Jeremy Ratliff
Editor
Saturday, Dec. 7, the Bluehay wrestlers’ first-trip to the Fox Valley would shape-up almost as sucessful as their second, as they headed to Kimberly, Wis. to participate in the annual Papermaker Invitational meet.
Once again the guys found themselves in not only a large field of competitors (16) from around central and eastern Wisconsin, but many of which hailed from larger schools. The end result would prove big things do come in small packages, as the dauntless Bluejays pulled off an impressive fourth place finish with 335.5 team points.
The host Papermakers took the tournament title with 442 points, followed by 2nd Place (438.5 pts) and third place Ashwaubenon (401 pts).
Iribarren staked claim to his first tournament championship of the year with a flawless sweep, consisting of three pins and a 7-5 decision over Appleton’s Wes King, to seal the deal. Tanner Depies placed second on the day, garnering a pair of byes, a pin and win by 9-2 decision; before falling in a tight match to Jordan Craft of Manitowoc-Lincoln, by 2-0 decision.
“We had a solid performance at Kimberly,” Suchocki adds.
“We had six wrestlers in the top five. Trevor was able to pick up a nice pin for fifth place. Walker suffered an injury in the semi-final match so he ended up fourth. In the semi final match, Walker was even with his opponent. Carter had a tough bracket but battled to fourth place. Casey had a real nice day, he competed well even in the match he lost. Tanner and Zach both did a great job getting to the finals. Tanner ended up losing but his offseason work really showed, he is going to have a nice year. Zach is maturing as a wrestler, he wrestled a really controlled match in the finals to win it all. All the Merrill wrestlers showed great effort and competed well.
Other top finishers for Merrill included:
170 pound class-Casey Hoffman (3rd Place)
Round 1 – Casey Hoffman (Merrill) 31-13 won by fall over Wyatt Bathke (Merrill) 17-19 (Fall 1:50)
Round 2 – Casey Hoffman (Merrill) 31-13 won by fall over Dalton Heimerman (Marinette) 0-4 (Fall 0:47)
Round 3 – Casey Hoffman (Merrill) 31-13 won by decision over Ben Meiselwitz (Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah/Howards Grove) 33-17 (Dec 9-4)
Championship Bracket – Connor Ramage (Ashwaubenon) 43-9 won by major decision over Casey Hoffman (Merrill) 31-13 (MD 11-1)
3rd Place Match – Casey Hoffman (Merrill) 31-13 won by fall over Brady Wagner (Berlin) 31-17 (Fall 5:01)
160 pound class- Carter Bayer (4th Place)
195 pound class- Walker Bathke (4th Place)
120 pound class- Trevor Schenzel (5th Place)
Taking down the ‘Jacks
Thursday, Dec. 5 marked the season debut for the Bluejays, pitting them versus WVC foe Wausau-East.
Merrill set the tone early with three consecutive wins by pin, each in just over a minute; led off by Ryder Depies’ (170) making quick work of East’s Aiden Haugen with a pin at the 1:09 mark. Tyler Leistikow followed up at 182 with a pin over Memphis Vang in just 1:10. Elijah Parker-Coleman wouldn’t fare much bettter, falling to Merrill’s Walker Bathke (195) by pin in 1:05.
The Lumberjacks finally found their way to numbers on the board in the 220 class, when Merrill’s Eddie Collinsworth fell by 9-6 decision to Caden Weis. Iribarren rebounded for the Bluejays in the 285 pound class, pinning Reece Ament after just over 3 minutes (3:15).
Following a series of forfeits from each side in the lower weight classes, East’s Maddox Rye topped Tristan Brewington by 9-6 decision, only to have Jacob Woller and Brian Ball come back with a pair of wins by forefit for the Bluejays. The Jays would go 1-1 in the final two bouts of the evening; Nik Zastrow (152) falling by pin to East’s Travis Juedes (1:50) and Casey Hoffman (160) pinning East’s Caleb Mouw (3:27) to finish off the night.
The guys return to the mat tonight when they head out to Marshfield for a WVC bout with the Tigers.
Meet time is set for 7:15 p.m. at Marshfield’s Boson Company Field House.