Wauwatosa ends Pewaukee's 48-match winning streak

Wrestlers record monumental victory in Woodland Conference

Jan. 15, 2013

Six and a half years probably doesn't seem that long ago to most people.

Unless you're the Pewaukee wrestling team, who hasn't lost a dual meet since they joined the Woodland Conference for the 2006-07 season.

Wauwatosa East/West had come close before, but on Wednesday night they ended Pewaukee's streak of 48 consecutive conference wins with a 32-16 victory.

Tosa set the pace early with a string of six consecutive decisions by six points or less.

"There's really only one pin on the whole night, which is really unusual," Tosa coach Kent Morin said. "Literally, there were probably six or seven matches won in the third period. I'm really proud of how hard the guys battled and how they kept their composure throughout the entire match."

Three of Tosa's wins came in overtime.

"To do that in this high powered of a dual is difficult," Morin said. "They really kept their composure and finished. That was the difference."

Overtime wins by decision

With his team up 9-0 after three matches, Tosa junior Max Nelson slipped out of Trevor Greene's grasp in overtime to take the decision by a 6-5 margin at 138 pounds.

"I knew I was going to have a tough match," Nelson said. "Trevor Greene is a tough kid, I wrestled him before. Same kind of thing, I beat him in overtime. Everybody who won their overtime matches wrestled the whole time. That's what you need to do in those matches."

Junior AJ Minucci won a 4-2 overtime decision at 132 while 145-pound sophomore Marcus Morrow took a 3-1 victory in extra time.

Tosa held a 24-6 lead with four matches to go when junior Greg Lewis clinched the dual meet victory with a 16-5 major decision over Pewaukee sophomore Jacob Becker.

"It was just another match," Lewis said. "I tried to treat it like just another match. Coach said all week to trust our training and that's what I did. I ended up coming up big in the end."

The thought of ending Pewaukee's streak did cross Lewis's mind, though.

"Of course it was in the back of my mind," Lewis said. "We wanted so bad to break that win streak. We worked so hard in the off-season for this to happen. This is the best feeling ever right now."

Pewaukee's broken streak

The dual started off at 120 when Tosa freshman Zach Miller took a 9-3 decision over sophomore Isaac Lodise.

For Pewaukee coach Ed Kurth, it was the beginning of the end.

"The first takedown that Miller scored against Lodise, that was my sign that things may not go our way tonight," Kurth said.

The lone pin came at 285 pounds when Pewaukee's Jacob Roseland stuck Lorry Venturri at 28 seconds into the match.

Not losing since the conference's inception was quite a task for Pewaukee, as it wasn't always easy.

"Tosa was the first team we beat," Kurth said. "We could have lost that one. Every year there was one team, at least, that could take it from us. So we've kind of been sitting on the edge, wondering when this night would happen."

Morin complimented Kurth and Pewaukee on their run after the dual.

"I don't even know if that's something you dream about," Morin said. "That's just incredible."

Morin was pleased with his entire lineup, top to bottom.

"All fourteen guys I was incredibly proud of," Morin said. "Every kid battled. I couldn't ask for anything more."

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