointer coach Scott Schmitz. "I was dissatisfied with the effort against lodi. I felt it should've been a closer match. Lodi got on a roll and we cracked under the pressure - we should've been able to battle more."
"On the second day, Badger was just the more physical team. The Bay port match came down to whichever team wanted it more. Right now teams are winning by out efforting us. That's something we have to address in practice and hopefully by February we'll be ready."
"Cody Bertram and Robby Chubb both had great performances (7-0) as did Deven Walrack (6-1). Todd Tibbits (5-2) is right on the bubble, losing two matches in overtime. Garrett Rose (5-2) had a strong tournament, but I felt he lost to a couple of kids I though he was just as good as. Especially, out of our seniors, we need guys to want it more and go out and get it."
The Pointers travel to the Burlington Tournament Saturday. "Mukwonago beat Rapids earlier and Ft. Atkinson and Oak Creek, like them, are real physical teams. We'll see how we handle those matches."
Bi-State Classic at La Crosse
Dodgeville took 11 wrestlers to the 54 team Bi-State Classic Wrestling Tournament held at La Crosse Thursday and Friday and finished 14th in the 15-team Division 2 group, scoring 46 team points.
Of the 11, only two placed in the top 12. Austin DeVoss took 10th at 113 lbs. He went 4-3 for the tournament and registered two pins.
Jasper Meeker was 4-3 at 138 to finish 12th.
The rest of the Dodgers finishes were: 106-J.R. Obiera 1-2, 120-Mat Dougherty 3-2, 126-Tyler Wunnicke 3-2, 132-Brett Julson 1-2, 145-Brett Binsfeld 3-2, 152-Damon Wilson 0-2, 160-Cody Degenhardt 0-2, 170-Austin Olson 2-2, 195-Clay DiCiaula 1-2.
River Valley scored 155 points to finish third behind Ellsworth's 279.5 and Caledonia/Hous-ton/Spring Grove's 247.5.
Other SWAL/SWC finishes were: Cuba City/Southwestern fourth at 136, Richland Center ninth at 113, Prairie du Chien 12th at 91.5 and Belmont/Platteville 13th at 91.
River Valley's Seth Liegel was the 145 lb. champion. He moved his unbeaten record to 27-0 by scoring three pins, two technical falls and a 5-1 decision.
Other RV finishes were: 106-Alec Bass 1-2; 120-Hunter Ring 3-2; 126-Austyn Alt 4th, 5-1; 132-Nick Lechnir 4-2; 138-Joe Crook 10th, 4-2; 152-Brandon Hogan 12th, 4-3; 160-Garret Riek 2-2; 170-Duane Pretsch 3-2; 182-
Cole Forseth 1-2; 195-Jacob Heiser 1-2; 220-Zach Koch 3-2.