Showing a lot of heart, the Hatchet wrestlers worked their way into the championship of Saturday’s six-team Oconto Invite, taking down 7th-ranked Shiocton along the way.
“We beat the seventh-ranked team in the state quite handily,” THS coach Bob Garrou said of the 47-28 triumph that sealed the title. “I was really surprised in the kids, really proud of them.”
Tomahawk used upper-class dominance to win all five of its dual meets and rack up 438 points to Shiocton’s 342.
“We were champs from 152 through heavyweight,” Garrou said. “When you never lose a match that’s fun. It got to be a game, ‘Who’s going undefeated, who’s getting more pins.’ Gosh we pinned a lot of kids.
“We were in better shape than anybody and I was kind of surprised because I’ve tried to tone it back a bit for all the younger kids we have.”
Mitch McAllister (152), Colton Butler (160), Kris Cole (171), Austin Bellile (189), Payton DuPlayee (215) and Nate Kuehn (285) all grabbed undefeated titles, as did Kevin Zurfluh (103) and Turner Wegener (112). David Brostowitz (130) ranked 2nd, and Larry Hendzel (119) finished 3rd. Finding 4th were Sam Guzick (135), Johann Carstensen (140) and Brandon Larkin (145), and Austin Story (125) was 5th.
Pulling 4 falls were McAllister, DuPlayee, Kuehn and Brostowitz, while Bellile (3), Wegener (2) and Zurfluh (1) pinned every foe. Larkin also pinned 2.
Oconto (220) edged Spencer (200) and Wabeno (193) for third.