By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
Coach Ken Reynolds is convinced Elkhorn Area High School’s Richie Heideman didn’t notice the 14,000 spectators in the Kohl Center when he beat DeForest’s Hunter Toppel 5-2 in the quarterfinals of the WIAA Division1 State Wrestling Tournament in Madison at the Kohl Center.
The tournament started Feb. 26 and continued through Feb 28. Heidemann defeated Toppel, ranked third in the state in the 285-pound weight bracket in the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online individual rankings, in the Friday evening session.
Heidemann (40-12) placed sixth at 285 pounds for the Elks’ best finish of the seven wrestlers the school took to Madison. Seven state qualifiers is an all-time high for the program.
“What a stage,” Ken Reynolds said. “It was really impressive to see seven Elkhorn guys warming up on the mat.”
Bryce Fitzgerald (126), John Olsen (145), Keaton Verhoeven (170), Jordan Barr (182) and Dylan Linhart (195) were each done after losing their first match at state and not getting a wrestleback. Konnor Mohr (152) won his first match and lost the following two.
A wrestleback occurs when a wrestler has not faced the opponent ahead of him previously in the tournament.
Heideman advanced to state after finishing second in his bracket Feb. 21 at the WIAA Division 1 sectional meet at Sun Prairie. The top two finishers in each bracket advanced from the sectional to the state meet.
“He was a nice surprise,” Reynolds said. “He really wrestled well. When he beat the kid from DeForest, that kid had pinned him twice early in the year.”
Reynolds said Heideman’s victory over Toppel counted as the tournament’s biggest upset, to that point in the tournament.
“He is so coachable,” Reynolds said of Heideman. “We had a game plan and he executed it. He is so coachable and he did it and he won. I don’t know how else to say it.”
Heideman is a sophomore who came out for wrestling as a freshman, and weighs in at about 250 pounds. In the semifinals, he lost to eventual state champion senior Beau Thompson of Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln (52-1), 6-0.
“We’re still a sophomore,” Reynolds said of Heideman. “We’re still 15 years old, and you’re wrestling an 18-year-old man. I think he did really well only giving up the six points.”
Heideman beat Cedarburg’s Kyle Polum (38-4), 9-0, in the consolation semifinals after losing to Thompson. Heidemann lost 5-3 to Badger’s Cole Mikrut in the fifth-place match.
“I think he was just content with where he was,” Reynolds said. “I don’t think it was his best wrestling match, by any means. By then, he’d had enough. It was his sixth match at the state tournament.”
Heideman opened at state with a 3-2 victory against Fond du Lac’s Donte Johnson (40-8).
Mohr (40-5) opened with a 2-1 tie-breaker victory against Pewaukee’s Jason Berg (38-14). Kaukauna’s Brady VanHandel (36-9) pinned Mohr in 1 minute, 54 seconds in the quarterfinals. Van Handel finished fourth.
In the wrestleback, Mohr lost a 9-5 sudden victory against Wauwatosa’s Marcus Morrow (44-6).
Fitzgerald (38-7) lost his only match 4-2 to Menomonie’s Hayden Schlough (36-11). Schlough finished sixth. Olsen (37-4) lost his only match 5-2 to Kaukauna’s Drew Kepline (23-5).
Middleton’s Taggart Haase (48-6) beat Verhoeven (37-9) 4-2 in the opening round , and Eau Claire North’s Hunter Dalby (40-8) pinned Barr (33-9) in 1 minute, 44 seconds in the opening round.
Dylan Linhart (37-6) finished sixth last year at 195 pounds. This season, at the same weight, Homestead’s Gage Zupke (27-2) pinned Linhart in 2:53 in the opening round.
The Elks did not finish at state with the expected success, but Reynolds did not express disappointment with the team or its effort.
Reynolds said the goal for some of the Elks needs to move from getting to state to winning at state, and said the team needs to get stronger to make that happen.
“What we have to do more is lift,” Reynolds said. “We want you stronger. Strength has to be the overriding thing, the overriding factor, that will carry you everywhere.”
