Pirate mat men expect strong season

The Port Washington High School wrestling team has experience and talent, and coach Angelo LaRosa expects better results than he saw in Saturday’s Luxembourg-Casco Spartan Duals.

Port went 1-4 and finished fifth of six teams. The hosts won, followed by Holmen, Oshkosh West and Bay Port. Sheboygan Falls was sixth.

“That tournament always shows all of our weaknesses, and we’ve got a heck of a lot of them right now. Some guys wrestled really well and some guys didn’t. There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” LaRosa said.

The heavier weights fared well, with Nick Bensen at 195 pounds, Jacob Peacy at 220 and Ever Armendariz at 285 each going 4-1. All of their losses were pins.

“They wrestled well,” LaRosa said. “Each of them, in the matches they lost, they made some mistakes. In dual meets, you make one big mistake and you’re pinned. You just give up six (points). You just can’t win dual meets against good teams when you do that.”

J.D. Brahm at 182 pounds and Brandon Grabowski at 152 each went 3-2.

Last year, the Pirates had their smallest team ever with 18 wrestlers, and for the first time didn’t qualify someone for the individual state tournament. Due to the pandemic, the number of state qualifiers were cut in half from 16 to eight.

This year, Port has more than 30 wrestlers and LaRosa has high hopes. Senior Brodie Brecke returns with state meet experience after qualifying two years ago. He will wrestle at 113 pounds.

LaRosa said senior Aiden Drotzur will be tough at 170 pounds and he expects a big season from Brahm at 182.

“He’s a great football player and athlete and has a good style of wrestling and a good feel,” he said.

Peacy is coming off shoulder surgery that ended his season last year and is chomping at the bit to get back.

“He’s one of the leaders in the room. We just have to get the rust off,” LaRosa said.

Armendariz, he said, has lost 25 pounds and looks great for his senior season.

Kaiden Schumacher is one of the leaders in Port’s group of juniors.

“He’s one of toughest kids I’ve been around in a long time. He’s really strong and really fast and he’s usually pretty angry. That’s a good combination for wrestlers,” LaRosa said.

Brandon Grabowski is slated to wrestle at 152 pounds.

“We need to transfer how good he is in practice to matches. Once we figure that out, he’s going to be on the state podium,” LaRosa said.

Nate Streiff at 145 and Nick Gonzalez at 132 have unorthodox styles, he said.

Tanner Stacey, whose family moved back to Port from Maryland, could make some noise at 160 or 170, LaRosa said.

Bensen has started the season well.

“He’s sneaky. He lulls people to sleep and then explodes. I’m expecting big things out of Nick,” LaRosa said.

Brady Krueger at 138 pounds will lead the sophomores after a strong finish last year.

Diego Armendariz is behind seniors at 170 and 182 pounds. Levi Snodgrass will develop in his first year of wrestling and Nick Breimon didn’t wrestle last year but competed in middle school, LaRosa said.

The freshmen bring in a class of 11 that LaRosa said he is excited about.

The Pirates started the season with a 48-36 win over Cedar Grove-Belgium at Homestead last Thursday, then beat the Highlanders, 49-26.

Against the Rockets, a few Pirates pinned their opponents at the end of the period or match that keyed the victory. Brahm, Bensen, Peacy, Brecke, Schumacher, Gonzalez, Grabowski and Stacey earned pins.

“We wrestled pretty well and we were lucky to get some key pins late in matches,” LaRosa said.

Snodgrass went up against defending state champ Cael Erickson at 145 pounds and got pinned.

“He didn’t exactly have the easiest draw. He’s not one to back down from a challenge,” LaRosa said.

Against Homestead, Armendariz, Breimon, Brecke, Schumacher and Grabowski pinned their foes.

Port starts North Shore Conference play at Nicolet on Thursday and hosts Cedarburg on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

 In the NSC, LaRosa said, Slinger is always a tough opponent and West Bend East has been looking good. West Bend West has two twin stars, one who won state last year with the other taking fifth.

“This conference has big-time Division 1 talent in it. It seems to get better and better every year,” LaRosa said.

Port wants to finish on top of it.

“One of our goals is to win conference, and we’re not shy about saying that,” LaRosa said.