Regional action begins Saturday at Big Foot
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With a young team competing at a big meet usually comes some ups and downs.
But what also happens is those inexperienced athletes get a bit more comfortable in their surroundings.
And when it comes to the East Troy High School wrestling squad, the Trojans experienced plenty of both at Saturday’s Rock Valley Conference Meet.
Freshman Tommy Larson highlighted the day with a title at 106 pounds to help the Trojans to a fourth-place overall finish in the team standings.
“Overall, the team did some nice things,” East Troy assistant coach Ryan Holle said. “The effort was there, as always. For the young athletes, the experience is huge moving forward.”
Larson, ranked eighth in Division 2 by Crossface Magazine, had byes in the first two rounds that landed him in the semifinal, where he beat Edgerton’s Daniel Clark 10-5.
In the finals, Larson, who improved to 31-3 overall, beat Whitewater’s Tyler Gamble 8-2.
“Gamble had a nice game plan coming in,” Holle said. “(He) neutralized Tommy’s shot, so Tommy had to use other methods to score, but he wrestled a real nice match and won his first conference championship.
“He is ready for the tournament season, and we have high expectations.”
The Trojans sent two other wrestlers to the finals, Chase Coleman (152) and Chris Storandt (195).
Coleman, ranked 12th, had a first-round bye, and then pinned Edgerton’s Matt Nelson in 39 seconds. In the semifinal, he beat Jefferson’s Jose Rios by major decision 14-2 to advance to the finals.
Coleman (31-10 overall) lost 11-5 in that match to Beloit Turner’s Anthony Bivens.
“(Coleman) came on strong in the end against Bivens,” Holle said. “He gave up too many uncontested takedowns early in the match that cost him, but he finished strong.”
Storandt (32-8) advanced to the finals with a pinfall victory in 3:27 over Turner’s Cody Krueger, before he dropped a hard-fought 4-0 decision to Evansville-Albany’s Lucius Rinehart.
Rinehart (27-0) overall moved down to 195 from 220, where he was the top-ranked wrestler in the most recent poll.
“(Storandt) wrestled a great match (in the finals),” Holle said. “He gave up some unfortunate back points, but wrestled a great first period.”
Other conference place-winners for the Trojans were Joe Moede (113), third; Jacob Price (182), Jacob Mast (220) and John Skinner (285), fourth; John Veselka (138) and Kelcye DeMara (160), fifth; Austin Pogreba (170), sixth; and Dustin Bartell (126) and Mason Orgas (132), eighth.
Moede advanced to the semifinal, where he fell to seventh-ranked Cole Bavery, Edgerton, by pin in 46 seconds, before he rallied for two straight wins to finish the tournament.
In the consolation round, Moede beat Evansville’s Zachary Lipke 3-0, followed by a 7-1 win over Turner’s Devon Harbison in the third-place matchup.
Holle said two varsity wrestlers, Victor Chapman and Kaleb Curler, missed the meet because of injury.
Tournament begins
Next up for the Trojans is the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 Big Foot Regional, set for Saturday, beginning at 10:30 a.m.
The top-two finishers in each weight class will advance to the Milwaukee Lutheran Sectional Saturday, Feb. 18, with a berth in the state tournament on the line. The regional championship team advances to the team sectional at East Troy Feb. 14.
Holle said the team hopes to have Jackson Dedick back at 145 pounds and Curler in the lineup at 120 pounds for the regional.
“Filling the lineup will help out, and we hope to have a good tournament from all participants,” Holle said. “We will have to win a few matches we are not supposed to in order to win the regional, but that is the fun part of it. It is that time of year.
“The focus changes more to an individual approach, where kids are at their best weight class for the tournament run. Now it is win or go home, but our tough schedule always pays off this time of year. They are ready, and we are looking forward to it.”
