Jacy Zollar sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader photo by Jacy Zollar Shawano Community High School sophomore Ben Carroll defeats Antigo’s Dylan Warax 9-6 in the quarterfinal. Carroll will return to sectionals after placing third at the WIAA Division 1 Regional at Green Bay West on Saturday.
Shawano will have six wrestlers competing at WIAA Division 1 sectionals after finishing in the top-four of their respective weight classes at Saturday’s regional tournament.
One returning sectional qualifier, sophomore Ben Carroll, advanced again this year. Five Hawks will have their first experience at the tournament.
Colten Herm (120 pounds) and Sam Tourtilott (170) advance as runners-up at the regional tourney at Green Bay West. Carroll placed third in the 138-pound class. Gage Timm, Crede Timm and Nick Kohn each placed fourth at 145, 195 and 285 pounds, respectively.
“Regionals was overall good to us,” head coach Mike Homan said. “We started the day where we expected to be, in the middle of the pack. We did okay in the first round but took on some really tough opponents in the second and took a beating. It was a really tough round for the kids, but they wrestled hard in the wrestlebacks, and I was very proud with how they finished the day.”
Tourtilott (18-14) secured his second-place finish by a wrestleback win. Tourtilott defeated Trevor Giese, of Green Bay, in the third-place match and went on to pin Travis Jahnke, of Bay Port, in the wrestleback match (1:05) to clinch the runner-up.
“Sam has been up and down this season, so he’s had a tough year,” Homan said. “But at regionals he just put everything together and really executed what he learned over the year to be able to win the third-place match and move up to the win the wrestleback.”
Herm (21-13) made it to the championship match, but lost a technical fall to Pulaski’s Cole Gille, who placed fifth at state last year. Herm had to wrestle Bay Port’s Chance Osmanski in a wrestleback to determine the true second-place finisher. He clinched the runner-up title with a pin over Osmanski in 2:13.
“Colten’s opponent in the championship match showed why he was a state-placer last year, so that was obviously very tough,” Homan said. “But he wrestled exceptionally well in the wrestleback and definitely earned that second-place.”
Carroll (23-11) was two points away from the championship match, but lost a 5-4 decision in the semifinal to Brady Sorenson, of Pulaski. Carroll won the third-place match by forfeit.
Gage Timm (17-15) defeated West De Pere’s Tyler Mudd 9-4 in the quarterfinal before dropping a decision to Green Bay Preble’s Devin Laplante in the third-place match.
Crede Timm and Kohn both clinched their respective final sectional spots with victories in wrestlebacks after winning fifth-place matches.
Crede Timm (11-11) pinned Bay Port’s Drake Anderson in the fifth-place match and edged his way to fourth by picking up a 4-3 decision over Green Bay Preble’s Julius Stevenson in the wrestleback.
Kohn (18-17) pinned William Townley, of Bay Port, in the fifth-place match and went on to pin Floyd King, of West De Pere, in the wrestleback.
Kohn, the Hawks’ heavyweight wrestler, is the sole freshman on the team advancing to sectionals.
“It’s rare to have a freshman wrestle heavyweight, because they’re usually just not capable to take that on yet,” Homan said. “So the fact that he not only was our varsity heavyweight wrestler, but also advanced to sectionals, is pretty amazing. He had wrestled the kid in the wrestleback (King) in a previous match and lost to him, and I could see that he had a fire under him to beat (King) and kind of redeem himself.”
Homan said the Hawks are seeing their program really start to develop after coming off a season low in numbers. Shawano sent just two wrestlers to sectionals last year.
“It’s amazing to see the difference a full team makes,” he said. “The mood has completely changed in terms of the fire and competitive drive the wrestlers have. When you have almost a full team, the kids push each other more and pick each other up. They have more teammates to wrestle with to really start to develop and take those next steps as a wrestler, and that has been evident this year. These kids have a taste of what’s possible for them if they really work hard and put in the time, and I think they all want to do that.”
WIAA Division 1 sectional team results:
1. Pulaski (203.5) 2. Green Bay Preble (171) 3. De Pere (165) 4. Bay Port (133.5) 5. Green Bay West/East/Southwest (123) 6. Shawano (112) 7. Antigo (105.5) 8. West De Pere (103)