Rocket wrestlers rule the Big East Conference

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

Before Saturday, none of the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School wrestlers remember the team’s last conference championship.

Now, the Rockets’ most recent title is fresh in their minds. It belongs to this year’s squad after it went undefeated in the Big East and steamrolled through the conference tournament in Cedar Grove.

It’s their first conference title since 2000, when they were in the Central Lakeshore Conference and shared the crown with Ozaukee.

“It feels really good. It’s been 23 years. I’m only, like, 17, so that’s a long time. It feels good to bring it back to Cedar Grove,” senior Jesse Burg said.

“We’ve been looking to try to beat Random (Lake) for, gosh, I don’t even know how many years now. It’s been a while, well before my time,” senior Diego Morales said.

“Beating them in the dual for the first time in how long and beating them here for sure is nice.”

The Rockets scored 260.5 points. Reedsville was a distant second with 206. The win boosted the Rockets’ team total to 35 points for the season, besting Reedsville’s 27.

Rockets’ coach Trevor Peterson remembers the last title at the turn of the millennium — it was the Central Lakeshore Conference and he was on the team, wrestling for his father, Gerry, who retired after that season. Trevor is now the leader who helped bring the championship back.

“We’ve been close a lot of years. Just always came up a little bit short. This year we finally did it,” he said.

Minutes after winning the conference tournament and after getting a hug from his mother, he could barely sum up his thoughts.

“I’m not sure. It hasn’t hit me quite yet,” he said.

The Rockets entered the tournament with a 7-0 dual meet record and a sizable lead over Oostburg, Random Lake and Reedsville,  who were all 5-2. Peterson and his team, however, wanted to take the tourney title as well, and they did.

Of the 14 weight divisions, nine Rockets were in the conference finals and six earned titles: Burg, Morales, Mason Hoopman, Joe Schoeder, Carsen Voskuil and Deven Soerens. Three Rockets finished third and one was fourth.

“It’s not over until it’s over, and I really wanted to win the tournament. I wanted the guys to win the tournament,” Peterson said. “Everybody contributed again — together as a team.”

Burg at 126 pounds and Morales at 285 won their second straight Big East titles.

Burg pinned Josiah Horn of Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah/Howards Grove in 1 minute, 21 seconds, and in the finals methodically took apart Tristen Verbeten of Reedsville, winning a 19-2 technical fall in five minutes.

“Jesse had a dominating performance again today,” Peterson said.

Morales, who finished fourth in the Division 3 state tournament last year, pinned Jovan Lopez of Ozaukee in 1:06 and in the finals beat Diego Brandt of Random Lake, 6-2. Morales scored a takedown and near fall with 10 seconds left in the second period to give him a 6-2 lead, and he held on in the match’s final two minutes.

“I caught him and got big points. That was huge. Even if it would have gone to the third, I think it would have been sealed,” Morales said.

“Diego won another nice match,” Peterson said.

At 145 pounds, Hoopman, a state qualifier last season, pinned Cole Keller of Random Lake in five minutes and in the finals beat Ayden Sebo of Reedsville, 7-1. Hoopman built a 5-0 lead heading into the third period and never let up.

“Mason had a real nice match against Sebo,” Peterson said.

Hoopman knows what it took to get to the top of the Big East as a senior.

“It all really started eight years ago when I started just competing more, going to more tournaments, taking wrestling seriously,” he said. “It’s a really hard sport. There’s so many good people nowadays that you really have to dedicate almost your life to it to compete at this level now.”

Voskuil, freshman at 106 pounds, pinned Nevaeh Krepline of Reedsville in 3:03 and in the finals pinned Landon Holschbach of Oostburg in 1:58, finishing an undefeated Big East season.

“I knew that I beat everybody so I just needed to go in there with a good head,” Voskuil said.

That puts him in range of rare Rocket air, Peterson said.

“He’s got a legit shot for four conference titles,” he said.

Peterson said he and his father could only think of one Rocket who has four — Mike Watry. Peterson won three titles.

“I choked,” he joked.

Cael Erickson, who won four state medals including a state title in 2021 and silver in 2022, would have likely won four titles but the pandemic caused one conference tournament to be canceled.

Schoeder at 182 pounds pinned Devan Laganowski of Oostburg in four minutes and beat Casey Braun of Reedsville, 4-2, in the finals.

“It was just going to come down to who wanted it more. I just thought, I want this, I’ve got my whole town supporting me and I’ve got to show them I can do this,” Schoeder said.

