WRESTLING: Wauwatosa rolls over South Milwaukee

The Wauwatosa East/West wrestlers whipped South Milwaukee, 46-18, on Dec. 5 in a Woodland Conference dual meet at Tosa West, the only action of the week.

The domination score was a pleasant surprise for coach Kent Morin.

"This was a really surprising dual meet for me," he said. "On paper, I had us anywhere from losing by three to winning by 12. So to completely dominate like we did (28-point win) was shocking.

Morin said in most people's minds, Pewaukee is still the team to beat in the Woodland Conference.

"South Milwaukee and us are the two teams that are given the best chance to hand them their first loss ever since joining the Woodland," he said. "Well I would say now that task is up to us."

Against the Rockets, Tosa had four pins, a technical fall, two decisions and two forfeits, but lost a team point because of an unsportsmanlike conduct call on a wrestler.

The wrestlers who pinned their foes and their times were Zach Miller at 126 (3:54), AJ Minucci at 138 (1:42), Marcus Morrow at 145 (2:27) and Greg Lewis at 220 (0:41).

Ben Reagan won on a technical fall at 132 (17-2) and winning decisions went to Sam Bertz at 160 (8-6) and Devine Burt at 198 (5-3).

Sean McDuffie at 120 and Kai Castaneda at 113 both won on forfeits.

Afterward Morin talked about his strategy.

"In my opinion, the meet was decided very early," he said. "We bumped Zach Miller, Ben Reagan, and AJ Minucci up a weight class to cover for us missing Max Nelson at 138, who is out with an injury.

"Sometimes wrestling up a weight class can backfire on you," Morin continued. "It can be dangerous to give up weight to your opponent. Those three responded with two pins and a technical fall. For all intents and purposes, the meet was decided at that point."

One wrestler in particular whose conditioning caught Morin's eye was Alex Comte.

"As a team, I thought we were in way better condition than South Milwaukee," he said. "Alex Comte was almost able to use his superior conditioning to beat a very good wrestler. Alex only lost 15-10 to Stuart Swanson, who is a very good wrestler. I look forward to seeing Alex wrestle him again at the conference tournament."

Morin said his team is wrestling well.

"But if we aren't committed to getting better every day, we won't be able to accomplish our season goals," he said.

On Friday and Saturday Wauwatosa West has the Stech Invitational at West Allis Central. This is an 18-team tournament that is considered one of the toughest in Southeastern Wisconsin.

"Last year this was our breakout tournament where we took fourth," Morin said. "The tournament has added Muskego and Whitefish Bay, which makes it even tougher that last year. Our goal this year is a top three finish."