SPORTSThursday, February 14, 2019

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Jeremy Jones, sports editor845-9559 x226 • ungsportseditor@wcinet.com

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9

Boys swimming

Wrestling

Clark wins sectional title

JEREMY JONESSports editor

Stoughton seniors Patr ick Regan and Hayden Hammond and junior Conner Clark all qualified for the state meet held Friday, Feb. 15, as individuals and on a relay.

Senior Jacob Clark will join them on the 200-yard freestyle relay team, which set a school record.

Conner Clark won the 100 but-terfly in another school record to automatically qualify as the first Viking sectional champion in nearly 25 years.

R e g a n a n d H a m m o n d advanced through the WIAA Division 2 Baraboo section-al Saturday, Feb. 9, in the 100 backstroke and 500-yard free-style, respectively.

“These guys just swam phe-nomenally. You do that because the risk of not going to state is there,” coach Katie Talmadge said. “You have to put it all on the line.”

Top-ranked Madison Edge-wood won the sectional with 375 points. Third-ranked Mono-na Grove finished 101 points behind for second place.

Clark, 100 flyClark beat his lifetime best by

nearly two seconds Saturday to win the 100 butterfly in 53.67 seconds in Baraboo.

He is believed to be the first Viking to win a sectional title

since John Greene in 1995. His time earned the fifth seed at the WIAA Division 2 state meet, which will be at 6:30 p.m. Fri-day at the UW Natatorium.

“Topping the sectional and auto-punching to state, it feels great,” Clark said. “Winning that race was my goal today. “I went out very fast. Faster than I think I’ve ever gone out in a 100 and I came back faster than I’ve ever come back.”

Still, he said he was nervous after missing his third turn a little but he found an extra gear coming into the fall wall.

He admitted to being pretty emotional when he looked up to see his time at the end of the 100 fly.

“I t was mainly about the school-record. I was so close

last year, and it got to me,” Clark said.

His qualifying time would have earned him a medal and sixth place at last year’s state meet. The junior finished 13th in the 100 fly at state last year. Bryce Carmichael was Stough-ton’s last medalist, finishing eight at the 2013 state meet in the 100 fly.

“I think Conner winning a sec-tional title is a big confidence booster for the boys program,” coach Katie Talmadge said. “All the guys really rode on that

Vikings qualified a record five entries for WIAA D2 state

have earned him a medal and

meet. The junior finished 13th in the 100 fly at state last year. Bryce Carmichael was Stough-ton’s last medalist, finishing

the 100 fly.

What’s nextThree individuals and one relay

compete in the WIAA Division 2 state meet at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, at the UW Natatorium.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

From Feb. 6-12

Name: Conner Clark

Grade: Junior

Sport: Boys swimming

Highlight: Clark won the first sectional title in 24 years on Saturday, claiming the 100-yard butterfly in 53.67 seconds. He also qualified for state on the 200 IM and the 200 medley relay.

Honorable mention: Drew Anderson (boys basketball) scored 16 points to help lead the Vikings to a 61-49 win over Monroe on Friday. Peighton Trieloff (girls basketball)had 15 points in a 49-20 win over Fort Atkinson on Friday. Brody Hlavacek (boys hock-ey) scored five goals and assisted on two more in a 9-6 win Saturday at Viroqua. Aeryn Olson (girls hockey) scored the lone goal Saturday in the 5-1 loss against Wisconsin Valley Union. Brandt Spilde (wres-tling) won the 170-pound weight class Saturday at the WIAA Division 1 Oconomowoc regional with a fall in 3:35.

Vikings qualify for sixth straight team state meetJEREMY JONES Sports editor

Co-head coaches Bob Empey and Dan Spilde keep pushing the bar and the Stoughton wrestling team keeps chasing it down.

The Vikings beat Janesville Craig by 50 points on Tuesday, Feb. 12, to qualify for a sixth straight WIAA Division 1 team state meet. Stough-ton is ranked 45th nationally and the defending state champions. Team state is March 1-2 at the UW Field House.

