With the possible exception of tightrope walking, a five-of-six success ratio is cause for celebration in any athletic endeavor.
Bonduel High School can vouch for that and put exclamation points on it, after the Bears advanced five wrestlers at the talent-stacked WIAA Division 3 sectional they hosted Saturday at Shawano.
Jordan Boldt, Garrett Siolka, Travis Wollenberg, Dan Tauchen and Mitch Sokolski all extended their seasons another week by posting top-three finishes that kept their individual state title hopes flickering and matched Bonduel’s highest total of state finalists since 2006.
“Just a great day for us,” Bonduel coach Chris Rank said. “To have five wrestlers make it to the state finals is really an accomplishment. I could not be more proud of all these young men.”
Tauchen would like to remedy some unfinished business at the finals, and his sectional championship at 160 pounds got him started in the right direction.
The senior pinned Billy Retza, of Crivitz, and then overcame an injury to his right index finger sustained in a 10-9 semifinal win over Auburndale’s Wyatt Weiler to garner an impressive 5-2 title match win over Tony Kontney, of Rosholt.
“I rely more on my legs, anyway, and I’m able to push the pain aside, so (the injury) is not going to be a major issue,” said Tauchen, who finished sixth at last year’s finals. “The way I feel now is the most confident I’ve been since I started wrestling 13 years ago. I’ll be watching film and getting ready all week. To be in the finals is really something. It’s the best time of year.”
Boldt, a freshman who took third at 106 pounds, knocked off Rosholt’s Hampton Kedrowicz before taking on Matthew Grossman, of Pittsville, in a semifinal match. A double-leg takedown gave Boldt the winning margin in the 10-8 overtime triumph that assured his trip to state.
“It’s huge to make it to the state finals,” Boldt said. “I’ve never had a feeling like this. In (the semifinal match) I think I was being too laid back at first. Then I realized I had to step it up and just say, ‘OK, enough messing around.’ The intensity is going to be high this week at practice.”
Siolka bounced back from a semifinal loss to Mason Kauffman, of Stratford, to take third place, earning a return trip to state and bouncing Three Lakes’ Sam Logalbo and Auburndale’s Dylan Altmann from the playoff picture in the 126-pound division.
Wollenberg’s victories at 138 pounds were the finest sort of theater, as the senior who was nosed out for third place and a trip to the finals at last year’s sectional hit a couple of last-second moves to edge Zac Higgins, of Crandon, 5-4 in the quarterfinals and then tip David Marquardt, of Stratford, 4-3 in the semifinal.
“In the semifinal match, I saw there were six seconds left, and I needed to get two points,” said Wollenberg, whose second-place afternoon had been threatened to end on a 3-2 loss. “I was able to do an ankle pick and take him down.”
The same storyline played out in Wollenberg’s quarterfinal, when he hit a reverse on Higgins to erase a one-point deficit as time ran out.
“It’s definitely a good feeling to advance,” Wollenberg said, “especially after coming close last year. My confidence is up for the finals — probably around 210 percent.”
“Travis wrestled his heart out,” Rank said. “The determination of that young man is something.”
Bonduel’s Bennett Gunderson dropped a tough 1-0 decision to Stratford’s Tyson Kauffman in their 285-pound match, thwarting Gunderson’s bid to advance, but Sokolski grinded out four wins at 170 pounds — including three wrestlebacks — to finish second and punch his ticket to the Kohl Center in Madison.
Categories
