The Duffy is a toughy on Port High wrestlers

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

The Port Washington and Ozaukee high schools’ wrestling teams faced some of the top grapplers in the state on Friday at The Duffy, named for legendary Pirates’ coach Duffy Brelsford.

As a result, totals were a mixed bag. Port finished ninth with 87 points and Ozaukee was 11th with 62.

Luxemburg-Casco ran away with the 16-team tourney, scoring 254 points and crowing several champs. Baldwin-Woodville had 189 points, Burlington had 153 and Kimberly had 152.

“It will be interesting to see how many state champs and medalists there are (from the tournament),” Port coach Angelo LaRosa said. “It’s really high end.”

The Pirates’ highest finish was second, courtesy of star freshman Garett Kawczynski at 220 pounds.

Kawczynski (23-2) pinned Joe Garczynski of Berlin in 2 minutes, 43 seconds and Grant Otter of Burlington in 43 seconds before a bizarre finals match.

Kawczynski faced off with Kimberly senior Blake Barry (14-2). The match was mostly a stalemate that had to be stopped twice for injuries to Kawczynski. After the second stoppage, with 23 seconds left, Kawcyznski had to retire and lost by injury default. He was down, 2-1, at the time, but how Barry got the second point seemed unclear.

“It was a very confusing sequence. There was an injury and a disagreement between the official and the trainer,” LaRosa said.

Kawczynski was the one forcing the action during the match.

“He was absolutely the aggressor. I don’t know how many shots he took, but it was probably, like, 15,” LaRosa said.

Diego Armendariz (17-6) at 182 pounds finished third. He won a 15-5 major decision over Jacob Van Dusser of New Berlin West/Eisenhower, was pinned by Quinn Williams (16-7) of Milton in 3 minutes, 26 seconds and in the third-place match won a 3-2 decision over Brody Beck (15-8) of Kimberly.

“Third is really good. He had a nice day. He’s just getting better every week,” LaRosa said.

Nick Bensen (12-8) at 195 pounds was fourth. He won a 6-4 decision over Dane Loppnow (9-4) of Burlington, won a 9-4 decision over Jakob Martin (13-5) of Berlin, lost a 3-0 decision to Hunter Jibben (21-1) of Oak Creek and in the third-place match was pinned by Owen Ott (17-6) of Kimberly in 3:51.

“Nick Bensen had a nice day,” LaRosa said. “That Oak Creek guy is ranked second in the state.”

Casey Arendt (7-8) at 285 pounds was sixth. He was pinned by Liam Droessler of Milton in 2:28 and Garth Martell (19-7) of Oshkosh West in 3:33. Arendt then pinned Javier Contreas of Luxemburg-Casco in 3:50 and beat Aden Weber of Luxemburg-Casco in a 6-1 decision before being pinned by George Greene (8-6) of Janesville Craig in 1:44 in the fifth-place match.

Kaiden Schumacher (14-6) at 132 pounds was sixth.

He pinned Logan Hubert of Kimberly in 40 seconds, was pinned by Tyson Peach (23-1) of Milton in 2:48, won an 11-2 major decision over Sori Osadcii (17-9) of Homestead and a 1-0 decision over Ryland Schneider (17-8) of Oshkosh West. In the fifth-place match, Schumacher lost a 9-1 major decision to Tyler Fink (18-4) of Baldwin-Woodville.

Nick Gonzalez (8-9) at 138 pounds finished eighth. He pinned Landon Colson (15-10) of Janesville Craig in 2:33, was pinned by Hunter Gartmann (18-4) of Baldwin-Woodville in 3:26, pinned Jaxen Lloyd (9-7) of Oshkosh West in 2:46, was pinned by Mason Perez (10-5) of Burlington in 3:56 and in the seventh-place match was pinned by Parker Peterson (20-8) of Oconto Falls in 32 seconds.

Brady Krueger (15-8) at 152 pounds split a pair of pins before getting injured in his third match.

“All the guys scrapped pretty hard, the whole team,” LaRosa said.

“They’re doing some things we’re working on in practice. We just need to keep improving and be healthy.”

Ozaukee has four place-winners

Ozaukee was led by My a Delleree (18-8), one of the state’s top girl wrestlers at 113 pounds.

She finished third after taking sixth at last year’s tournament. Delleree pinned Ben Wiza (15-8) of Oak Creek in 2:41, was pinned by Drake Gartmann (11-11) of Baldwin-Woodville in 1:42 and in the third-place match won a 6-3 decision over Madi Peach (11-7) of Milton.

I tried my hardest. I fought as hard as I can,” Delleree said. “She (Peach) is probably going to be someone that I’m going to meet at state. It’s good to get a little preview of that.”

Delleree didn’t have an opening match.

“The first couple of rounds I wasn’t really prepared. I had a bye the first round. I’m not really used to that, and the first round is when I get totally pumped,” she said.

But taking third was a success.

“My goal for this year was to place higher than I did last year. I accomplished that and I’m very proud of myself for doing that,” she said.

Coach Cole Large was proud of Delleree’s effort in the quarterfinal.

“She was down early and came back and pinned a kid,” he said.

Jovan Lopez at 285 pounds took fourth and is starting to hit his peak.

Lopez (12-14) pinned Aden Weber of Luxemburg-Casco in 1:29 and Tim Lund (13-12) of Evansville in 14 seconds. He was pinned by Spiro Perra (17-4) of New Berlin West/Eisenhower in 3:22 and in the third-place match was pinned by Garth Martell (19-7) of Oshkosh West in 4:05.

“I could have improved a lot. I’m still happy with how I did. I did my best today out of the whole season,” Lopez said.

“I think I had a good week of practice that helped me do better in competition.”

“Jovan had a good day,” Large said. “He’s a couple of little things away from having a good day turn into a great day.”

Ozaukee had two other place-winners.

Charlie Steinert (17-11) at 120 pounds was fifth. He pinned Shemi Siegel (12-10) of Homestead in 2:58, was pinned by Colton Hush (18-2) of Baldwin-Woodville in 1:38, pinned Landon Magnin (6-8) of Octonto Falls in 38 seconds and Landon Jacobs (16-8) of Burlington in 1:23. In the fifth place match pinned Reese Barbiaux (14-9) of Luxemburg-Casco in 3:46.

Talan Dybul (12-9) was sixth at 145 pounds. He was pinned by Lukas Schroeder (11-9) of Oshkosh West in 5:43, pinned Gavin Gummieny (12-10) of Plymouth in 2:31, won a 7-2 decision over Max Kaether (14-10) of Evansville and in the fifth-place match lost a 10-1 major decision to Nolan Myszkewicz (20-5) of Burlington.

“I would say a lot of our losses today we’re good learning experiences. I wouldn’t say we did a ton of stuff wrong,” Large said.