He was following instructions from his brother Jack, a 2017 grad who nearly helped the Rockets to a team title.

“Every once in a while he’ll call me on the phone and tell me I have to get this,” Schoeder said.

Soerens at 220 pounds came off the first tournament win of his career at Wisconsin Dells and had the tightest title match.

After beating Ozaukee’s Grady Klas, 6-3, he beat Mishicot’s Logan Marshall, 2-1, in the finals. Soerens scored a takedown in the second period and gave up an escape in the third.

“It’s crazy. I got a late start on the season,” he said. “I had a rough first tournament at Whitewater, going 2-2. Last week, I won my first tournament. I want to keep it rolling.”

Rockets Gavin Davies at 138 pounds, Owen Morgan at 160 and Jordan Platner at 195 each took second. Seth Race at 113, Owen Race at 132 and Winston Reichle at 152 were third. Jackson Foster at 170 was fourth.

Peterson and his wrestlers cited support from the Rockets’ fan base on Saturday and throughout the season.

“Just a great crowd performance this year. Our fan base is awesome. The whole Big East is awesome,” Peterson said.

“You can tell they really care about the sport,” Hoopman said. “My buddies were here. They don’t even know much about wrestling. It’s a long day for us. It’s really long day for them. They stick it out because they want to be here to support us. It really goes a long way.”

The Rockets will now work on getting as many individuals to state, as well as qualifying as a team. Peterson remembers the last time the Rockets qualified for team state, too. It was 1997 and he was a freshman.

Cedar Grove-Belgium and Ozaukee compete in a Division 3 regional meet Saturday, Feb. 11, at Random Lake. The top four individual finishers compete in the sectional meet at Dodgeland on Saturday, Feb. 18.

The top two teams from the regional advance to the team sectional at Random Lake on Tuesday, Feb. 14.

Delleree, Steinert take seconds

Ozaukee’s Mya Delleree and Charlie Steinert each finished second.

Delleree, the most valuable player at the Oakfield Invite the week before at 113 pounds, beat Rocket Seth Race, 13-10, before losing to Reedsville’s Sam Schmalz, 8-3, in the finals. Delleree scored all her points in the third period and was close to turning Schmalz to his back a couple of times.

“I thought she battled well in the finals, especially later in the match when it was looking more like it was out of reach,” Ozaukee coach Cole Large said.

Delleree gets a break until the Feb. 18  sectional since there’s no girls’ regional. The girls’ state tournament — Delleree was second last year — will be held in Madison with the boys’ tournament for the first time.

“We get a week off just to dial in things for the girls’ run,” Large said. “We’re pretty pumped up.”

Steinert at 120 pounds pinned Rocket Vince Knowles in 35 seconds and beat Chase Koepp of Random Lake, 8-5, before being pinned by Rigoberto Tellez of Oostburg in 3:49 in the finals. Steinert had built a 7-0 lead before being put to his back.

“I thought he should be able to make a push and win it. The Oostburg kid is solid, but we just felt good about the way Charlie was wrestling,” Large said.

“Eighty percent of the match was dominant, but we’ve got a lot to build off of with him.”

Grady Klas at 220 pounds finished third, pinning Random Lake’s Holten Golke in 5:04 in the third-place match.

Ozaukee finished sixth in the tournament with 94 points and sixth for the season with 10 points.

(Photos within the text article) CEDAR GROVE-BELGIUM won six individual league titles on its way to the Big East Conference wrestling crown on Saturday in Cedar Grove. Deven Soerens beat Logan Marshall of Mishicot, 2-1, in the 220-pound finals. Jesse Burg beat Reedsville’s Tristen Verbeten in a 19-2 technical fall at 126. Carsen Voskuil pinned Oostburg’s Landon Holschbach at 106. Mason Hoopman beat Reedsville’s Ayden Sebo, 7-1, at 145. Joe Schoeder beat Reedsville’s Casey Braun, 4-2, at 182. Diego Morales beat Random Lake’s Diego Brandt, 6-2, at 285. Burg and Morales are repeat title winners. Three Rockets finished second: Gavin Davies, Owen Morgan and Jordan Platner. Ozaukee had two second-place finishers: Charlie Steinert was pinned by Oostburg’s Rigoberto Tellez at 120 pounds and Mya Delleree lost, 8-3, to Reedsville’s Sam Schmalz at 113.       Photos by Mitch Maersch