Krueger captures North Shore league title No. 2

Port senior exacts revenge for senior night loss; Kawczynski cruises to gold, senior Max Jacoby takes fifth to lead Grafton

GRAFTON’S MAX JACOBY (left) had his arm raised by an official after winning the fifth-place match at 175 pounds in the North Shore Conference tournament on Friday in Port Washington. Port’s Brady Krueger (right) pinned West Bend East’s Carter Henschel for the title at 150 pound. Photos by Mitch Maersch
By 
MITCH MAERSCH
Ozaukee Press staff

This North Shore Conference wrestling championship was especially sweet for Port Washington’s Brady Krueger.

The senior at 150 pounds at home on Friday pinned one of his rivals in the final for the second time in three seasons to win the NSC title.

“I knew it was going to be a tough battle to get here and I just had it set in my mind that I had to get it done today,” Krueger said.

Krueger (32-6) only needed 84 seconds to put West Bend East’s Carter Henschel (30-13) on his back for good.

Henschel won a 9-5 decision on senior night on Dec. 20 in Port.

“He’s a real tough competitor. I knew what I had going in and I knew I had to wrestle my match if I wanted to win,” Krueger said.

“There’s millions of different moves, sometimes people get caught and sometimes you just outwrestle somebody. I think it was a little bit of both.”

In 2022, Krueger pinned Henschel in 3 minutes, 7 seconds for the league crown. Krueger got hurt last season in The Duffy tournament and missed the rest of the season.

“He had a really awesome tournament.  He’s wrestling really well right now,” Port coach Angelo LaRosa said. “He’s really explosive and dangerous and exciting to watch.”

The battle between Krueger and Henschel isn’t over. They are expected to face off in the Division 1 regional and sectional meets over the next two weeks.

Port’s other NSC title came from Garett Kawczynski, who is ranked No. 1 in the state at 215 pounds, according to Flowrestling.

On Friday, Kawczynski (35-2) only had to pin West Bend West’s Gavin Jeske (16-22) in the semifinal. He beat Hartford’s Ayden Grulke (32-6) via medical forfeit in the final. He had beaten Grulke three times this season.

“I’ll enjoy the break. It was a nice slow entry in, make sure I’m feeling all right,” Kawczynski said of prepping for the postseason. “Now I’m ready to ramp it up next week. I’m looking to be in the state finals. That’s my plan.”

Port senior Diego Armendariz (27-14) got the “best I could get” in taking second. He was pinned in 1:05 by West Bend West star Connor Mirasola (40-0), one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the country who could win his fourth state title this season.

“It’s like wrestling a really aggressive rock, a rock with limbs,” Armendariz said.

Mirsasola and his brother Cole, seeking his third straight state title, have committed to Penn State, ranked No. 1 in the nation.

“I get to say when he’s in the Olympics that I wrestled him a couple of times,” Armendariz said of Connor.

“There are levels to the sport. Those guys are several levels above everybody,” LaRosa said. “They’re the nicest kids in the world but they’re animals.”

To get to the final, Armendariz pinned Bruce Guffey (1-2) of Slinger in 22 seconds and won a 7-1 decision over Cole Hart (23-17) of Homestead. Earning that silver medal was special.

“It was a great feeling after three years of not placing here,” Armendariz said.

“It kind of boosts it up a little bit, especially with regionals coming up.”

Port’s other top finishers were Sam Pasten (17-18), who took fifth at 157 pounds. He pinned Grafton’s James Volkmann (16-23) in the fifth-place match in 2:57.

Austin Knapp (15-12) took fifth at 144 pounds. He pinned James Hightower (2-23) of Nicolet in the fifth place match in 2:01.

Connor Boehm (8-21) finished sixth at 126 pounds. He was pinned by Rilan Smith (40-9) of Nicolet in 57 seconds.

Homestead, behind defending state champion Charlie Millard (42-0) at 157 pounds, won the meet with 218.5 points. Hartford scored 209. Then came West Bend West, 167; Slinger, 165.5; Nicolet, 115.5; Port Washington, 108; West Bend East, 102.5; Cedarburg, 96; Whitefish Bay, 65; and Grafton, 45.

“It’s about what we expected, hoping to be a little higher,” LaRosa said. “We lost a couple of winnable matches. We just need to get better. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

For Grafton, Max Jacoby got on the podium for the first time, taking fifth at 175 pounds. Jacoby (22-19) pinned Anthony Hansen (0-7) of Slinger in 53 seconds, was pinned by Harry Bortolotti (30-12) of Whitefish Bay in 4:29, then pinned Ashton Steinert (6-16) of Port in 1:45. Jacob Pekrul (30-12) of Hartford pinned Jacoby in 3:22 in the consolation semifinal.

In the fifth-place match, Jacoby pinned Louis Roller (6-10) of Cedarburg in 52 seconds.

“It was nice, rewarding. I’m happy with the work that I put in,” Jacoby said. “It’s not what I hoped for but I’m happy with what I placed today.

Grafton’s 45 points was one point more than the Black Hawks scored at the tournament last season, reaching the team goal. Nathan Krause’s second place in last year’s tourney scored most of Grafton’s points where this season the wealth was more spread out.

“We are better than we were last year. We didn’t have that anchor,” coach Brant Murray-McKelvey said. “They beat it by literally one point but beating that score from last year was beating that score from last year.”
Besides Jacoby, four Hawks finished sixth.

Oliver Hofland at 132 pounds was pinned by Donavin Bond (10-5) of Nicolet in the fifth-place match. Louis Berns at 190 pounds lost an 8-4 decision to Evan Feiertag (15-22) of Cedarburg in the fifth-place match. Caleb Ernst (10-27) lost an 18-3 technical fall to Cole Silverman (25-16) of Whitefish Bay in the fifth-place match.

Volkmann, who was pinned by Pasten for fifth, stood out to Murray-McKelvey.

“He’s wrestling really tough going into tournament season. I’m excited to see him in regionals and sectionals,” he said.

Jacob Quint (19-17) was seventh at 120 pounds.

“He’s trying some new stuff. He had a couple of matches he knew he could have won. He was able to immediately identify where he needed to grow and what he needed to do,” Murray-McKelvey said.

Sophomore Miles Muilenburg (15-22) was eighth at 285 pounds. Murray-McKelvey said Muilenburg is shorter than most of his opponents and he is figuring out how to work his body.

“I’m confident he will be on the podium at state sometime in his career,” he said.

Ellie Federl at 113 pounds missed the tournament as she recovers from pneumonia, Murray-McKelvey said.

Jacoby said he is happy to be part of the Grafton program’s turnaround.

“It’s all up from here. The kids that are going to come in from middle school are very accomplished. We have first-year wrestlers who have become great,” he said.

“It feels good. I only wish I could be here for more, see more of it.”

Grafton competes in a Division 2 regional in Kewaskum on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Port competes in a Division 1 regional in West Bend on Saturday, Feb. 10. The top four finishers qualify for sectional compettiton, and the top two teams qualify for the team sectional.

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