Gary Seymour, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
As if it wasn’t intense enough at the sectionals, the competition gets even more fierce this weekend for eight area wrestlers seeking to make their mark at the 72nd annual WIAA Individual Wrestling Championship Tournament.
Bonduel sends five athletes to the Division 3 tourney, including 160-pound sectional champion Dan Tauchen, who might have to unseat a former state champ to get to the top step of the podium.
Tauchen (42-2), who by virtue of his sectional title drew a first-round bye, could face Jared Roen, of Riverdale, in his second match. Roen (39-3) won the state championship at 145 pounds last year before moving up two weight classes this season.
Roen, who does not have a first-round bye, must defeat Ryan Shmauz (34-10), of Horicon, and then Jed Schlegel (40-3), of Spring Valley/Elmwood, to earn a possible showdown with Tauchen, whose first-round opponent Friday morning is the winner of the match between Mishicot’s Weston Paplham (14-11) and Zach Stluka (37-8), of North Crawford/Seneca.
Bonduel’s Jordan Boldt (38-5) meets Lucas Schevikhoven (39-6), of Shoreland Lutheran, in a 106-pound match Thursday evening, with Boyceville’s Austin Wolfe (38-4) awaiting in the second round.
In the 138-pound class, a win Thursday night for the Bears’ Travis Wollenberg (32-12) over first-round foe Jacob Erbe (42-5), of Arcadia, would earn him a second-round match Friday with another 40-plus winner, Mishicot’s Weston Cracraft (43-2).
Bonduel’s Garrett Siolka (41-7) is among the 126-pound wrestlers standing between Cameron’s Kal Gerber and a third state title. Gerber won the crown in 2013 at 113 pounds and took the title last year at 120. He moved up to 126 this year, where he has posted a 42-0 mark.
If Siolka wins his Thursday opening match against Cesar Luis (27-12), of Random Lake, he would meet Gerber in his next match, on Friday morning. Gerber and sophomore Mason Kauffman (46-0), of Stratford, are among four undefeated wrestlers in Division 3. Should they both keep winning, Siolka would meet Kauffman in the 126-pound final.
The 170-pound class will present some tough tests for Bonduel qualifier Mitch Sokolski (38-10), beginning with his opening-round match Thursday against Martin Luther’s Aaron Huber (27-13). Two former state champions will be competing in the bracket. Senior Luke Nowak, of Iowa-Grant/Highland, won the title last year at 160, and has posted a 43-4 mark this season at 170. Senior Devin Lemanski (38-0), of Edgar, won the title at 126 pounds in 2013, then finished sixth last year at 145 before moving up another three weight classes this season. Sokolski would wrestle Nowak in the second round if he defeats Huber.
In Division 2, Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s 126-pounder Zach Urquhart (34-11) must contend with a multiple state champion in his bracket. Junior Hunter Marko (37-1), of Amery, won the 2013 title at 106 and took home the crown last year at 113 before moving up to 126 this season. Urquhart, whose first-round match is Thursday evening against Isaac Brockman (44-4), of Cedar Grove-Belgium, would face Marko in the second round.
At 195 pounds, Witt-Birn’s August Peplinski (48-1), who fell from the ranks of the unbeaten at the Oconto Falls Sectional, meets Corwin Deetz (40-5), of Rice Lake, in the opening round Thursday.
On Friday morning, 170-pound Alex Peplinski (45-4) goes against the winner of a first-round match between Sparta’s Logan VanTassel (38-11) and Tristen Mueller (21-3), of Ellsworth.
Division 2 and 3 preliminaries begin at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the Kohl Center on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. Quarterfinals are scheduled to begin about 11:15 a.m. and semifinals 7 p.m. Friday, with the championship matches beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday.