Five Port wrestlers win mini-groups

A middle-school format of grouping competitors by weights and skill levels instead of running dual tournaments allowed wrestlers from four teams to avoid forfeits and get more matches Jan. 13 at Nicolet.

Port Washington’s Kaiden and Lucas Schumacher (no relation), J.D. Brahm, Shem Castillo and Nick Bensen all won their group competitions. Some wrestlers competed in two groups to gain more experience.

“I really liked it, just for this season, because it’s so goofy,” Port coach Angelo LaRosa said.

Kaiden Schumacher pinned Justin Schiesel of Nicolet in 5 minutes, 52 seconds, and Wyatt DeLaCruz of Cedarburg in 1:21.

Lucas Schumacher pinned Rodger Walker of Whitefish Bay in 22 seconds and Solomon White of Nicolet in 45 seconds.

Brahm pinned White in 5:20 and Walker in 1:51.

Castillo pinned Isaac Moburg of Cedarburg in 24 seconds and Logan Held of Nicolet in 3:43.

Bensen beat Held, 13-7, and pinned Moburg in 1:08.

Port was to host a meet with a similar format on Wednesday before competing in a Division 1 regional in West Bend on Jan. 30.

Thanks to some teams not competing in winter sports this season, the Pirates got bumped up to Division 1, and its sectional, comprised of the top two finishers four regional meets, is loaded with many of the top-ranked wrestlers in the state.

The WIAA last week announced that the top two wrestlers from the sectional will make it to state instead of the top three, making it even tougher to advance.

“We really got dealt a difficult hand,” LaRosa said. “We’ve been saying it all year, anything is better than nothing.”

Grafton continues to work hard

Grafton’s young team didn’t have enough wrestlers to top West Bend East or West in West Bend on Jan. 13. The Black Hawks lost to East, 72-6, and West, 48-18.

Against East, Nikita Eksler beat Victor Serrano, 5-0, at 182 pounds.

Nathan Krause beat Aden Orth, 7-0, at 195 pounds.

Against West, Krause beat Dominic Eversmann, 5-0, at 195.

Freshman Alex Vincent beat Dominic Brukiewicz, 9-8, at 132.

“It was a back-and-forth battle. Alex secured a takedown at the end and was able to keep the guy down and ride him out the last 20 to 30 seconds,” coach Mike Dodge said.

Krause’s two wins were impressive, he said.

“He was fighting hard and he was doing some of the things we worked on. That’s nice to see a sophomore wrestler get that,” Dodge said.

Eksler, he said, had a nice win.

“He works hard in the room too, and he’s had some bruisers prior to these duals,” Dodge said.

Grafton canceled Wednesday’s quadrangular because students had finals. The Hawks’ next meet is the Division 2 regional at home.

Only taking the top two finishers from the sectional makes it harder to get to state, but Dodge is just happy to have a season.

“Our attitude is we just have to be thankful that as of right now we’re still getting a tournament series,” he said.