Ghosts sending five wrestlers to individual state

HORTONVILLE — Five sectional champions and two sectional runners up from Kaukauna travel to Madison for this year’s WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament at the Kohl Center at UW-Madison.

Division 1 preliminaries begin Thursday at 3 p.m., with quarterfinals beginning approximately 5:15 p.m.

Leading the way for the Ghosts is two-time state champion Greyson Clark, who won the 138-lb. weight class at Saturday’s Hortonville sectional. Clark, ranked first by wiwrestling.com, won the 106-lb. weight class in 2020 and 126-lb. weight class in 2021 when the tournament was held in Kaukauna.

Saturday, Clark (43-1) won by fall over Collin Hansen of De Pere in 2:52 for the sectional title. It was his third fall of the day, after pinning Jonah Leisgang of Ashwaubenon in 1:32 and Brady Gille of Pulaski in 35 seconds.

“He was dominant,” Kaukauna Coach Jeff Matczak said. “Some-times the weight class clears itself out for you because people don’t want a piece of just fighting for No. 2.”

Peyton Lee, who competed at 145 Saturday but did not advance, pinned Gille, who was sectional runnerup, earlier in the week at the team sectional so Matczak thinks Kaukauna has the second best 138-lb. wrestler in the sectional but he’s not going to state.

“Peyton’s wrestling at 145 and he had a rough week at regionals so he was stuck against a regional champ from the other side in the first round and got beat but I have a kid I know is a sixth state qualifier, it’s just the WIAA won’t let us put two guys at one weight, so it’s a travesty,” Matczak said. “I could have two track athletes finish 1-2 in the 100 meters but I can’t have two 138 lb. kids meet in the finals.”

Bryan Winans (41-4), won the 126 lb. title with a 2:45 pin of Kimberly’s  Tyson Peach to earn his second trip to state. He advanced at 120 last year but did not place. He started the day with a 14-second semifinal pin of Eric Bishop of Ashwaubenon before pinning Jayden Sheppard (Neenah) in 3:46 in a semifinal match. Winans is ranked fourth in the state.

“Winans got taken down by Sheppard in the semis and sometimes when the weight class is wide open, you have to make sure you win that semi,” Matczak said. “You don’t want to count on somebody else to give you the opportunity to go to state, you want to create your own, so he gets taken down right to his back and rolled through it and didn’t give up back points.”

He was still down 2-0 late in the second period when he got Sheppard in a monster headlock and got the pin.

Against Peach, who Matczak thinks is really good, Winans got his fourth win of the season against him. “He gets a move on him and pins him. I love the way he’s competing.”

Ranked ninth in the state, Judah Hammen (38-9) won the 160-lb. weight class with a 12-2 major decision over Cole Verhyen of Appleton North.

He started the day with a 2:46 pin of West Bieber of Shawano in the semifinal, followed by a 1:16 semifinal pin over Thomas Mudd of West De Pere.

“He got taken down by Verhyen, who he beat a number of times this year, but he got on top and started doing his thing and wearing Cole down and ended up getting a major decision,” Matczak said.

Ranked second in the state, Lucas Peters (44-3) placed second at 120 lbs. but had to fend off a wrestleback challenge to do it. Peters won his first match with a 46-second pin over Nicholas Schomaker of Bay Port, followed by a 16-0 tech fall win over Patrick Gugala-Reinders of Menasha.

That got him to the first place match but lost a 12-0 major decision to top-ranked Shane Corrigan (47-0) of De Pere.

Peters then had to defend second place and did so nicely, with a 9-1 major decision over Nolan Skebba of Hortonville.

“Peters was great because he didn’t have that opportunity because of an injury last year,” Matczak said. “Corrigan is really tough, and he had to beat a kid for the fourth time this season.”

Connor Smith (36-12) won a wrestleback to take second place at 132. He earned major decisions in his first two matches to reach the finals. In the quarterfinal, he beat Owen Bowers of Ashwaubenon 14-0, followed by a 10-2 win over William Rambert of Neenah in a semifinal match.

Jake Stoffel of Appleton North (39-2) then won by a 15-0 tech fall over Smith to win the title. Smith then fended off Henry Niebauer of Hortonville 6-3 in a wrestleback. Smith is ranked 10th in the state, while Niebauer is ranked ninth.

“Connor sustained a back injury at Pulaski and we nursed him back for the conference tournament and he wasn’t 100 percent, takes third, that hurt, losing to this kid from Hortonville who he had beaten twice earlier in the year,” Matczak said. “He had to swallow some humble pie and now you move ahead and he wasn’t feeling real well this week and he wasn’t the healthiest, wasn’t able to hold his weight.”

The dean of FVA wrestling coaches thought Smith came back Saturday and wrestled really well in the semis but the final was a big mismatch. However, Stoffel should be a contender for a state title in Madison.

Kaukauna had some other good performances by guys who did not move on to individual state. 

Senior Toby Kavanaugh (30-17) took third at 152 after pinning Ayden Bruckner of Bay Port in 5:13.

“He took a lot of losses this year, always was over .500, and to be third at sectional and in a good sectional is a real tribute to how much he wanted to compete today,” Matczak said. “He practices hard … he competes really, really hard and he really wants to win. Today, third is nothing to sneeze at.”

At 182, Drew Wendzicki (40-7) placed third after pinning Blake Barry of Kimberly in 3:16. Wendzicki, a junior, is ranked sixth in the state, but the first and second-place wrestlers at Hortonville are ranked ahead of him.

“He had wrestled this Pulaski kid at the Pulaski invite and was winning by two points right at the end and he got beat right at the buzzer and went to overtime and he lost, so we figured this would be between those two in the semifinals,” Matczak said.

Bryant Correa (15-17) wrestled at 195, where he lost his semifinal match, then defaulted his third-place match due to injury.

“He’s been nursing shoulder injuries and came in today and beat the No. 1 seed from the other regional, 30-some wins, and dominated the match, the biggest win of the year for him to be a sectional place winner with fourth place in a 16-team sectional.,” Matczak added.

“There were five guys in our conference who he lost to but sometimes it works out.”

Matczak thinks the Fox Valley Association had six or seven really good wrestlers at 195 this season that could all be state qualifiers.

“I’m really proud of what he’s done,” said Matczak, who lauded  the Aurora Sports Medicine staff for having Correa ready mentally and physically to be on the mat.

Four Ghosts did not place at the sectional: Michael Posorski at 106, Mason Hansen at 113, Lee at 145, and Jordan Loose at 220.

“All our qualifiers are coming back next year and we have seven or eight kids coming back that should give us some horsepower,” Matczak said.