WRESTLING Tosa has best finish ever - third place - at Ed Stech Invitational

It was an excellent week for the Wauwatosa East/West co-op, which crushed Greendale, 54-8, on Dec. 12 on the road and then had its best finish in history at the Ed Stech Invitational on Friday and Saturday at West Allis Central.

Greendale had three of their heavier weights out sick so it was a dual meet decided before it even started.

Against the Panthers, three Tosans pinned their opponents - Zach Miller at 120 pounds (1:57), AJ Minucci at 132 (1:10) and Sam Bertz at 170 (182).

Winning by decision were Kai Castaneda at 113 (9-2), Ben Reagan at 126 (10-6), Marcus Morrow at 145 (7-3) and Sean Allen at 160 (10-8).

Winning by forfeit were Devine Burt, Elliott Rogahn, Greg Lewis and Lorry Venturi.

"The best match of the night was at 145 where Marcus Morrow upset Sam Walton," Tosa coach Kent Morin said. "Marcus scored two really nice takedowns in a match that was just an all-out brawl where Marcus' superior conditioning won out."

Wauwatosa's third-place finish was the highest finish ever for the local team in the history of this prestigious 18-team tournament. It is generally considered the top tournament in Southeastern Wisconsin.

"We finished ahead of Mukwonago who is ranked seventh in the area and an honorable mention team in the state rankings," Morin said. "Our goal going into the tournament was a top-three finish. We were happy with our finish especially when you see powerhouse teams like Mukwonago, West Allis Central and Hartford (last year's state team runner-up) behind you."

Individual place winners were Castaneda (first), Burt (second), Miller and Reagan (each third), Minucci and Alex Comte (each fifth) and Lewis (sixth).

Some of the highlights included:

Fifth-ranked in state Castaneda improved his perfect record to 12-0 record on the season by winning the tournament.

Devine lost a close match in the finals by giving up a takedown with 15 seconds left in the match to Tom Mitchell from South Milwaukee. Last year, Burt was pinned by Mitchell in the Conference Tournament so this was an outstanding improvement over last year.

Miller, only a freshman, had four pins in this tournament while losing only to Muskego's Austin Quartullo, who placed sixth at state last year.

Reagan's only loss came in the semifinals to a state qualifier last year. He bounced back and won twice in wrestlebacks to take third.

Comte was the team MVP of this tournament, coming in as an 11th seed and taking fifth.

"If this tournament is the peak of our season, then we will be very disappointed," Morin said. "Probably the thing that I was most happy with was that all 13 wrestlers won at least one match and contributed team points to our finish."

Another nice accomplishment over the weekend for Wauwatosa was the JV team winning the Wisconsin Lutheran Invitational crowning eight champions and four runners-up.