Vogel, Braam, Dedick lead team to fifth place finish
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
A trio of East Troy High School wrestlers returned from Saturday’s Wisconsin Dells Invitational with individual titles in hand.
And those three helped the Trojans to a solid top-five finish in the team standings as well.
Cody Vogel (120), Gabe Braam (132) and Jeremy Dedick (160) each ran the table in their respective weight classes to lead East Troy to 112.5 points and a fifth-place finish.
Grand Meadow High School (Minn.) won the team title with 239 points, followed by Waunakee with 134, Homestead with 129.5 and Chippewa Falls with 122.
Twelve teams competed.
Vogel, the top-ranked 120 pounder in Division 2, according to Crossface Magazine, improved to 27-1 overall with two victories Saturday.
After a first-round bye, Vogel pinned Homestead’s Antoine Bierny, followed by 9-3 win over Grand Meadow’s Brenn Olson in the finals.
Both Braam (15-8 overall) and Dedick (24-4) won three matches Saturday en route to their titles.
Braam, ranked ninth in Division 2, earned an 18-3 technical fall win over Watertown’s Clayton Goodman, followed by a pinfall victory in 5:10 over Brillion’s Ben Kasten to advance to the title match.
In that contest, Braam defeated Grand Meadow’s Josh Graves 12-6 to bring home the championship.
Dedick, ranked second at 160 pounds, opened the day with a pinfall win in 1:13 over Watertown’s James Sippel, followed by a pair of hard-fought victories to win his title.
In the semifinal, he edged Grand Meadow’s Blake Olson 4-3, followed by a 6-5 win over North Crawford-Seneca’s Zach Stluka in the championship round.
East Troy also had four other place-winners, including a second-place effort by Kyle Storandt at 285 pounds.
Storandt, ranked sixth in Division 2, needed just 47 seconds to dispose of Belleville’s Hunter Tieman in the first round, followed by a 4-2 win over Waunakee’s Jacob Marek in the semifinals.
In the finals, Storandt dropped a hard-fought 3-0 decision to Grand Meadow’s Blake Benson.
Mario Hernandez (170) was fifth, while Joe Moede (106) and Chris Storandt (195) were sixth for the Trojans.
Hernandez defeated Berlin’s Dylan Bortz by pinfall in 1:51 to finish fifth, while Moede fell 8-1 to Belleville’s Max Gerner and Storandt lost 6-2 to La Cross Aquinas’ Dante Pizzini in their respective fifth-place matches.
Also competing for East Troy but not placing were Charlie Ward (113), 0-2; Devin Peterson (126), 0-2; Griffin Blake (138), 0-2; Chase Coleman (145), 1-2; Sam Foley (152), 0-2; Travis Cadman (182), 0-2; and Nathan Dallas (220), 0-2.
East Troy is back in action this weekend when it hosts the Rock Valley Conference Meet, beginning at 9:45 a.m.
Trojans roll in dual
East Troy closed out its dual meet schedule Jan. 29 with a 57-23 win over visiting Edgerton.
Earning pinfall victories were Foley (152), in two minutes; Dedick (160), in 2:15; Chris Storandt (195), in 1:10; Kyle Storandt (285), in 59 seconds; Moede (106), in 3:45; and Vogel (120), in 1:28. Blake had the Trojans’ other win at 138 pounds, 6-4. East Troy also picked up forfeit victories at 145, 182 and 132 pounds.
Dropping matches to the Tide were Hernandez (170), by technical fall 15-0; Dallas (220), by pin in 29 seconds; Ward (113), by pin in 3:59; and Peterson (126), by pin in 48 seconds.
