By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With every New Year, there is a chance to reflect on the past 12 months and also to look ahead.
What 2015 holds remains to be seen, but we can take a quick look back at how 2014 unfolded for the student-athletes and teams at East Troy High School.
The following is a brief look at some of the highlights, written in two, six-month segments. This week’s article will recap the first six months of the year:
Wrestling
East Troy wrestlers Cody Vogel (113), Andy Strey (138) and Zack Lamb (145) each brought home individual titles from the Rock Valley Conference Tournament. East Troy finished second overall, behind only Evansville-Albany; the boys basketball team handed previously unbeaten Edgerton its first loss with a 58-54 RVC victory.
The wrestling team sent eight individuals to the sectional round and scored 239 points to win the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 Whitewater Regional. Lamb led the way, as he won his 100th career match en route to a first-place finish at 145 pounds; six wrestlers advanced to the state tournament after strong efforts at the Waupun Sectional.
Advancing were Vogel (113), Gabe Braam (126), Ryan Engel (132), Strey (138), Lamb (145) and Jeremy Dedick (160).
Boys basketball
Two victories by the East Troy boys basketball team in the WIAA Division 3 regional sent the Trojans to the sectional tournament. East Troy defeated St. Thomas More 67-50 in the first round Saint Francis 52-32 the following night; Strey, Vogel and Dedick each placed at the WIAA State Tournament, including Strey with the best finish in fourth-place overall; the girls basketball team defeated Milwaukee North 71-28 and Thomas More 66-56 on successive nights to win the Division 3 regional title and advance to the sectional.
The boys basketball team fell 58-55 in a Division 3 sectional semifinal to eventual state champion Brown Deer. East Troy finished the year at 17-8 overall.
Girls basketball
The East Troy girls lost 57-16 to Kettle Moraine Lutheran in a sectional semifinal to finish the year at 10-15 overall; Katrina Santos, M.E. Dodge and Emily Leising earned All-Rock Valley Conference girls basketball honors. Named from the boys; squad were Jacob Growel, Will Iloncaie, Connor Mitchell, Matt Kaminski and Joe Ciriacks.
Baseball, soccer
The East Troy baseball team finished its regular season with an 11-5 record, good for third place behind 15-1 Jefferson and 10-4 McFarland; the girls soccer team closed the regular season with four straight shutouts to finish at 11-8-1 heading into the sectional tournament.
Girls track
Senior girls track athlete Bryzena Santos pulled off her best effort in the long jump on her final attempt to win the WIAA Division 2 state title. Santos posted a jump of 17-6 3-4, to finish ahead of Jefferson sophomore Mikaela Grant’s 17-5 3-4.
Other top state efforts by the girls were recorded by Katrina Santos, eighth in the triple jump (34-3 1/4) and ninth in the high jump (16-3 1/2); M.E. Dodge, eighth in the discus (121-7); Hope Schneider, 11th in the high jump (5-0); and the 3,200-meter relay team of Katie Hodges, Charlotte Plehn, Katrina Santos and Erin Parr, ninth (9:50.57).
East Troy finished 13th as a team with 16 points. Hayward won the team title with 38 points, followed by Dodgeville-Mineral Point with 37, Jefferson with 32 and Lakeside Lutheran and Wrightstown with 30.
Boys track
On the boys’ side, East Troy was represented in four individual events and one relay.
Miles Kilpin led the boys, as he was fourth overall in the discus (155-10) and 12th in the shot put (47-6 1/4).
The other top finishes were recorded by Charlie Kutschenreuter and the 1,600-meter relay team of Noah Scheer, Cody Studt, Nathan Nguyen and Kutschenreuter, both sixth overall in 50.69 and 3:28.02, respectively.
Sam Eckert competed in the 110-hurdles and finished in 15.66 in the preliminaries but did not qualify for the finals.
East Troy finished with 11 points as a team, good for 21st place. Monroe won the state title with 63 points, followed by Seymour with 37, Milwaukee Lutheran and Grafton with 35 and Little Chute with 3
