Young Hawks learning how to fly

The majority of Grafton High School’s 24-member boys’ wrestling team is made up of freshmen and sophomores, but coach Mike Dodge likes his team’s spirit.

“We’re building. These kids are fighting, and they’re going to have to fight for everything they get,” he said.

The Black Hawks on Dec. 17 lost at home to Kewaskum, 60-22, but came back to beat North Shore Conference foe Homestead, 45-22.

Bohdan Gartman at 157 pounds, Jackson Meyer at 175 and Eli Parker at 113 each pinned their opponents.

“Jackson Meyer is coming around. He does a great job for us — a second-year wrestler who stepped up at 175,” Dodge said.

“Eli Parker just came out and kind of sealed the deal there at the end with a pin. He’s having a heck of a year.”

Payton Trapman pulled out a 3-1 decision at 138 pounds in what Dodge called “a heck of a match.”

The Hawks won four matches via forfeit and lost one.

Dodge is instilling a never-give-up attitude in his young team.

“We talked about never stop wrestling in matches and just keep going at it, and our guys are doing that,” he said.

“Our motto is time to hunt, which is everyday we’ve got to get back at it.”

Meyer said some stiff competition early in the season has helped.

“We’ve been through some tough duals, faced some really good teams. I think facing those teams early in the season helped us to grow as a team, as wrestlers,” he said.

“I think it showed on the mat tonight against Homestead.”

That wasn’t the only team competing. The Grafton girls’ four-member wrestling team tied Homestead at 18, but lost via the tiebreaker, according to usabracketing.com.

The Hawks won the only two matches not forfeited. Audrey Hanson pinned Jackie Bergey Jr. in 22 seconds at 138 pounds, and Amelia McQuinn pinned Ella Zomcheck in 1 minute, 19 seconds at 145 pounds.

Grafton’s girls are all seniors, and two competed at state a couple of years ago. Hanson and Ellie Federl are excited to earn a trip back, and they love that girls’ wrestling is growing.

“We can go to our own tournaments,” Hanson said, adding that practices bring the Hawks together.

 “We wrestle with the guys, so we still feel like one team,” she said.

“I also think it’s cool that girls are starting to get their own duals,” Federl said. “How the boys can bump weight classes and become competitive, the girls are being like that too. I’m excited to see how that evolves into the future where more schools are going to have full girls’ teams.”

Dodge said he loves having a girls’ team.

“The girls are just awesome to work with. All four of them come into the room, they work hard. They’re just sponges. Every time you say something or give them some advice, they’re just going after it,” he said.

The boys wrestle in a tournament Monday, Dec. 29, and Tuesday, Dec. 30, at Oshkosh, and the girls wrestle on the same days in La Crosse.