Dan Tauchen and Mitch Sokolski left their mark at the WIAA Division 3 state wrestling finals Saturday.
Both of the Bonduel High School seniors came home with fourth-place hardware, Tauchen in the 160-pound division and Sokolski at 170.
In Division 2 action, Wittenberg-Birnamwood senior August Peplinski couldn’t have come closer to a state title.
Tauchen (46-5), who lost in the semifinal to eventual champion Jaren Roen (45-3), of Riverdale, opened the final day with a 8-0 win over Tony Kontney (40-15), of Rosholt, in a major decision, advancing to the third-place match. There, he faced Cambridge’s Jeremiah Moody, who’d dropped only three matches this season. Moody edged Tauchen for a 7-4 win.
Sokolski also opened with a win, defeating Elliott Ebert (44-8), of Reedsville, in an 8-5 decision. However, that led to a rematch with Luke Nowak (49-6), Iowa-Grant/Highland, who defeated Sokolski 10-5 in the quarterfinal. Though the score was different, Nowak still doubled up on Sokolski, winning a 6-3 decision to take third.
“Anytime you get wrestlers qualified to the state tournament, to represent the team and their school, it’s special,” Bonduel coach Chris Rank said. “To get five wrestlers at state is just a great way to end a great season. Obviously the first goal was to get everybody up on the podium, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
“These guys have a lot of pride. I know that (106-pound state qualifier) Jordan (Boldt), (126-pound state qualifier) Garrett (Siolka) and (138-pound qualifier) Travis (Wollenberg) wanted to be wrestling on that final day, but I reminded them of how special it was just to be there, and that there were a lot of guys who would love to be in their shoes. It was a great weekend and a great season.”
In Division 2, reaching the finals of the 195-pound division, Peplinski (53-2) faced the same wrestler who ended his undefeated season not long before postseason competition began.
Peplinski and Ramsey Bloy (49-1), of Freedom, wrestled one of the closest matches of the 2015 state finals, going to sudden-victory. Rather than an avenged loss, Peplinski was relegated to second, as Bloy earned a 6-4 win in sudden victory to claim the state title.
Coach Troy Ostrowski said Peplinski was executing the plan he needed to, though Bloy got through to claim the win late.
“August was doing well,” Ostrowski said. “He was playing to his style — the style he’s run with all year and stuck with it to take the match to overtime.
“Then, we got caught off-guard and what happened, happened.”
Sophomore Alex Peplinski (49-7) added another top-five finish for Wittenberg-Birnamwood, placing fifth in the 170-pound division. After being sent to the consolation round Friday, he opened with an 8-4 loss to Brandon Buechler (42-13), of Wrightstown. Peplinski went to the fifth-place match, where his opponent — Jake Rueth (43-7), of Neillsville/Greenwood/Loyal — forfeited the match.
Categories
