By Brian Roebke
Sports Editor
APPLETON – Senior heavyweight Geoff Schmitz went undefeated and the Kimberly wrestling team placed 10th at the Battle of the Fox hosted by Appleton West   at Alexander Gymnasium at Lawrence University on Saturday.
The young Papermakers went 1-2 in pool play and then lost the ninth place match to Sheboygan Falls 56-13 in the 16-team tournament.
Getting a lot of mat time was a nice benefit for coach Gary Westerman’s team.
“It’s huge, especially right before Christmas. It’s good conditioning,” Westerman said. “Geoff had two six-minute matches down the stretch, which is huge. Going into On the Water we want to get some mat time here and Brad (Hoh) had a bunch of long ones here too so it’s good. We have to improve our conditioning down the stretch now and look to On the Water and get through Christmas and stay healthy so to speak.”
Schmitz went 5-0 at 275 pounds, winning the title for Kimberly. At 215 pounds, Hoh was second at 4-1.
In the first round of pool competition, Kimberly beat Southern Door 51-24. Brookfield Central then tied Kimberly in the second round but the Lancers won on criteria, 43-42.
In the third round, Oak Creek pounded Kimberly 65-10.
Then the teams went to the semifinal round and Kimberly was placed in the 1-2 pool, where they beat Homestead 37-33.
“With the young kids, I think we took steps forward and we got some good wins,” Westerman said. “Angelo Timm and Jesse Timm both made steps forward today. Danny Lenzer is a first-year wrestler that got two varsity wins today and then Jeff and Brad both wrestled well.”
With a young team, a lot of matches in one day are a great help in getting those wrestlers to improve.
“Right now when they come off the mat, coach talks to them immediately and gives them two things that they did right or wrong and we fix it,” Westerman added.
At this point it’s difficult for the Papermakers to score a lot of points as a team.
“The hard thing is that from 103 to 171 we are all freshmen and sophomores and the squad is made up of three seniors and everybody else is a freshmen or sophomore,” Westerman said. “That makes it really tough for us but the kids are battling, there’s some competitors out there and if they just keep working hard, good things are going to happen. We’ve got to keep them together and keep them interested in wrestling and be positive.”
Kimberly hosted Appleton North last night and will wrestle at the On the Water Classic at UW Oshkosh next Thursday and Friday.