The Hatchet wrestlers will be sending a solid trio of upper-weight wrestlers to the WIAA state meet this week and they nearly sent two more out of seven qualifiers to Saturday’s Oconto Falls Sectional.
“All the guys wrestled really well,” THS coach Bob Garrou said. “We lost a couple of close matches. Nate (Flohr) and Slade (Erdman) wrestled extremely well and gave everything they could to be a state qualifier.”
Juniors Kaleb Kaminski (182, 47-0) and Dane Borchardt (220, 46-1) both wrapped up titles, while senior Jake Borchardt (285, 41-6), Dane’s brother, lost a 2-1 final to Southern Door’s 43-4 Mitchell Overbeck. Kaminski started with 6-1 and 3-0 wins before pinning Wautoma’s 43-3 Taylor Rivers in 3:19. Dane Borchardt started with a 5-4 tiebreaker win, worked a 10-2 major, then survived a 6-4 overtime win over Freedom’s 37-10 Evan Philbrick. Jake Borchardt opened with a 12-6 win, pulled a pin in 4:49, then lost to Overbeck.
“The kids that made it out, we could have had three champions,” Garrou said. “Jake had the kid taken down 4-5 times at the edge of the mat and the ref kept calling it off the mat. He lost on a stalling point where a kids that out-weighed him by 60 pounds kept shoving him off the mat. I don’t think that should be called stalling.”
Erdman (170, 40-9) ranked fourth after a 2-1 win, but fell 8-7 to Luxemburg’s Dalton Smercheck (35-10). He responded with a 9-6 win but fell 15-0 in the third-place match. Flohr (145, 32-10) was topped 12-7, and Jacob Schaper (195, 24-6) was pinned in 2:21.
Jake Borchardt faces Westfield’s 31-14 Austin Barton on Thursday. Kaminski and Dane Borchardt wait for Thursday winners for Friday matches.
“All of them have matches they can win,” Garrou said. “It would be nice if we could come out of there with a couple of state champs. Our goal is to come out with three medals and it’s in their hands.”
Team standings– Freedom 126.5, Two Rivers 80, Luxemburg-Casco 76, Oconto Falls 75.5, Wrightstown 67.5, Tomahawk 62, Nekoosa/Assumption/Port Edwards 54, Wittenberg-Birnamwood 52, Southern Door 47.5, Denmark 36, Mosinee 34, Wautoma/Wild Rose 32, Berlin 25, Seymour 18, Ripon 11, Waupaca 7, Little Chute 3, Fox Valley Lutheran 0, Omro 0, Peshtigo 0, Winneconne 0.