The THS wrestling team traveled to Eau Claire last Thursday to compete in the one-day Eau Claire Holiday Invite, coming away with a second place finish among the 12 teams competing at the UWEC McPhee Center.
The only blemish on the day for the Hatchets was the championship match against Reedsburg, which edged THS 36-33 on the last match of the dual.
“They were a little more experienced team,” THS coach Bob Garrou said. “We made some mental mistakes and gave up some pins. Hopefully our guys can learn from this and we won’t make those mistakes going forward.”
To reach the championship bracket, THS defeated Black River Falls 64-6 and Madison East 64-9 in pool competition. To reach the championship dual against Reedsburg, they defeated Eau Claire North 49-23 and Maple Grove 49-24, who had won the other three pools.
Six Hatchets finished the day undefeated: Dakota Tomek at 132 (1-0), Dane Borchardt at 170 (2-0, 2 pins), Jake Borchardt at 182 (4-0), Jacob Schaper at 182 (1-0), Austin Bellile at 195 (5-0, 4 p) and heavyweight Mitchell Schauer (5-0, 5 p). The senior Schauer won all five of his matches by pin, which pleased THS coach Bob Garrou.
“I don’t think he had a match go over a minute,” Garrou said. “He’s really coming on this season.”
Several grapplers finished with a solo loss, including: Cullen Wegener (106, 2-1); Bryan Tomek (132, 3-1); Nate Flohr (138, 4-1); Quinton Wallenfang (145, 4-1); Peter Pintens (152, 3-1); Slade Erdman (152, 0-1); and Henry Helland (170, 2-1). Finishing with two losses were: Kevin Zurfluh (113, 3-2); Austin Story (120, 3-2); Jacob McGuire (126, 3-2); and Adam FauFau (220, 3-2, 2 p). Kaleb Kaminski (160, 2 p) went 2-3.
Prior to the final, the Hatchets were feasting on the rest of their field, easily winning all three of their preliminary pool duals and the first two matches of the championship round.
“We handled everyone pretty easily until the final,” Garrou said. “There were an awful lot of inexperienced teams.”
Garrou said despite the inexperienced field, all of his grapplers got workouts over the course of the day.
“I’m glad we made the final, and we could have won it,” he said. “We can’t help but come away from a tournament like this without becoming a better team.”
THS travels to Antigo on Thursday for a 7 p.m. dual. They will then travel to Merrill for the Bluejay Challenge tournament Sat., Jan. 12.
“Merrill’s got a real good looking team and so does Wittenberg, so it will be a good tournament for us,” Garrou said.