Kaukauna wrestling team nips Neenah for regional title

HORTONVILLE — The Kaukauna wrestling team fended off a spirited challenge from Neenah at Saturday’s WIAA Division 1 sectional tournament, beating the Rockets 238-228.

That gave the Ghosts, the defending state champions, yet another regional championship. 

The Rockets finished in third place a week earlier at the Fox Valley Association meet, 99 points behind the Ghosts.

The Ghosts faced off last night in the team sectional with Pulaski, ironically at Neenah, for a berth at this year’s state team wrestling tournament, held March 4-5 at the UW Fieldhouse in Madison.

The Ghosts and Rockets were going back-and-forth between first and second place throughout the meet but Coach Jeff Matczak said a couple guys got big wins in the semifinals and champions can score a lot of points.

“When it gets late in the day and you’re behind, it can tend to make you nervous because there’s only so much you can do,” he said.

With the top four placers from regionals advancing, Kaukauna sends 11 young men to Saturday’s sectional meet also held at Hortonville with four going as champions: Lucas Peters, Bryan Winans, Greyson Clark, and Drew Wendzicki.

Just two Ghosts who wrestled in the regional did not advance to sectional.

The Ghosts performed as Matczak expected, which wasn’t as good as the conference meet when they performed very well. 

The unusual thing about the individual regional is that Kaukauna wasn’t wrestling against Neenah, but both teams were wrestling against the other six teams as well.

It’s kind of an apples-to-oranges comparison and while the Ghosts have won the regional many years in a row, he doesn’t like how the regional champion is determined.

“It’s going to change,” he said. “Every year we’re hearing about it, and this happens when you have a lot of tight regionals and there are so many regionals in Divisions 1, 2, and 3 across the state.”

He noted many times the best dual meet team does not win the regional every year. 

“It’s a flawed system, we’ve been doing it for 30 years, and yesterday could have been one of those cases,” he said. He also noted the Ghosts beat the Rockets 39-33 this season but believes if the teams faced off 10 times the Ghosts would have won all 10.

He credited Neenah for having a great day and competing with a lot of emotion, he was proud his guys came through the big performances in the finals and wrestlebacks.

Peters (41-2) beat Patrick Gugala-Reinders (Menasha) 11-1 in the 120 lb. final. In the quarterfinal, Peters pinned Owen Blenker (Neenah) in 47 seconds. Peters then decisioned Nolan Skebba (Hortonville) 9-7 in the semifinal.

Winans (38-4) pinned Tyson Peach (Kimberly) in 2:34 for the 126 lb. title. He started the day with a 10-second pin of Zeke Tomlin (Appleton East), followed by a 4-2 decision over Jayden Sheppard (Neenah).

Clark (40-1), the defending state champ at 126 lbs., entered this year’s tournament at 138 and pinned all three opponents to win the regional title, capped by a 24-second pin of Tage Wasmund (Hortonville).

He started the day with a 28-second pin over Kyreese White (Appleton East), followed by a 1:22 pin over Mohammad Zaidan (Appleton North).

At 182, Wendzicki (38-6) earned a 10-0 major decision over Blake Barry (Kimberly) for the title.

He started the day with a 35-second pin over Jacob Mayer (Appleton North), followed by a 19-second pin of Joey Dringoli (Neenah) in the semifinal.

Mason Hansen and Connor Smith were two of the six Ghosts in the finals to lose those matches.

Mason Hansen (24-15) was tech falled by Wyatt Skebba (Hortonville) 19-3 in the 113 lb. final and then fended off Jacob Natzke (Menasha) in the wrestleback with a 1:54 fall to finish second. In the quarterfinal, Hansen won by major decision over Preston Hella (Neenah) 15-6 before pinning Kimberly’s James Thao in 3:18 in the semifinal.

At 132, Smith (33-11) lost a 13-1 major decision to Jake Stoffel (Appleton North). In the quarterfinal, he pinned  Drew Stocker (Appleton East) in 3:10 before earning a 6-4 decision over Henry Niebauer (Hortonville).

Jordan Loose (30-14) placed third at 220, beating Calvin Greenslade (Appleton North) in a 2:37 pin. He earned a wresteback for second place but lost a sudden victory to Allen Leitner (Kimberly), 6-4.

Michael Posorski (22-15) placed fourth at 106, losing the third-place match, 4-0 to Nick Jenkins (Menasha).

Peyton Lee (28-13) placed fourth at 145, losing his third place match, getting pinned by Grant Harris (Hortonville) in 3:42 but fending off a wresteback attempt by Logan Derouin (Menasha) with a 46-second pin.

At 152, Toby Kavanaugh (28-16) placed fourth, losing the third-place match 6-4 to Chris Meyer (Appleton West), then fending off Ayden Needham (Hortonville) with a 36-second pin in a wrestleback.

Bryant Correa (14-15) placed fourth at 195, forfeiting to Spencer Brewton (Appleton West) after being injured during the match.

Not advancing were Cole Tomchek (14-11), who placed fifth at 170, and Ben Krueger (31-15), who placed fifth at 285.