Sports

Castaneda, Rogahn win titles

After three years of close scores, Tosa wrestlers finally win Bauer Brawl

By Tom “Sky” Skibosh

Jan. 8, 2013

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The Wauwatosa East/West co-op wrestling team won the Bauer Brawl on Saturday at West Allis Hale, finishing 26 points ahead of the runner-up host team.

Tosa scored 176.5 points to beat out the Huskies (150.5) with an impressive performance without two starters in Devine Burt and Greg Lewis, finally winning after coming very close the past three years.

"Well it was a nice win," Tosa coach Kent Morin said. "We have been close in our three previous tournaments with a second, third and third-place finishes, so to finally win one was a good feeling for the guys.

Morin said the team worked hard to earn this championship.

"The exciting part of winning this tournament is that it isn't our best yet," he said. "We were missing two starters and we still won 12 out of 13 quarterfinal matches, which was outstanding. Then we put seven guys in the finals.

"It sure was nice to see so many guys wrestle so well," Morin continued. "They had a long two-week competition break over the holidays and sometimes you will come out of that rusty. They were just the opposite - refreshed and hungry."

Strong performances

Tosa had two championships, five runner-up and two third-place performances.

Taking first places were Kai Castaneda (24-1) at 113 pounds and Elliot Rogahn (10-5) at 182, each scoring 18 team points.

Castaneda won by pin over Greenfield (1:26) in the quarterfinal and then in the semifinal he beat Cudahy in overtime (3-1). He then beat Justin Folley of Milwaukee Riverside (25-2) with a 5-3 decision to win the championship.

Rogahn pinned Greenfield (3:43) in the quarterfinal and then beat Wilmot Union, 6-1, in the semifinal. In the first-place match he won a thriller, 12-10, over Cudahy's Isiah Hemphill (13-6).

Morin was pleased with both his champions.

"Kai was the second seed, having lost to Folley from Riverside at the Hamilton Duals in overtime," he said. "This time he came out and scored a big takedown in the first period and stayed in control of the match from that point on."

Morin said they had been working with Kai to open up his offense and that is exactly what he did in this match.

"His offense is very good," he said. "Now he just needs to keep the confidence up so that he lets his talent level take over."

Folley is currently ranked ninth in state and Kai is 10th.

"Rogahn's finals match absolutely made my day," Morin said. "He won a thrilling 12-10 match that was never more than a 2-point difference. Elliot just outlasted him. His superior conditioning helped him overcome his lack of wrestling knowledge, given he didn't even wrestle last year. That match was worth the price of admission. It was so neat to see how excited his teammates were for him after he won that match."

Other match results

Alex Comte (16-10) at 152 placed second with 18 points.

He won by pins over Racine Horlick (1:21) in the quarterfinal and Greenfield (5:11) in the semifinal. However, he lost the championship match to Nick Delapez of Waukesha West (10-5) by a 10-5 score.

At 126 Ben Reagan (17-3) placed second with 17.50 points.

He won the quarterfinal with a technical fall over Nicolet (17-1) and then he pinned his Wilmot Union foe (1:24) in the semifinal. Taylor Choinski of Racine Case (14-0) edged him 3-1 in the title match.

Max Nelson (12-1) placed second at 138 and scored 16 points.

He won the quarterfinal by pinning his Whitefish Bay foe (3:16) and edged his Milwaukee King foe, 2-0, in the semifinal. In the first-place match he lost a medical forfeit to Mitch Kraker of Cudahy (17-0).

AJ Minucci (20-6) placed second at 132 and scored 14 points.

He won an 8-2 decision over Racine Case in the quarterfinal and a 6-3 decision over Whitefish Bay in the semifinal.

He dropped a 4-0 decision to Kody Zembal of Wilmot Union (20-1) in the championship match.

The final second-place finisher for Tosa was at 145, where Marcus Morrow (19-5) scored 14 points.

Morrow won the quarterfinal, 11-5, over Milwaukee Riverside and the semifinal, 10-4, over West Allis Hale). He then lost the title match to Lightning Hernandez of Racine Horlick (19-3) in overtime (6-4).

Sam Bertz (18-6) at 160 took third and scored 15 points.

In the quarterfinal he won by injury default over Waukesha West, was pinned by West Allis Hale in the semifinal (1:42) and won the third-place match with a pin (2:51) over Turner Panich of Greenfield (8-6).

Zach Miller scored 13 points and took third at 120.

Quarterfinal - Zach Miller (Wauwatosa East/West) 24-2 won by pin over Justin Rogers (Racine Case) 7-8 (Pin 0:55)

Semifinal - Max Carlin (Whitefish Bay) 16-6 won by decision over Zach Miller (Wauwatosa East/West) 24-2 (Dec 2-1)

3rd Place Match - Zach Miller (Wauwatosa East/West) 24-2 won by decision over Trevor Kruzick (Nathan Hale) 20-5 (Dec 2-0)

Tosa had four finishes outside of the top three.

The three fourth-place finishes came from Sean McDuffie at 106 (11 points), Sam Hanrahan at 170 (11) and Lorry Venturi at 285 (seven). Tosa's other sixth-place finish came from Matt Miller at 195 (four).