Wrestlers struggle at invite
“We had higher expectations going in. We have a lot of areas we need to improve in but it is better to peak at the end of the season than now.
~Wrestling Coach
Shane Koehl
By Michael S. Hoey
CORRESPONDENT
The Lake Geneva Badgers jumped on top of visiting Baraboo and then withstood a third quarter rally to win 67-58 last Friday.
The boys played the early game of a triple header. The second game was the consolation game of the Badger
Badger Jake Kozlowski puts in a reverse lay-up. Kozlowski had a total of 7-points at the game against Baraboo on Friday. Badger beat Baraboo 67-58.
Classic Holiday Tournament won by Slinger 47-30 over Burlington Catholic Central. The Badger girls lost to East Troy in the Championship game 57-28.
Baraboo (1-7) led Game One 13-12 after one quarter of play but the Badgers (3-6) outscored Baraboo 20-7 in the second quarter to lead 32-20 at the half.
Baraboo started the third quarter with a 16-3 run to take a 36-35 lead mid-way through the quarter. After a timeout Badger battled back to lead by as many as six by the end of the quarter. Badger led 45-41 at the end of three.
Badger dominated the fourth quarter pushing its advantage to as high as 14 points. Rob Slagle led the Badgers with 15 points and limited Baraboo’s 6’6 center Andrew Hendricks to 12. Lincoln Wieseman added 11. Ty Schlichtmann led Baraboo with 21.
East Troy runs away with tournament title
The second ranked (Division 3) and undefeated (8-0) East Troy Trojans ran away with the girls’ holiday tournament title defeating Slinger (4-4) in the semi-final round last Thursday 61-21 and Badger in the championship game last Friday.
The Badgers defeated Burlington Catholic Central (0-7) 52-39 last Thursday in the semi-final round. Badger jumped out to a 17-9 lead after the first quarter and led 27-22 at the half. The Badgers outscored Central 25-17 in the second half to preserve the win.
Badger benefitted from a hot night from beyond the three-point line making ten. Karina Reeves led the Badgers with 16 points and sank three three-pointers. Tristan Sproul added 12 points and four threes. Sophie Foote led Central with 17.
East Troy dominated the title game from start to finish building up a 30-14 halftime lead and outscoring the Badgers 27-14 in the second half.
Wrestlers have good start but lose momentum
The Badgers finished seventh at the Northern Exposure Wrestling Invitational at Merrill last Friday and Saturday.
“We had higher expectations going in,” Coach Shane Koehl said. “We have a lot of areas we need to improve in but it is better to peak at the end of the season than now.
“The top four teams were excellent teams and we are just not at that caliber yet,” Koehl added.
Overall the Badgers were 5-2 in dual matches with wins over Edgar (39-30), Pittsville (37-23), Ladysmith (64-9), Marquette (54-21), and Little Chute (56-13). The Badgers lost to Two Rivers 50-10 and Mineral Point 33-23.
The Badgers got off to a good start winning their first four dual matches on Friday but then, according to Koehl, they fell apart against Two Rivers.
Koehl said Two Rivers was a very good team that finished a close second overall. According to Koehl, Two Rivers was able to break the Badgers mentally by winning a lot of very close matches and the Badgers had a hard time recovering after that.
“We didn’t wrestle to our potential and we lacked intensity,” Koehl said.
Randy Shine did go undefeated at 7-0. T.J. Hildenbrandt and Michael Peter both went 6-1.
