Titans capture team regional title
A week after capturing their latest conference championship at the Coulee conference tournament, the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro wrestling co-op continued to collect hardware for the trophy case with a team regional title.
The Titans left the rest of the competition in the dust in the team standings at the Division 2 Richland Center boys regional meet last Saturday, placing first overall with 275 points to punch their ticket to team sectionals. Lodi was the other team to qualify for sectionals by finishing in second with 228.5 points. Arcadia recorded 115 points to place sixth out of 14 teams in the standings.
On a dominant day both as a team and for many individual wrestlers, G-E-T/Mel-Min boasted five different athletes who won an individual regional title in their respective weight classes: Kody Purney (113 pounds), Colton Koss (120), Jayce Stetzer (138), Gunnar Johnson (157) and Aaron Dunigan (215).
Purney registered a pinfall win and two tech falls, including a victory over Mauston/Necedah’s Landynn Miller via a 19-1 technical fall in the championship round. Koss won his quarterfinal match by tech fall and semifinal via pinfall before pinning Richland Center’s Ethan Hady in the final seconds of the first period of their championship match.
Stetzer had two tech fall wins to reach the final match and once there defeated Gavin Tritz of Nekoosa/Assumption/Port Edwards in a 13-9 decision. Johnson picked up two pinfall wins and then rolled past Lodi’s Alex Breunig via a 15-0 tech fall in the first-place match. Dunigan had a pinfall victory in the quarterfinals and a tech fall win in the semifinals and capped off his day by pinning Joseph Bertling of Nekoosa/Assumption/Port Edwards at the 2:22 mark in the title match.
Other Titan wrestlers who individually qualified for sectionals by placing in the top four were Gunnar Kremer (second at 126 pounds), Layne Fry (second at 144), Brody Banse (third at 132) and Braden Peterson (third at 175).
Arcadia managed to send four wrestlers on to sectionals thanks to their performances in Richland Center. Zayden Sanches (106) and David Aguilar (165) each placed third in their weight classes while Adalberto Ortiz (144) and Angel Garcia (190) both took fourth in theirs to advance.
With the regional title, the Titans faced Belmont/Platteville in the team sectional at Prairie du Chien on Tuesday of this week. The winner of that dual will take on the winner of the dual between Fennimore and Lodi the same day. The sectional champion will qualify for the team state tournament, to be held March 8 at the UW Field House in Madison.
Qualifying individual wrestlers will compete for their spot at state at the Division 2 Wisconsin Dells sectional on Saturday. The action at Wisconsin Dells High School will get underway at 10 a.m. The top three wrestlers in each weight class will qualify for the state tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison next week.
