By David Paulsen
Correspondent
The East Troy High School wrestling squad finished fourth out of 16 teams at the Terry Kramer Open held at Fort Atkinson Saturday. The Trojan grapplers tallied 239.5 points and had one first-place finisher. Fort Atkinson won the invitational with 361 points.
“We wrestled pretty well,” head coach Mike Howard said.
Howard noted he had several wrestlers compete in higher weight classes than what they normally compete in. Andy Strey moved up to 138 pounds, Oscar Donegan to 195 pounds, and Joey Dedick to 220.
“We’re trying to not make them cut weight all the time,” Howard said.
Dedick won the 220-pound weight class without a challenging match. He had three pints and a 15-0 technical fall win in the finals.
That earned Dedick a Co-MVP award for the invitational along with Tyler Rice of Kenosha Tremper. Dedick is now 31-0 this year.
Donegan finished second at 195, as did Cody Vogel at 113. Both lost in the finals.
Vogel dropped a 2-0 decision in the finals, but Howard noted that Vogel had been sick earlier in the week.
“He was a little out of energy, but he wrestled really well,” Howard said, adding that in the finals, “his gas tank was running low.”
Donegan dropped a 7-3 decision in the finals, but also wrestled really well all day.
Zach Lamb took second and Andy Strey third at 138 pounds. Both went 3-1 and were set to face each other, but Howard did not want them to wrestle each other out of concern that either could get injured. As a result, Strey, who normally wrestled at 132, forfeited his match to Lamb, who normally competes at 138.
Howard also noted the effort of Sam Foley at 132. Foley went 3-2 on the day, winning his final two matches to place sixth.
“That was a nice lift for his confidence,” Howard said.
Others who placed in the top six were Gabe Braam (fourth, 120), Ryan Engel (fourth, 126) and Jeremy Dedick (fifth, 145).
Schedule
Next week, East Troy will host Beloit Turner in a 7 p.m. RVC dual on Tuesday, Jan. 29.
