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It's always a great time at the State individual Wrestling Championships Saturday night at the Kohl Center in Madison. It's a great place to watch such an event and it's packed, holding about 7500 people. After the parade of champions that was done to music with the lights out and only spotlights swimming around, a choir from Stoughton sang the National Anthem to perfection. Then came the wrestling and the finals never fail to provide some great wrestling, some powerful pins, some tears and a lot of joy for the winners. Mineral Point senior Robby Chubb gave his school a thrill when he won the 195 lb. Division 3 championship - the 50th in the school's history during a time when the school is celebrating 50 years of wrestling. Iowa-Grant/Highland's wrestling team had a lot to be proud of when Tucker Sarbacker was crowned 138 lb. Division 3 champ. Also, River Valley's Seth Liegel came up big at 152 lbs. in Division 2. He has a lot to be proud of too as his father, Ralph, was a two time state winner and his brother, Scott, a current UW-Badger wrestler, won once on the Kohl Center stage. Seth will join his brother at the UW next season. At state wrestling I run into other newspaper people I usually only get to see at state events and we get to compare conferences and areas for sporting prowess. Then, at the Kohl Center Media Hospitality room, I get all the coffee I want to drink plus a place to sit down when I want to get out of the sports arena.
Above is a photo of Mineral Point's Robby Chubb getting last minute tips from coach Scott Schmitz and his assistant coaches before taking the mat for the 195 pound final.
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It was great to see Dodgeville boys basketball senior Nick Crowley achieve 1000 points over his high school career in tournament play against Wautoma last week. I'm pretty sure he finished with 1021, joining Karl Clough and Tom Westhoff in that "1000 point" club. He's been a great asset to DHS sports!
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Also, another 1000 point milestone came to Barneveld girls basketball senior Madi Laube the other night against Juda. She hit 1000, 1001 and 1002 in one shot, a three pointer. The Lady Eagles began tournament play Tuesday night and will probably go really deep into the Division 5 pool, hopefully to the state finals!
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After a late Tuesday night, getting all of that night's sports, meetings and elections in the paper, I was pretty tired on Wednesday. When I was heading back to the office from my "paper route" to Linden, Cobb, Montfort, Livingston and Highland, between Edmund and Dodgeville I found myself starting to doze a little - eyes were closing and opening. Anyway, at one point, I found my car creeping toward the centerline with a semi heading my way - not good! I think I'll have to carry something to drink (but I won't tell you what) while I'm driving on Wednesdays!
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Good luck to all the area high school girls basketball teams that began tournament play Tuesday night. Hopefully, there will be a lot of them to cover Friday and even Saturday night during regionals!