Marc Kinziger certainly likes where his team is at right now.
Following a 66-9 rout of Shawano on Thursday night, the Oconto Falls High School wrestling team is out to a 4-0 record in the Bay Conference.
“I think our best is yet to come, but it’s starting to get into place,” said Kinziger, who is a tri-head coach for the Panthers. “I think we’re going to have a couple of lineup shifts here yet with guys going into lower weight classes, and I think when that happens that’s going to push other guys. Anytime there’s that competition in the room, the intensity picks up. They seem to be a pretty good group of kids that feed off of that.”
The Panthers took care of Shawano pretty easily. The team scored seven pins, got three forfeits and earned 12 wins on the night. Scoring bonus points in 10 matches was key.
“Bonus points are always huge, especially when you get down the road and you get into closer matches, it seems to always be the difference,” Kinziger said. “It’s always either 7-7 or 8-6 (match victories) and whoever has the most pins usually wins. You’ve got to get them when you can take them, and tonight we seemed to get them. If a guy got on his back, we seemed to get him.”
Shawano (1-4 in conference) could only earn one pin and a decision.
“It’s hard when you’re giving up those falls like that and you’re looking for all the points you can,” Shawano coach Mike Homan said. “We’ve got to learn to battle through that. We’re young and we’ve got some inexperience and we’re doing a good job working so far, and we’ve got a lot of work to do yet.”
Oconto Falls junior Austin Vandenheuvel (120) scored one of his team’s pins. He believes his teammates are starting to peak at the right time.
“We’re doing pretty good,” Vandenheuvel said. “We all sacrifice a lot, so we all push each other.”
The Panthers already had a 30-9 lead when Vandenheuvel hit the mat against Jordan Rodriguez. Vandenheuvel took a 3-0 lead into the second period before taking care of business with a pin at 2:30.
“At first, I got out there and I was a little worried because the kid was stronger than me, but then I guess it kind of turned out the way I wanted it to,” Vandenheuvel said.
Vandenheuvel has been kind of a utility guy all season, wrestling wherever he is needed in his first year on varsity. Kinziger thinks Vandenheuvel is starting to come into his own as a wrestler.
“He’s coming in and filling in and he took second on Saturday (at Brawl in the Falls),” Kinziger said. “Before that, I don’t know if he had won any varsity matches. He’s stepping up all of a sudden and looked good. I’m really happy with him.”
Oconto Falls also had pins from Dewey Krueger (160) over Curtis Waupoose, 1:52; Brice Delzer (170) over Jacob Sackett, 2:44; Kyle Wolf (195) over Dylan Enno, 3:21; Sam Konitzer (126) over Austin Oreskovic, 1:50; Bryce Ash (132) over Shawn Bell, 1:38; and Nate Trepanier (145) over Jarett Laatsch, 2:32.
Daniel Ausloos (220), Brett Ash (138) and Jake Yatso (152) all earned victories via forfeit for the Panthers.
In the tightest match of the night, Oconto Falls’ Kaleb Westcott (285) held a 7-1 lead in the second period, but Damon Braatz scored the next five points. For the final minute-plus of the match, Braatz tried to pull out the victory, but Westcott didn’t budge and held on for a 7-6 win.
At 113, Oconto Falls’ Evan Konitzer downed Daniel Darling by decision, 12-6.
Shawano’s only two victories came at 182, where Mason Boogren came back to beat Mac Winkler, and 106, where Wyatt Welch pinned Bryce Peterson in 51 seconds.
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