Five county wrestlers qualify for WIAA D2 state championship tourney

When the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Two individual state wrestling tournament opens this Thursday at the Kohl Center in Madison, five wrestlers split between two Trempealeau County programs will be in the mix for a state title.

Four wrestlers from the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro Titans qualified for the state meet with top-three finishes at Saturday’s sectional at Wisconsin Dells High School.

Arcadia senior Cruz Patzner ensured the Raiders will have a representative at state after finishing third in the 152-pound bracket on Saturday.

Patzner won back-to-back matches by decision after dropping his semifinal contest against Lodi’s Zane Licht, ultimately falling in the second-place match.

“He actually went out and got taken down in both of those matches, and then he got escapes and just kind of went to work,” Arcadia coach Zack Sirny said. “He was just really strong mentally. He knew the game plan going in, he stuck to it and found success.”

Qualifying for state is the culmination of Patzner trying to get better every day after joining the sport later than most in eighth grade.

“That attests to his commitment and work ethic. He doesn’t miss practices, he doesn’t miss lifts, and he just puts it all out there,” Sirny said. 

Patzner (39-13) will face Noah Nusbaum of Saint Croix Central (47-8) on Thursday evening. The winner of that match will square off with Lodi’s Licht, who has a 52-0 record.

Titans advance four

The Titans will send a pair of sectional favorites to state, and with them will be two wrestlers who outperformed their seventh-seed rankings on Saturday to finish inside the top three.

Senior Ben Peterson continued what’s been a dominant final campaign, winning all three of his matches to improve to 48-4 on the year. Peterson entered Saturday as the top seed at 170 pounds and collected a pair of pins.

It’s been a big jump for Peterson, who ended his junior year with a 24-18 record.

“The biggest thing for him is his work ethic. You wouldn’t know it but he’s not much of a natural athlete, but my assistant coaches would tell you he’s the hardest working kid and he deserves it the most,” G/M Coach Pete Peterson said of his son.

“I’ve heard him say a couple times, ‘Nobody works harder than me, nobody deserves it more.’ And it’s really starting to pay off, so that’s been fun to watch as a dad and a coach.”

Junior Jackson Blaken proved his first seed wasn’t without merit, also—the Melrose-Mindoro wrestler earned a pin in his quarterfinal match and narrowly earned a second-straight win with a 4-3 decision win in the semifinal against Ethan Dobbs (40-11) of Viroqua.

Blaken, now 44-10 on the year, took his only loss in the title match of one of the toughest weight classes on Saturday, falling on a tiebreaker to Noah Radtke of River Valley.

Blaken is often a bit of a jokester at practice and keeps things light, Coach Peterson said. But when it’s competition time, the junior’s mindset shifts to all business.

“He gets on the mat and he’s just got that rip-your-arm-off attitude,” Peterson said of Blaken. “He really wants to beat you, and when a kid steps on the mat and they think they can beat everybody like that and they want to beat everybody like that, they’re going to do big things.”

Peterson wasn’t the only wrestler to make a big jump this year. 

Alex Wieczorek finished last season 10-21. He’s headed to state for the Titans also at 220 pounds after a big response to losing his opening match.

Wieczorek (34-16) was pinned by top-seeded Joseph Volz of Campbellsport (46-5) in his quarterfinal before he rattled off back to back wins to punch his ticket to Madison.

“Al comes through and works hard all the time. … the right attitude, work ethic and pushing the pace,” Peterson said. “It paid off.”

Teammate Colton Koss (40-13) made the most of his first ever sectional, as the freshman earned a third place finish to round out the Titans’ successful day with their fourth state qualification. Koss earned three wins in the four matches he wrestled on Saturday at 106 pounds.

“He’s just got spit and fire, and he went out and got himself a trip to state, which is awesome,” Peterson said.

Carson Koss (138) won a pair of matches before falling in the third-place match and Layne Fry (126) won one of his three contests as both narrowly missed state berths for the Titans with fourth place finishes.

Gunnar Johnson (160, 0-2) and Max Knapmiller (195, 0-2) also competed for G/M.

Blaken, Colton Koss and Wieczorek will wrestle on Thursday. Blaken’s first match will come against Colin Meiselwitz (30-12) of Elkhart Lake co-op. The winner of that match will take on Easton Woracheck (45-5) of Luxemburg-Casco. Koss will face Antonio Sowell (33-17) of Amery.

The winner of that match will wrestle East Troy’s Brady Collins (41-3). Wieczorek faces Nate Grooms (38-4) of Lake Country Lutheran with the winner squaring off against Peshtigo’s Connor Thomas (46-2).

Because he won his bracket, Peterson won’t wrestle until Friday of the state tournament. He will face the winner of the match between Tanner Kaufman (46-2) of Northwestern and Zak Wrobel (37-14) of Sturgeon Bay/Sevastopol.