Tomahawk qualified three senior wrestlers for the state tournament at the Oconto Falls Division 2 Sectional Saturday. Quinton Wallenfang will be making his first trip to the big show in Madison, accompanied by defending state champion Dane Borchardt and Kaleb Kaminski, who placed fourth at state last year.
Borchardt, 44-2, blew through the 220-pound weight class to place first at sectional. He opened by pinning his quarter-final opponent, Joel Gonzales (34-9) of Wild Rose, in 3:46. In the semi-finals, Borchardt won by pin over Jake Vanden Heuvel (34-6) of Denmark, in 1:43. Borchardt faced 43-3 Ryan Socha of Ripon in the finals match, winning by 3-1 decision.
Kaminski, 43-1, wrestled his way to a 1st place finish at 182. Kaminski started with a major decision win over Matt Verhasselt (24-21) of Freedom. Moving on the semi-finals, he won by 3-1 decision over Mitch Kramer (39-7) of Berlin. In the finals, Kaminski won by 3-0 decision over Mac Winkler (40-5) of Oconto Falls.
“Dane and Kaleb are both wrestling at a very high level,” Garrou said. “They beat some high level kids they could eventually meet at state.”
Wallenfang, 40-4, took the top spot in the 170 weight class, starting with a 6-0 decision over Brady Kuphal (23-21) of Ripon. He won by 5-3 decision in the semi-finals over Dalton Smerchek (36-10) of Luxemburg-Casco, who went through the consolation bracket to eventually claim second place. In the finals, Wallenfang won by pin in 8:00 over Clayton VanLanen (35-8) of Seymour.
“Quinton is showing that he can wrestle anybody in the state and beat them,” THS coach Bob Garrou said. “He’s peaking at the right time.”
All three Tomahawk state qualifiers will have first-found byes at the tournament in Madison. They are all scheduled to wrestle their first matches late Friday morning at the Kohl Center.
Three other Tomahawk sectional qualifiers did not make it through to state.
At 126, sophomore Brady Anderson (33-9) ran into eventual sectional winner Tanner Diest (40-5) of Wild Rose in the quarterfinals. Diest won by tech fall.
At 138, freshman Wyatt Wenninger (31-11) lost in the quarterfinals to eventual sectional winner C0dy Yauch (32-8) of Two Rivers. Yauch pinned Wenninger in 1:31.
Senior Ches Olson (22-9) lost in the quarterfinals of the 285-pound class to Dan Ausloos (20-9) of Oconto Falls.