By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Saturday morning the Merrill wrestling team traveled to Wausau West for the Wisconsin Valley Conference wrestling meet. Six Merrill wrestlers finished in the top three of their respective weight class, earning All-Wisconin Valley Conference honors.
At heavyweight, Zach Iribarren took home first place, going undefeated on the day. Walker Bathke would also take first place at 220 pounds. Coach Brian Suchocki was happy with his wrestlers saying; “It was good to see our wrestlers competing well going into post-season wrestling. Zach and Walker had great days winning the conference. Walker was the 6th seed going into conference. For him to come out as the champion was really impressive. Walker wrestled his style and was very focused all day. This should be a confidence boost for Walker moving forward. Zach continues to improve each match. He figures out different ways to win. It’s great to see Zach wrestling at the level he is.”
Merrill wasn’t finished there however as Bradley Leiskau at 182 pounds and Tanner Depies at 120 pounds, each took second place, losing in the final match. “Bradley took the runner-up spot to the same opponent he wrestled many times before,” adds coach Suchocki, “Unfortunately it was the same outcome. Bradley is the leader of our team and he will come back ready to go next week. Tanner put together another solid performance. Tanner is wrestling well and it was great so see him in the conference finals.”
At 113 pounds Tristan Brewington took third place for the Jays, as did Carter Bayer at 152 pounds.
Coach Suchocki said, “Tristan had a great day of wrestling. For a Freshman to be all conference in the WVC shows his potential. It was great to see Tristan pull off a victory in the first round over an opponent that dominated him early in the season. It shows how hard he worked this season. Carter also showed that he doesn’t ever quit. In the third place match Carter was down by a score of 9-3 going into the third period. Carter fought back to win 12-10. As a team we competed hard all day. We are looking forward to another week of preparation so that we can continue to improve.”
The Jays will be back on the mat on Saturday as they host the varsity regional, starting at 10 a.m.