Shawano wrestling team finishes strong in win over Kiel

The Shawano Community High School wrestling team was victorious across the final five weight classes during a rare nonconference dual against Kiel on Dec. 29 in Shawano. The Hawks won 51-26.

Squaring off its first non-Bay Conference opponent, Shawano was locked in a battle with Kiel, which was ranked 10th in Division 2 in the first team rankings put out by wiwrestling.com.

Shawano surged out to a 24-6 lead after a first period pin from Drake Herm (106) and forfeit wins by Jackson Smits (220), Brady Jones (285) and Brady Stomberg (106), but Kiel won the next four weight classes to go ahead 26-24.

Noah Jones flipped the script for Shawano at the 145-pound weight class, and the next four Hawks that took that mat also won to help the hosts claim the win.

“Our kids just won some tough matches by working and moving forward,” said Shawano coach Mike Homan.

Noah Jones was in control from the moment he stepped on the mat, leading 4-1 after the first period and 9-2 after the second period. He came away with an 11-2 major decision win to put Shawano up 28-26.

Colten Herm took the mat next for the Hawks at 152 pounds. He too was the aggressor, taking a 5-2 lead after one period before pinning his opponent 18 seconds into the next period using the spiral ride.

Caden Young wrestled for Shawano at 160 pounds and continued where his teammates left off. He got the first takedown and led 2-0 after a period. Young scored nine points in the second period and another five in the third to finish off a 16-0 technical fall win.

Andrew Popp was next up for the Hawks at 170 pounds, and although he had to work harder to earn a win, he was able to get it done.

After going down 2-0, Popp pulled a late reversal at the end of the first period to tie the match. He wasn’t able to escape the bottom position in the second period, but got a takedown in the third period to go ahead 4-2. He eventually was able to pin his opponent after 5 minutes and 9 seconds.

“The kid I wrestled was tough. He was both technically sound and strong,” said Popp. “I went into the final period knowing that I needed at least a takedown. I ended up getting that and then had to hold him down. When he was trying to stand up he put his head near his leg and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to do the cradle.

“I was gassed at this point and my muscles hurt but I knew that I could end the match if I could just hold onto him so I squeezed my hands together with everything that I had.”

Shawano was able to put an exclamation mark on its dual win when Gage Timm earned a first period pin.

Wrestling in just its third dual of the season, Shawano improved to 3-0. The team’s other two matches were against Bay teams, and as of Dec. 29, only conference opponents were on the team’s schedule.

While the team is pleased at the start its off to, it knows there’s still room for improvement.

“As a team we have to improve on working harder in practice and continue to push each other to be the best, and if we continue to do that, we will have an awesome year,” said Colten Herm, who also said a positive attitude would be key as the season progresses.

“I think we are heading in the right direction but we have work to do yet in order to be where we want,” said Homan. “We are by no means a finished product yet. We can improve on many things — our conditioning needs to improve, we also need to keep fighting into good positions on our feet. Our work off of the bottom needs to take the next step as well.”

After the varsity match wrapped up, the teams competed in several exhibition matches.

Carter Schmidt, Marcus Koehler, Reef Anthony, Sheldon Krueger, Carsen Herm, Alex Kohn, Quardell Little Owl, Brady Jones and Smits all won exhibition matches for Shawano.

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