Wauwatosa wrestlers continue to roll

The Wauwatosa East/West co-op wrestling team whipped New Berlin, 52-18, on Dec. 19 on the road and then it went into the two-day Milwaukee Hamilton Duals and took third place on Friday and Saturday.

Four wrestlers came away with pins against New Berlin - Kai Castaneda at 113 pounds (2:52), Zach Miller at 120 (1:20), Ben Reagan at 126 (4:48) and Marcus Morrow at 145 (3:02).

AJ Minucci at 132 (8-4), Sam Bertz at 160 (5-1) and Devine Burt at 182 (13-5) all earned decisions and three Tosa wins were forfeits: Sean McDuffie at 106, Max Nelson at 138 and Alex Comte at 152.

"I thought our guys wrestled very well," coach Kent Morin said of his unbeaten Woodland Conference team. "They were pretty focused for having just come off a big tournament and having a two-day, 10-match tournament coming up.

"New Berlin is a young team that just needs time to develop. (New Berlin coach) Nick (Patenaude) will have them ready and back on top in no time. I have to give the New Berlin wrestlers a lot of credit. In a number of cases, they were just outmanned with more experienced wrestlers, but they never stopped."

Third in duals

Tosa finished 7-2 for third place behind Bradley Tech (9-0) and Kenosha Bradford (8-1).

The locals beat Bay View (81-0), the Kenosha Bradford Varsity Reserves (77-3), Kenosha Tremper (49-19) and lost to Kenosha Bradford (39-29) on Friday to finish 3-1.

On Saturday, they defeated Milwaukee Hamilton (77-6), Milwaukee Vincent (70-9) and Milwaukee Riverside (60-15), lost to Bradley Tech (35-3) and beat Milwaukee King (72-12) to go 4-1.

"I thought we wrestled well," Morin said. "We were missing some wrestlers each day. To have eight guys win individual medals was a nice accomplishment."

Gold medals went to Nelson (9-0, six pins) and Miller (9-0, six); Silvers to Castaneda (8-1, two), Reagan (8-1, one, three technical falls) and Morrow (8-1, seven, tech fall) and Bronzes to McDuffie (7-2, three), Minucci (7-2, four) and Bertz (7-2, three).

Miller and Nelson were also named MVPs of the tournament.

"In the loss to Kenosha Bradford, we just didn't match up well," Morin said about Friday's only defeat. "Our best guys had their weaker wrestlers so we weren't able to cancel out any of their better wrestlers. We won five of the last six matches but it was too late at that point.

"Bradford is a tough team that just keeps coming at you; well coached and very disciplined. We gave up five pins which is too many in any dual meet that you expect to win."

But Morin did have a pleasant surprise.

"We did dominate Kenosha Tremper," he said. "They have beat us at this tournament each of the last three years so it was nice to finally turn that one around.

"On Saturday, the guys wrestled really well. I really was happy with how well they battled all day long," Morin said. "This is a long two-day tournament so it is easy to lose your focus and just want it to be over. They didn't do that.

"The big match of the day was Bradley Tech. If we had beat them there would have been a three-way tie for first. We ended up losing by one point, but I absolutely loved how our guys battled throughout the entire dual. We were probably 15 to 20 point underdogs on paper.

"Then Greg Lewis pinned Kirby in a major upset and Sean McDuffie provided the most enjoyable moment of the entire two days for me with an upset pin over Owens.

Morin was especially pleased with McDuffie.

"Sean is a great kid who has worked very hard to get down to the 106-pound weight class for us," Morin said. "He knew we had a major team void there and took it upon himself to fill it.

"He is an incredibly smart kid who just outworked Owens for this major win."

Other individual records were Comte (6-3, five pins), Sam Hanrahan at 170 (4-1, two), Sean Allen at 170 (1-3), Burt (3-1, one, tech fall), Mat Miller at 182/195 (2-2, one), Elliot Rogahn at 182/195 (4-1), Joe Harrington at 182/195 (1-1), Sam Kratochvil at 220 (2-2), Greg Lewis at 220 (4-1, three) and Lorry Venturi at 285 (4-5, three).