By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
Two Big Foot athletes at different points in their wrestling careers ended their seasons last weekend.
But for both sophomore Travis Berryman and senior Will Utesch, the final results at the WIAA Division 2 State Tournament at the Kohl Center, Madison, weren’t the main story.
The fact they each got there was.
Utesch won his first match at 220 pounds before he dropped the next two, while Berryman lost to an eventual state runner-up, in the last competition of the season.
Both put their best efforts together at the most important time of the year, Big Foot coach Craig Utesch said.
“The kids went out and wrestled to their abilities,” he said. “They just ran into some decent competition.”
Will Utesch, who finished his career as one of three Big Foot wrestlers with 100 victories, opened the weekend with a convincing 12-3 major decision win over Freedom junior Evan Phillbeck.
“He pretty much took care of business (in the opening round) and beat the kid pretty handily,” Utesch said.
In the quarterfinal, Utesch faced a familiar foe in Monroe junior Traiten Gorr, who defeated him 2-0 earlier this year. In the rematch, Gorr pulled off a 2-1 victory to send Utesch into the consolation round.
Utesch fell by pinfall to Luck’s Josh Glover in 5:08 to end his season at 35-8 overall.
Gorr eventually placed fourth overall, while Glover was sixth.
“We knew (the match with Gorr) was going to be a good match,” Utesch said. “He gave it everything he had out there and just came up a point short. That’s going to happen at state. It’s a matter of (getting) points.
“In his last match, he just never got any rhythm going. He wrestled well, but was never able to string together points. But overall, he had a great career.”
Utesch said he enjoyed the chance to coach his son – not that it was always a smooth ride.
But that will happen when a parent coaches their own child.
“It’s been fun,” Craig Utesch said. “We butted heads a little bit (at times), but for the most part we kept that under control the past few years.
“It’s been enjoyable. It’s probably tougher on him than on me as far as having to make weight and me being around him all the time. But overall, it was a good experience.”
Berryman’s state trip came to an end Thursday night, as he fell 9-3 to Mosinee sophomore Josh Ehster. Berryman finished the year at 35-14 overall.
Ehster advanced to the state finals Saturday, where he fell 3-0 to Denmark sophomore Brock Bergelin.
“Travis wrestled pretty well, I thought, especially with the level of the competition,” Utesch said. “I told him to go out there and leave everything out there. If you do that, win or lose, you can’t expect anything more from yourself.
“Hopefully, he got a good taste of what it’s like. I think he now knows that he has to do some off-season work to get up to the point where he can be a place-winner.”
