Erickson leads host of CG-Belgium wrestlers honored by the Big East

An unusual wrestling season required a unique finish to determine postseason honors in the Big East Conference this year.

“We had all-conference teams. It (postseason honors) was normally decided at the conference tournament,” coach Trevor Peterson said.

But with the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly every tournament across the state was canceled, including the Big East’s regular season finale.

That meant all-conference selections would be done via voting.    

“A lot of it was pretty easy for the number ones,” Peterson said.

Second and third team selections took a little more pondering in a tough conference that saw state medalists settle for second-team honors and qualifiers named to the third team.

Cedar Grove-Belgium had three wrestlers named to the first team and eight overall honored. Ozaukee had five selections.

Rocket junior Cael Erickson, who won the Division 3 state title in Wausau at 145 pounds, shared Wrestler of the Year honors with Random Lake’s Aiden Vandenbush, who won the state title at 160 pounds, his second straight championship.

Peterson said Erickson’s drive stands out. He regularly wrestles during the offseason.

“His shoes are never put away. He works so hard in the offseason that he deserved everything,” Peterson said.

Erickson finished the season 17-0 and could have had more than 40 wins if a normal schedule was held. He dominated most of his opponents but wrestled a tight match in the state final against Karson Casper (16-1) of Coleman.

Erickson took a 2-0 lead into the third period, scored an escape for one point and knew it was over since Kasper would have had to take him down twice or put him on his back. Instead, Erickson scored another takedown and won, 5-0.

Erickson, who also reached 100 victories this season and is nearing 100 pins, is happy but not entirely satisfied. He wants to repeat next season.

“I’m going to try to win another one. It would be cool to be a two-timer,” Erickson said.

Rocket senior Diego Morales at 285 pounds made the first team. He went 12-4 on the season and lost his first two matches at state. To get there, Morales pinned all three of his opponents at the Dodgeland Sectional, including Random Lake’s Jordan Arendt, who was named to the Big East second team.

“He and Arendt go back and forth every time they wrestle,” Peterson said.

Jesse Burg (14-1) at 106 pounds missed qualifying for state by one place, but was selected to the Big East first team.

Burg took third place at the sectional, where he lost his only match of the season. He won three of four, including a pin over Ozaukee’s Tayten Platner, who made the Big East third team.

“He had another great year, I think what kind of hurt Jesse a little bit was the short season, the lack of competition,” Peterson said.

At 106 pounds, the lightest weight class, Burg won several matches via forfeit, and most of the ones he wrestled weren’t close. Burg usually won via pin.

The Rockets had three more selections on the second team — Dylan Teunnisen at 160 pounds, Mason Hoopman at 126 and Deven Soerens at 182.

Teunissen (13-4) barely qualified for state, winning the second-place match at sectional in a 7-5 decision. At state, he lost two major decisions.

With Vandenbush in the same weight class, second team was as high an honor as any other Big East wrestler was going to get, Peterson said.

Hoopman (13-2) went 2-2 at the sectional and took fifth. He would have developed into a better wrestler if tournaments throughout the season weren’t canceled, his coach said.

“Just more mat time throughout the season for a lot of guys would have helped out,” Peterson said.

Soerens (9-7) finished sixth at the sectional.

“He came on pretty strong, hit the weight room pretty hard. He’s a younger kid at the heavier weights, He had a nice sophomore season,” Peterson said.

Markus Ramirez (11-5), a sophomore at 195 pounds who qualified for state, made the third team. He lost 4-2 and 3-2 decisions at state to eventual medalists.

The two wrestlers ahead of him on the all-conference team include state champion Brock Upson of Random Lake and Mishicot’s Joe Desotelle, who took fifth.

Jackson DeRuyter was named to the third team at 138 pounds. He went 2-1 and took fourth at the sectional.

The Rockets picked up another high honor with Phoenix Ramirez selected as Big East Coach of the Year. The rules allow assistant coaches to be nominated, Peterson said.

“He’s wrestling with the guys every single night, just an unbelievable coach to be there for all those guys,” Peterson said.

“For Phoenix to go at it with Cael for a six-minute match, then Diego and Dylan...”

Besides wrestling, Ramirez takes care of all the preliminary tasks to get kids on the mat before Peterson walks in the room.

“He gets there right away and gets practice going,” Peterson said.

Large (15-3) led Ozaukee’s selections and was the only Warrior to be named to the second team.

He went 2-2 at the state meet at 132 pounds and finished fifth, one year after taking fourth.

“Cael is a hard-working kid,” coach Kevin Koepke said. “It’s quite the accomplishment to place at the state tournament multiple times.”

Tayten Platner at 106 pounds, Mya Delleree at 113, Efrain Altamirano at 120 and Skyler Mills at 220 were selected to the third team.

Delleree (10-4) took fifth at the Dodgeland Sectional. Altamirano (8-5), Mills (6-6) and Platner (8-6) finished sixth.