By Michael S. Hoey
CORRESPONDENT
The Lake Geneva Badger wrestling team hoped to improve on last year’s first ever trip to State by returning to State this year and surviving the quarterfinal round. Unfortunately, they ran into a very good #2-ranked Kaukauna team that handled them 45-9 last Friday night at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Only three Badger wrestlers came away with victories. Rory Shine won a 4-1 decision over Tanner VandenHeuvel at 152 pounds, Andrew Cychner won a 6-2 decision over Nick Agen at 170 pounds, and Tayler Hildebrandt won a 7-0 decision over Nick Dercks at 195 pounds.
Coach Shane Koehl said the final score made it look like a blowout but the match was much closer than the score indicated. Koehl said every match was competitive and if the Badgers could have pulled out a couple close wins it could have changed the momentum of the entire match.
Badger got off to a rough start when Tristan Steiner dislocated his elbow just 30 seconds into his match, a match Koehl thought he had a chance to win going in.
“We seemed to get bad breaks all year,” Koehl said. “We overcame them all year but couldn’t this time.”
The Badgers then took turns with Kaukauna winning matches as Shine, Cychner, and Hildebrandt all won sandwiched around Kaukauna wins. Each Badger win was worth just three points, however as Badger failed to get a pin or major decision. After the win by Hildebrandt, Kaukauna won the final eight matches to pull away.
“We didn’t get any bonus points,” Koehl said of the three-point wins. “We wrestled very solid but we couldn’t put them on their backs and that is a big thing in dual matches.”
Kaukauna fell to Wausau West in the championship match 28-27. Koehl said he thought Kaukauna would win the title considering how well they wrestled against Badger and in the semifinal round.
“We knew they were strong in the lighter weights, they are very deep, they sent eight kids to Individual State, and they have no weaknesses at any weight,” Koehl said.
Badger will try to rebound next season without the services of seniors like Shine and his brother Randy, Hildebrandt, Robert Johnson, Carlos Garcia, Chris Oberholtzer, and Tyler Otero.
“That is a group I will hate to see leave the program,” Koehl said. “They have been the backbone of the program the last three years.”
Koehl complimented all the seniors for their commitment and he said they were great leaders and great kids.
“It will be tough to say goodbye,” he said.
As a coach, Koehl said, you are always disappointed when you lose your last match, but overall he could not be disappointed in the season. The Badgers won their last five tournaments, shared the Southern Lakes Conference Championship, won the Regional and Sectional, and competed at Individual State for the second year in a row.
“They put it together at the end and wrestled real well,” Koehl said. “Hopefully that will build confidence and get others interested in being part of a winning program.”
