WIAA State Wrestling Tournament

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WIAA State Wrestling Tournament
Saturday, February 19th, 12 wrestlers competed in the WIAA individual sectionals. After a long day, Mineral Point came up with 7 state qualifiers. The following Thursday afternoon, the community of Mineral Point waved off seven wrestlers to participate in the WIAA state wrestling tournament. Roen Carey (106), Kade Rule (113), Carson Kroll (120), Lucas Sullivan (126), Trapper Nafzger (132), Tarrin Rielly (138), and Bo Hanson (170). The wrestlers then participated in the three-day tournament.

Mineral Point had a 106 state qualifier this year. Freshman, Roen Carey started his first round on Thursday against Cole Steffen of Siant Croix Falls. Starting out strong he pinned him at 1:23. This allowed him to move to the quarter finals, Friday morning. He took on Drew Dolphin just to win with a score of 5-4. Carey then made his way to the semifinals that took place Friday night. Defeating his opponent, Amery Nutter, with a score of 2-1, he rolled his way to the finals. Carey was pumped up to wrestle in the finals. Wrestler Roen Carey states, “This last weekend was a lot to take in with many ups and only a few downs. Individually I think I wrestled well, and as a team, I thought the team also wrestled well. Having three guys in the finals and five guys place was great for us. Although we didn’t get a champ, being there is something to be proud of. We lost a few seniors, but I am looking forward towards the future and I see a lot of good in it.” Carey gave his final match of the season all his effort. Unfortunately, Carey fell to Jake Fitzpatrick with a score of 8-11. Carey made his way to second place in his first high school career, that is crazy! Carey knows that there was unfinished business and has three years to improve.

State qualifier Kade Rule wrestled at 113. He knew he had to work hard for his first match on Thursday. Rule took on Ian Crapp, and unfortunately fell to him with a score of 3-7. This left Rule with a finish to his season, but will be back next year and more ready than ever with the experience!

At 120, Carson Kroll represented Mineral Point as a state qualifier. Kroll as well had a match on Thursday night against Alexander Nitz. As Kroll walked onto the mat the supporters of Mineral Point roared with cheers. Sadly, Kroll fell to Nitz with a score of 1-3. Ending his season, Kroll kept his head high knowing that he would be back next year!

The next qualifier at 126 was Lucas Sullivan. Lucas knew he was going to have a great year at state because of his previous placing of second place. Sullivan started his part in the tournament Friday morning, facing rival Breckin Burzynski. Sullivan made a statement with a score of 7-3, knowing he was going to have a good run this year. That same day Sullivan took on Brett Birchman. He has met Brett at many different tournaments and duals and had many great runs. This time Sullivan took the win scoring 12-7. This made Sullivan fly to the finals. Mineral Point and Sullivan were pumped to see what was going to happen! Sullivan had a great run against Brayden Sonnentag. Sullivan had a great season, but it can to an end with him placing second at the state tournament.

Senior Trapper Nafzger took Mineral Point to State at the weight of 132. Nafzger had a tough run throughout the year but kept pushing and made his way up to State for his very first time. Nafzger had a match right off the bat against Ethan Dobbs on Thursday night. Nafzger slammed Dobbs to the mat with a win of 11-6. This was a huge win for Nafzger because he fell to Dobbs a week earlier at sectionals. The crowd of Mineral Point went crazy as Nafzger made his way to the Quarterfinals. His match-up for the next match was against Mason Welsh, who he’s faced before. Earlier this season at Bi-State, Nafzger, and Welsh faced each other for the first time and Nafzger came out on top. When the Mineral Point vs. Iowa-Grant/Highland took place, they got another chance at each other, but this time Zafzger fell to Welsh. Meeting him again in a State match was huge, and it was even a bigger moment when Nafzger beat him 4-3 using every last drop of energy in him. Fighting him off every second rewarded him with a trip to the semifinals.
His semifinals match was against Troy Dolphin from Ken. Christian Life. Unfortunately, Nafzger lost to Dolphin due to a fall at 1:37. Going into the consolation semifinals match, Nafzger was focusing on getting his mindset right after coming off the loss. To say the least, that is exactly what he did. He won another nail-biter 5-4 over Blake Carton from Shiocton, which is what he needed. That qualified for him to wrestle on the final day of the tournament in the third and fourth place match. He wrestled Mason Will from Saint Croix Falls in the afternoon match. By a major decision of 8-0, Nafzger took a tough loss for the last match of his high school career. Sad to see all the year come to an end, Nafzger stepped up to the podium in the fourth place spot. Great year Trapper, the community could not be more proud!

Junior Tarrin Riley was our next state qualifier at 138 pounds. Coming off of last season finishing in second place, Riley was hungry for redemption. Because Riley won sectionals, he didn’t have to wrestle Thursday night and was automatically in the quarterfinals match the next day. This is Riley’s third time qualifying for state, so this kind of pressure he familiar with and he knew how to deal with it. Riley came in strong in his first match against Micha Kuchta from Coleman. He pinned Kutcha in 5:31 and the Pointer fan section at the Kohl center went wild. In the semifinals match, Riley had to take on Tristian Stelt from Fennimore. If you are a Pointer wrestling fan, you know how big the rivalry is between us and the Eagles. Riley did not think anything of it and blew Stelt out of the water by winning over a major decision 13-1. This put Riley in the finals match in back-to-back years. In his path to first stood Gavin Drexler from Stratford. Riley ended up losing the match 11-1 in a major decision giving him another second place. Even though the match did not go the way he wanted, he still accomplished many things. Being a junior, he has many more opportunities coming to him next year. Do not count him out for next year because he’s hungrier than ever to get the first place spot on the podium.

Finally, Senior Bo Hanson took the mats at the weight of 170. In round one, Hanson had a strong win over Poynette’s Owen Bahr with a major decision of 9-0. As a result of that match, he qualified to wrestle the next day in Quarterfinals where he would take on David Malin from LaCrosse Aquinas. The match was a nail-biter, back and forth between the two wrestlers. After the third period, it went into overtime. Hanson won the sudden victory over Malin 7-5, advancing him to the semifinals match. To get to the finals match, Hanson had to get through Brant Cracraft from Mishicot. He fought through another hard match and used everything he had in him. Unfortunately, Hanson lost a close one with the final being 8-6. Following the loss, Hanson was put into the consolation semifinals trying to go for a finish of third place. Hanson’s match with Coleman’s Cole Klimek went into two overtimes, however, he couldn’t finish off the match and ended up losing 9-6. That would put Hanson facing Ryan Roy from Wabeno/Laona/Th. Lake in the running for fifth place. Hanson saw his season come to the end in that match losing to a fall with a time of 4:54. Although his high school wrestling career came to an end, being there was huge for him. He mentioned at the pep rally that this team has meant everything to him the last four years, and was sad to see it come to an end.

FINAL PLACINGS
Roen Carey (106) – 2nd place
Lucas Sullivan (126) – 2nd place
Trapper Nafzger (132) – 4th place
Tarrin Riley (138) – 2nd place
Bo Hanson (170) – 6th place

We would like to congratulate all the wrestlers this season on putting hard work and time into such a demanding, physical sport. Although it’s sad to see the season come to an end. A final thank you to all the fans, coaches, cheerleaders, and managers for supporting these boys and girls throughout the season. Good luck to all the seniors in the future and the underclassmen next season. Watch out, these boys and girls are hungry to get back up on top!