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Strong individual efforts help Ozaukee hang tough in own duals tournamentA senior and a freshman both posted 5-0 records and five other wrestlers went 4-1 to help the Ozaukee Warriors hold their own in a home duals tournament last Saturday.
Ozaukee finished with a 3-2 meet record in the round-robin competition.
The Warriors defeated Lake Mills (52-24), Homestead (44-35) and Arrowhead (54-30) and lost to Merrill (39-33) and Oshkosh West (46-34).
“We usually wrestle pretty well in our gym,” Ozaukee co-coach Luke Gundrum said.
Senior Pat Leonard excelled at 140 pounds for the Warriors by pinning four opponents and defeating Jack Osness of Merrill, 9-4.
Leonard pinned Blaise Holter of Homestead (in 40 seconds), Jack Neuens of Lake Mills (1:10), Arrowhead’s Curtis Corlett (1:12) and Luke Lubenow of Oshkosh West (1:40).
“Pat had a good day. He probably wrestled the best he’s wrestled this year,” Gundrum said.
Ozaukee freshman Ian Hughes (103 pounds) pinned Arrowhead’s Peter Rowe in 4:59 and scored a 17-4 major decision over Frank Frassetto of Oshkosh West.
Hughes’ other wins came on forfeits.
Going 4-1 for the Warriors were freshman Ethan Brouillette (119), junior Brady Watry (125), senior Matt Stockwell (135), senior Scott Watry (145) and junior Vince Cardarelle (152).
Brady Watry “had a pretty decent weight class with some pretty tough kids in there,” Gundrum said.
“He’s probably wrestling as well as he has this year.”
Gundrum singled out Watry’s 8-7 win over Homestead’s Spencer Bold.
“Brady came through with a big win against a pretty tough kid. It was one of the best matches of the day,” he said.
Ozaukee forfeited matches at 160, 171 and 189 pounds. If the Warriors had wrestlers at those weights, the outcomes of their two team losses may have been different.
“It’s hard to come back from that. You start duals down by 18 points,” Gundrum said.
Arrowhead entered its junior-varsity squad in the tournament after West Bend West dropped out at the last minute, Gundrum said.
Ozaukee 52, Cedar Grove-Belgium 21
The Warriors won easily in a forfeit-filled Central Lakeshore Conference meet at home Jan. 14.
Ozaukee won six matches by forfeit and the Rockets won one. At 189, neither team had a wrestler.
“We’re struggling a little bit with numbers and they’re struggling a little more,” Gundrum said.
The best match was at 119 pounds, where Cedar Grove-Belgium’s Zach Schulz edged Ethan Brouillette, 7-5, in overtime.
In matches won by Ozaukee, Alex Thill (130) defeated Zach Peiffer, 13-0; Stockwell (140) pinned Eric Pribernow in 42 seconds; and Scott Watry (152) pinned Xorge Mendoza in 1:34.
Winning for the Rockets were Dalton Peiffer (135), who pinned Andrew Lorge in 3:51, and Matt Mueller (215), who pinned Ben Brouillette in 2:56.
Ozaukee 48, Oshkosh Lourdes 31
The Warriors prevailed Jan. 12 in a nonconference makeup meet that had been postponed Jan. 7 due to snow.
There were eight pins and four forfeits in the meet.
“That was kind of feast or famine. Not a lot of six-minute matches,” Gundrum said.
Lourdes was missing two wrestlers who are state-qualifier caliber, Gundrum said. The outcome of the meet might have been different with those two in the lineup, he added.
Six Warriors won by pin — Scott Watry in 1:08, Cardarelle in 55 seconds, Ethan Brouillette in 2:53, Brady Watry in 1:15, Thill in 55 seconds and Stockwell in 38 seconds.
Ozaukee is now on a 12-day break from competition.
“It gives us a chance to push a little bit here. We’ll have some pretty tough practices this week,” Gundrum said.
The Warriors will take a 3-0 record in conference duals into a Jan. 28 meet at Oostburg.
The overall conference team title is determined by combining dual-meet records and conference tournament finishes.
If the Warriors remain undefeated in dual meets, they will enter the Feb. 6 tournament with the No. 1 seed. They could finish second in the tournament and still win the conference title. Cedar Grove-Belgium’s next meet will be Jan. 28, when it hosts Random Lake.
On Jan. 30, the Rockets will wrestle in the Deerfield Invitational while Ozaukee participates in the Pewaukee Invitational. OZAUKEE’S ETHAN BROUILLETTE held the upper hand against Eric Brill of Merrill during last Saturday’s Ozaukee Duals tournament. Brouillette won by pin. Photo by Sam Arendt
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