Saturday couldn’t have turned out much worse for the young Hatchet grapplers.
After finishing second at regional, the Hatchets were tied for last in 23-team Seymour Sectional when none of their five entrants could win a match.
“We had a terrible day,” THS coach Bob Garrou said. “We didn’t wrestle like our season could end. I wasn’t disappointed in our kids, I was disappointed for our kids.
“We didn’t look as aggressive as we had all year and we lost everything close. We went 0-for-6 on the day. We never did that before. It was a horrible day.
“We already know what the blueprint is because we’ve got lots of champions (in Tomahawk wrestling). Hopefully the kids will go to work and we’ll put it together.
Regional champs Kaleb Kaminski (170) and Dane Borchardt (195) lost respective 6-5 and 5-4 matches in their openers.
“We were winning both of them and they got taken down with 10 seconds left,” Garrou said. “That’s what hurts. They’re good kids. We’ve been fighting them a little bit about scoring. They’re trying to win 3-2, 4-3, instead of trying to score 100 points. It cost them against good kids.”
Peter Pintens (160) fell 10-8, Nate Flohr (138) lost 7-4, and Henry Helland (182) dropped a pair of 5-1 matches.
Team standings– Two Rivers 111.5, Freedom 78, Wrightstown 76, Wittenberg-Birnamwood 75, Luxemburg-Casco 72, Southern Door 71, New London 48, Nekoosa/Port Edwards 45.5, Waupaca 38, Mosinee 35, Oconto Falls 35, Seymour 29, Peshtigo 20, Almond Bancroft/Pacelli 19, Clintonville 14, Winneconne 14, Little Chute 8, Wautoma/Wild Rose 8, Omro 2, Sturgeon Bay/Sevastopol 2, Denmark 0, Tomahawk 0.
The meet wrapped up a solid season for the Hatchets.
“I thought if we’d be .500, that’d be great,” Garrou said. “We were 22-5 in duals. The kids really over-achieved. They showed tremendous improvement.
“We’ll lose Pete and Henry. They’re both great kids going into the service. They’re going to have great careers. They’ve done everything we ever asked. We can replace them on the mat, but we’ll miss their leadership.
“For next year, we’ve got to get our kids in the weight room. Look at Merrill’s kids. They’re all strong. Our kids aren’t. We need to build up our kids, so next year we’re having a different conversation about this meet.”