Shorthanded Port struggles in tourney

The Port Washington High School wrestling team invited some talented friends to compete in last Friday’s The Duffy, a scramble named after legendary Pirates’ coach Duffy Brelsford.

Due to injuries and illness, Port had eight wrestlers and finished in 10th place with 84.5 points in the 17-team field. Luxembourg-Casco won with 206.5 points. Milton had 176.5, Baldwin-Woodville had 168, Nicolet had 162 and Kimberly had 161.

The Pirates’ best showing came from Brady Krueger (17-8) at 138 pounds, who took second. He pinned Sean Ryan (3-2) of New Berlin West/Eisenhower in 2 minutes, 54 seconds, Austin Schmidt (20-6) of Baldwin-Woodville in 54 seconds and won a 5-4 decision over Max Carlin (17-9) of Oshkosh West.

In the finals, Krueger lost a 12-2 major decision to Max Ronsman (29-3) of Luxembourg-Casco, who took second at state last season as a freshman.

“That’s kid’s really good. He wrestled hard,” Port coach Angelo LaRosa said. “(Krueger) had a nice day.”

At 285 pounds, Ever Armendariz (15-8) went 1-2 and finished fourth. He won a 2-1 decision over Moson Baribeau (10-5) of Baldwin-Woodville before losing a 3-2 decision to eventual champion Sebastian Brodoski (19-3) of Oak Creek in the semifinals. Aremendariz was pinned by Grant Otter (13-4) in the third-place match in 2:14.

“Ever wrestled pretty well. He wrestled really close in the semis,” LaRosa said.

At 182, J.D. Brahm (16-9) was pinned in 38 seconds in his first match by Kyle Marty (11-10) of Baldwin-Woodville and lost a 4-2 decision to Blake Berry (16-6) of Kimberly in the quarterfinals before storming back in his final three matches to finish fifth.

Brahm pinned Ozaukee’s Blake Cocanower (10-10) in 3:27, won a 5-2 decision over Eli Gast (11-8) of Neenah and pinned Jacob Wright (12-5) in 3:48 in the fifth-place match.

“J.D. lost a close match in the second round in the quarters — a winnable match. He had a really nice backside of the tournament. He crushed everybody and got fifth,” LaRosa said.

At 126 pounds, Kaiden Schumacher (19-8) went 2-1 and finished fifth. In his first match, he was pinned by Matt Haldiman (22-3) of Milton in 3:11. After a scoreless first period, Schumacher chose down to start the second and Haldiman worked to earn the pin. Haldiman’s losses, LaRosa said, came in a big tournament in Illinois.

“I knew that kid was good but I didn’t know he was that good,” he said.

Schumacher bounced back to pin Dylan Lewandowski (21-10) of Nicolet in 3:29, then Brody Toldeo (9-6) of Burlington in 24 seconds in the fifth-place match.

Jacob Peacy at 220 pounds, coming off a tourney win at the Bi-State Classic the week before, struggled to keep the momentum going and finished sixth.

Peacy (21-5) let his first match get away in when he was pinned by Logan Held (18-9) of Nicolet in 5:16.

“He was winning, 8-1, in the first period. He made some mistakes you can’t do and he got pinned,” LaRosa said.

Peacy pinned Patrick Jones (10-8) of Janesville Craig in 1:51 and Thomas Perra (11-7) of New Berlin West/Eisenhower in 4:37 before slipping in the fifth-place match, getting pinned by Jacob Kaminski (19-7) of Menomonee Falls in 1:15.

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’ll figure it out. I have trust in Jacob Peacy righting the ship,” LaRosa said.

Nick Gonzalez (10-9) at 132 pounds and Aiden Drotzur (9-8) at 170 each finished eighth.

While Port didn’t perform as well as hoped, LaRosa said, “It’s cool having that level of wrestlers in our gym.”

The format was adjusted to shorten the tournament. Instead of ending at midnight as in the past, it was done by 10 p.m.

Delleree places for the Warriors

Ozaukee scored 14 points and finished last in The Duffy.

Sophomore Mya Delleree (14-11) finished sixth at 113 pounds. She pinned Beckam Staus (14-10) of Menomonee Falls in 1:29, was pinned by Colton Hush (23-0) of Baldwin-Woodville in 52 seconds, won a 10-6 decision over Ryan Gillis (16-6) of New Berlin West/Eisenhower and in the fifth-place match was pinned by Ayden Woda (15-6) of Oak Creek in 26 seconds.

“She wrestled pretty well,” Ozaukee coach Cole Large said. “It was a pretty tough tournament.”

At 152 pounds, Talan Dybul went 1-2 but won a thriller, pinning Logan Gordon (8-11) of Baldwin-Woodville in 4:39.

“The kid came out very aggressive with him at the start of the match. He kind of weathered the storm and wrestled with him well,” Large said.

Dybul was down, 5-1, entering the third period. He got an escape and two takedowns before cutting Gordon down with 45 seconds left.

“The kid had one last charge in him and Talan ended up pinning him,” Large said.

On Jan. 4, the Warriors lost to Oostburg, 45-35, and Random Lake, 56-13, in a triangular in Fredonia.

Against Oostburg, Dybul at 160 pounds Zach Bell at 220, Jovan Lopez at 285, Delleree at 120 and Efrain Altamirano at 126 all pinned their foes.

Lopez’s victory was a big one over junior Josh Wensink, Large said. After a scoreless first period, Lopez took Wensink down and pinned him when he tried to escape.

Ozaukee wrestles in a Valders tournament on Saturday.

Port tops West Bend West

Peacy, Armendariz, Nick Gonzalez and Krueger each earned pins and Port won four forfeits in beating West Bend West, 48-36, on Jan. 5.

Port wrestles Whitefish Bay at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon on Thursday. Port hosts Grafton at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19.