East Troy sends six grapplers to sectional tournament
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
For six members of the East Troy High School wrestling squad, the hopes of competing in next week’s Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 State Tournament remain alive and well.
Now they each have one more big hurdle to get over.
East Troy emerged from Saturday’s Big Foot Regional with four individual champions and one second-place finish en route to third overall in the team standings.
Whitewater won the regional title with 244.5 points, followed by Catholic Memorial with 187 and the Trojans with 181. Delavan-Darien was fourth with 127 points, followed by Greendale Martin Luther with 111 and Big Foot and Saint Anthony with 17.
Winning individual titles for the Trojans were Tommy Larson (106), Joe Moede (113), Chase Coleman (152) and Chris Storandt (195). Jacob Mast (220) was second, while John Veselka (138) was third, but advanced because of an injury to the second-place finisher.
All six will compete in Saturday’s Milwaukee Lutheran Sectional at 10 a.m. The top three finishers in each weight class advance to state next weekend in Madison.
Larson (34-3 overall) beat Whitewater’s Tyler Gamble 8-3 in the finals in his only match of the day – his third victory over Gamble this season.
“When you wrestle and beat a good kid three times, it sends a message,” East Troy coach Mike Howard said. “Tommy had to overcome several adversities before and during the match.
“He was very sick on Friday and wasn’t sure if he had the strength to wrestle and compete.”
Howard said Larson overcame an early takedown with a reversal before the end of the first period and was in control from there.
“Tommy came back to dominate Tyler from all positions,” Howard said. “He was very exhausted after the match.”
Now that he appears to be 100 percent, the focus is on the sectional and a likely matchup with Lomira’s Tyler Garriety, who is ranked third by Crossface Magazine.
Larson enters the sectional ranked eighth.
“(He) will need to keep his offense going to do well in sectionals,” Howard said. “He competes best when he opens up and has no fear of losing. Wrestle to win. These matches are no different than any other match throughout the year.”
Moede (24-16) pinned Whitewater’s Jamison Quass in the semifinals, followed by a 4-0 victory over Catholic Memorial’s Dominic Mudlaff in the title tilt.
“Joe wrestled tough at regionals,” Howard said. “He made it past a decent Whitewater kid in the (semifinal). Joe wrestled smart in the finals and controlled the match. He was tough on top against Mudlaff.”
Looking forward, Howard said he wants to see Moede get off to a faster start this weekend.
“Instead of feeling a kid out and waiting to see their offense, Joe needs to wrestle his match and score early,” Howard said. “Don’t come from behind, don’t worry about what your opponent will do, but worry about how you are going to take the match to them.”
At 152 pounds, Coleman (34-10) advanced to the finals with a pinfall victory in 1:59 over Whitewater’s Wil Leibbrand.
In the finals, he pinned Catholic Memorial’s Isaac Gromacki in 1:32 to win the title.
“Chase pinned a strong kid in the finals,” Howard said. “I believe this is his first regional championship. Chase outmuscled the kid on top to get the pin.”
Coleman, currently ranked 10th, needs to keep the pressure on this weekend, his coach said.
“Chase needs to bring his ‘A’ game to sectionals,” Howard said. “He needs to continue to pressure his opponents so they make mistakes on their feet by taking a bad shot.
“Chase does well when he is always on the offense but defending well at the same time, always looking for a scoring opportunity and not giving up easy points at the end of a period like an escape or a late-period takedown.”
East Troy’s final regional champion, Storandt (35-8) pinned Catholic Memorial’s Ryan Boemer in 1:18 in his only match Saturday.
“Chris dominated his guy in the (first) period,” Howard said. “I think he took the kid down four or five times before pinning him.”
As for Saturday, Howard is looking for Storandt to keep working on his leg attacks in order to be successful.
“Bigger guys sometimes have a tough time going underneath kids from their feet, but Chris needs to find a way to create angles and score,” Howard said. “Don’t keep the match close when you can put a kid out of the match by scoring more points.”
Mast finishes second
Jacob Mast (18-13) won his semifinal match, 6-3 over Catholic Memorial’s Rich Dedick, but fell 4-3 to Whitewater’s Ernesto Magana in the championship.
“Jacob is always learning and getting better in his matches,” Howard said. “I always tell kids that you never lose in wrestling. You either win or learn. Jacob is still learning and doing very well in this sport. This is his first year out, so we are very proud of his accomplishments.”
Veselka (13-18) was pinned in the semifinals at the 2:47 mark by Martin Luther’s Tucker Hartlaub, but bounced back to pin Catholic Memorial’s Jake Olejnik in 2:26 in the third-place match.
“Johnny has come a long ways from last year when he only won one match,” Howard said. “We expect good things out of Johnny in the future.”
The Trojans’ other top finish came at 182 pounds, where Jacob Price was 1-1 overall to place third. Austin Porgreba (170) was 1-2, including losses in the last two rounds because of injury.
Also competing for East Troy were Dustin Bartell (126), 0-1; Mason Orgas (132), 0-2; Jackson Dedick (145), 0-2; Kelcye DeMara (160), 0-2; and John Skinner (285), 0-2.
Each of the wrestlers who saw their seasons end at the regional gained valuable experience for the future.
“We are a very young team and have learned a lot of good experiences so far throughout the year,” Howard said. “We have over 10 freshmen on the team out of an 18-person roster. We need to continue to work hard the rest of the year and also in the offseason.”
