Bonduel wrestling team enjoys strong night on mat

5 Bears finish undefeated
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

Competing in its first multi-dual of the season, the Bonduel High School wrestling team performed well, going 2-1 at a quad on Jan. 7 in Bonduel.

The Bears opened the night with a tight 41-36 win over Central Wisconsin Conference foe Amherst. After a 51-30 setback to Southern Door, Bonduel bounced back with a 48-30 win over Southern Door/Sevastopol.

Donovan Vigue, Kaden Bergsbaken, Luis Lagunes, Tyson Bogacz and Max Sokolski all went 3-0 to lead Bonduel on the night, while Cooper Salerno, Jayson Toellner and Parker Perry all finished with two wins.

“It was really nice,” said Bergsbaken on getting to wrestle against multiple teams on the same night. “It gave us a feel of having different matches on the same night so I think that’ll get us ready for tournament time, which is great.”

Perry got the night off to a strong start for Bonduel, winning by pin against Amherst.

After Amherst earned a forfeit win, Vigue claimed a 6-4 decision win, pulling off a reversal in the final seconds for a thrilling victory. Bergsbaken followed with a second-period pin.

After the next five weight classes were forfeited — four of which the Bears forfeited — Lagunes won a 10-2 major decision.

Bonduel dropped the next weight class (132) and trailed 36-25, but claimed the next three weight classes to win the dual. Toellner won a 16-2 major decision before Bogacz pinned his opponent in 37 seconds. Sokolski picked up a forfeit win.

“Amherst, with it being a rival team, a conference team, we certainly wanted to have a good showing and to win that match. I thought our kids wrestled phenomenal against their team,” said Bonduel coach Chris Rank.

Bonduel was unable to overcome its limited roster numbers against Southern Door.

The Bears held a 12-6 lead after first-period pins from Vigue and Bergsbaken, but the team had to forfeit the next four weight classes.

Lagunes, Bogacz and Sokolski were the other Bears to win against Southern Door, doing so with first-period pins.

In its dual against Sturgeon Bay/Sevastopol to end the night, only four weight classes were wrestled, with Bonduel going 3-1 in those matchups.

Bergsbaken, Lagunes and Sokolski all won by pin for the Bears. Vigue, Salerno, Toellner, Bogacz, and Perry all won by forfeit.

“I could always work on everything overall,” said Lagunes when asked to assess his night on the mat. “You can always improve yourself, top, bottom and neutral, but I’ve been lacking on my shots mostly, so that’s something I’ll be focusing on.”

Tauchen trio inducted into Hall of Fame

Even after a long night of wrestling, many Bonduel fans stayed around to watch Ben, Joey and Danny Tauchen get inducted into the Bonduel wrestling Hall of Fame.

Rank spent several minutes talking about each Tauchen wrestler’s career, with one of his closing remarks being that he considered the trio like his own sons.

The trio combined to win 422 matches during their high school careers. A Tauchen wrestler qualified for state in every year from 2009-15.

Ben Tauchen owns the record for most career wins at Bonduel with 168. He is one of three Bonduel wrestlers to have won four conference championships and regional titles. He qualified for state three times and won two titles.

Joey Tauchen finished his high school career with 114 wins. He qualified for state twice, placing sixth and fifth.

Danny Tauchen totaled 140 wins in high school. He placed sixth and fourth in his two state appearances.

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