Three from area advance to D3 state wrestling tournament

Wrestlers from Blair-Taylor, Independence/Gilmanton and Whitehall advanced to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association State Wrestling Tournament by placing in the top three at the Saint Croix Fall sectional on Saturday. 

Blair-Taylor’s Jackson Shramek (170) and Independence/Gilmanton’s Gavin Bragger (185) both advanced with third-place finishes in their weight classes, while Whitehall’s Wylie Dunn (285) took first.

Wrestling at the state tournament begins on Thursday when Shramek (32-11) will take on a familiar opponent, Sam Schutz of Cochrane-Fountain City. The winner will wrestle Ryan Roy (47-3) of Wabeno/Laona/Three Lakes. Later that night Bragger (33-5) will wrestle Jacob Manning (46-4) of Ithaca/Weston. Should he win, he’d wrestle Sloan Welch (40-6) of Auburndale. 

Dunn (33-3) won’t wrestle until the Friday morning session when he’ll take on the winner of the match between Jack Chafer (27-14) of Cumberland and Mike Nelson (34-2) of Unity — two wrestlers he pinned in the sectional. 

Wrestling continues through Saturday night when the champions in each weight class are crowned. 

SCF Sectional

Dunn advanced to the state tournament for the second year in a row, this time pinning all three of his sectional opponents. 

The Whitehall senior began the tournament by pinning Cumberland’s Chafer in 2:10. 

Dunn’s toughest match was against a wrestler who didn’t make the state tournament as Boyceville’s Keegan Plemon took the Whitehall wrestlers to overtime. In the extra period, however, Dunn got Plemon to his back and pinned him in 6:15.

The next match came against Unity’s Nelson, who had just one loss on the season, but Dunn didn’t let him out of the first period. The Whitehall wrestler put the Unity wrestler on his back and pinned him in 1:40. 

While he was a first-time qualifier last year, Dunn might be among the favorites in his bracket this year. He took fourth as a junior with the top three place-winners all graduating. Dunn is one of four wrestlers with three losses or fewer in the bracket, he has defeated two of the others — Nelson and Diego Morales of Cedar Grove-Belgium, who Dunn pinned at least year’s state tournament. Westby’s Dylan Nottestad (47-1) has the best record and took fifth in last year’s state tournament at 220 pounds.

Shramek easily won his first two matches to clinch a trip to Madison. The first was a pin over Ethan Upson of Phillips. The second was perhaps more dominant as he defeated Caleb Gillett of Cameron by technical fall, 19-4. 

Shramek lost his next two matches, being pinned in the championship match by Tyler Dormanen of Boyceville before falling to C-FC’s Schutz, 7-6. The two DC wrestlers will square off again Thursday evening.

Bragger had to get in the harder way for I/G. The wrestlers started the tournament with a pin of Bryce Half of SCF in 4:14, but he was pinned by Ladysmith’s Matthew Roach in 5:51 in the semifinal round. 

The I/G junior had to win his next two, which he did, pinning Glenwood City’s Noah Brite in 1:29 and Cameron’s Ashtyn Waite in 4:54 to clinch third place. 

Bragger’s teammate Blaine Severson (285) was one of two area wrestlers to finish fourth. Severson’s tournament started with a pin by Nelson in 1:32. He rebounded by pinning Nathan Zarins of Thorp/Owen-Withee in the next round, but was pinned by Chafer in the third-place match.

Whitehall’s Alex Katzman (138) also took fourth. Katzman split his first two matches, pinning Mitchell McGee of Glenwood City before being pinned by Dominic Leintz of Clear Lake in 39 seconds. Katzman stayed alive with a pin of Hudson Hilgart of Chequamegon, but his tournament, and season, ended when SCF’s Austin Opel pinned him in the third-place match.

None of the other Whitehall wrestlers won a match as Nolan Thompson (106), Brock Johnson (113), Marcus Petersen (120) and Brian Flores (145) were all one-and-done. Matthew Poulos (132) wrestled two matches, but lost them both. 

The other three I/G wrestlers, Gracie Rombalski (106), Gael Leon (126) and Drew Bragger (220) lost their only matches in the tournament.

B-T’s Ryan Flynn (145) won his first match, defeating Bruce’s Harold Garcia 6-3, but he lost his next two by major decision and pin. 

Gunar Koxlien (138) had two matches, but lost both, while Bryan Rogstad (182) and Dylan Elvaker (195) lost their only matches.