 DALTON PEIFFER of Cedar Grove-Belgium (right) battled Brillion’s Jess Bashada before losing a 10-4 decision in the opening round of the Rocket Scramble wrestling invitational on Saturday. Peiffer finished 11th in the 145-pound weight class. Photo by Sam Arendt
CG-Belgium’s Garcia, Mueller emerge as kings of their classes at annual invite
The Cedar Grove-Belgium wrestling team had two champions in its annual Rocket Scramble last Saturday, none better than Tyler Garcia.
The 160-pound senior, who has more than 100 wins in his career, dominated his weight class and finished the day 5-0.
“Tyler’s wrestling really good right now,” Rockets coach Trevor Peterson said.
“He had three pretty good kids in that final round, and he didn’t have a single close match. He handled everybody.”
Garcia (24-1) received a first-round bye, won by pin and scored three straight victories by decision.
After defeating Ryan Geiger of Brillion, 7-0, in the semifinals, he overpowered Valders’ Caynen Klessig, 15-4, to secure the title.
The Rockets finished seventh in the 17-team field with 474 points. Shiocton won the title with 601, one point ahead of runner-up Brookfield East.
Cedar Grove-Belgium’s other champion was heavyweight Matt Mueller, a junior who improved his season record to 21-3.
After a first-round bye, Mueller won his next four matches. The victories included a technical fall and major decision before he pinned Valders’ Matt Miedl in 49 seconds and defeated Oostburg’s Brad DenBoer, 4-0, in the final.
The Rockets’ next-best finish came from Zach Schulz, who placed third at 119 pounds.
After a bye and win, Schulz lost a 4-0 decision to Casey Dentino of Brookfield East in the third round and was pinned by Marshall’s undefeated Hunter Weber. However, he bounced back to pin Jose Gonzalez of Shiocton in 3:48.
Peterson said Schulz had a tough weight class. Weber won the WIAA Division 2 state title last season at 112 pounds.
“It was a close match. It could have gone either way,” Peterson said.
Cedar Grove-Belgium’s Nick Wieberdink took fourth at 103 pounds.
He received a bye and scored a 17-8 major decision over Horicon’s Trever Schultz before losing three times by pin.
“Nick had a really good first match of the day,” Peterson said. “If he got into the Gold Division (winning first two matches), he knew it was going to be a tough day.
“I was pretty proud of him for getting into that division.”
The Rockets’ next meet will be Friday, Jan. 14, when they host Oostburg at 6 p.m. at Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School.
Peterson is looking forward to the meet but knows it won’t be easy. The Rockets have two wrestlers injured and another out due to a suspension.
“Our younger guys need to come through with some wins, and we should do pretty decent. We should give them a pretty good match,” he said.
The meet was moved from Monday because both teams had tournaments last Saturday and their wrestlers needed time to recover and make weight. The meet has been designated as Senior Night.
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