And although Empey said it would obviously be special to repeat, there is plenty of work to do and maybe a bit of luck needed.

“I think there are a lot of great teams in the state,” he said. “We had a great team going to team state last year but we were healthy and got on a roll. I think that’s what you need.”

Three days earlier, Stoughton also put itself in position to do some dam-age at the individual state tournament (Feb. 21-23) in Madison, crowning 10 champions to win the Oconomo-woc regional with ease.

Team sectionalMost teams would probably notice

a substantial dip in competitiveness

with the second-ranked wrestler at his weight sidelined but not the Stoughton wrestling team.

With a team state berth looming and banged up sophomore Luke Mechler, ranked second at 132 pounds, sitting the match out, the Vikings throttled Janesville Craig 59-9 on Tuesday to punch their ticket

to the 13th team state appearance in school history.

Stoughton’s replacement for Mechler? Only the team’s only other undefeated wrestler in senior Ethan Devore who is 23-0 in limited varsity action this season.

“Though we definitely missed Luke, Ethan is a hammer and we

feel completely comfortable putting him on the mat no matter the circum-stance,” Spilde said.

Devore, a transfer from Minneso-ta who earned his 100th win earlier this year, set the tone following in the third match of the night.

Leading 4-3 as a team, Devore turned Joey Bellomo for a fall in 5 minutes, 56 seconds. That pin gave Stoughton a 10-3 lead and the Vikings never looked back. Their only other loss came at 285 where Jake Lenz fell to the top-ranked heavyweight in the state (Keeanu Benton).

“I’ve always had the mentality that I’m going to get the pin,” Devore said. “I keep working until it’s over. It doesn’t matter if the pin

What’s nextStoughton travels to Elkhorn

at 9:30 a.m. Saturday for the WIAA Division 1 sectional meet.

Boys hockey

Penalties doom Vikings MARK NESBITTAssistant sports editor

Junior forward Brody Hla-vacek continued his late-sea-son scoring streak with five goals and two assists Friday, Feb. 8. The scoring outburst led the Stoughton boys hock-ey team to a 9-6 nonconfer-ence win inside the Viroqua Community Arena to close out the regular season.

The Vikings (7-17-0 over-all, 4-8-0 conference) � nished � fth in the Badger South and opened the WIAA playoffs Tuesday, Feb. 12, with a one-goal loss at home against Mil-ton.

Milton 2, Stoughton 1Peanlaties came back to

bite Stoughton in a 2-1 loss to Milton in a � rst-round WIAA regional game Tuesday inside the Mandt Center.

The third time was the carm for the Red Hawks, who had

Turn to Boys hockey/Page 11Turn to Wrestling/Page 13

Turn to Swimming/Page 12

Photo by Jeremy JonesSenior Patrick Regan swims the lead leg of the 200-yard medley relay Saturday at the WIAA DIvision 2 Barar-boo sectional. The relay of Patrick Regan, Jacob Turner, Conner Clark and Hammond finished sixth in 1 minute, 44.06 seconds to qualify for this Friday’s state meet at the UW Natatorium.

Photo by Jeremy JonesSenior Ethan Devore works to turn Janesville Craig’s Joey Bellomo during Tuesday evening’s WIAA Division 1 team sectional meet in Stoughton. Devore pinned Bellomo in 5 minutes, 56 seconds to help the Vikings cruise to a 59-9 win over the visiting Cougars.

ConnectStoughton.com10 February 14, 2019 Stoughton Courier Hub

Girls hockeyBoys basketball

Girls basketball

Stoughton girls stifle Edgewood on the roadMARK NESBITTAssistant sports editor

The Stoughton girls bas-ketball team are playing like they have something to prove after winning two games last week and fin-ishing third in the Badger South Conference.

The Vikings knocked off Madison Edgewood on Monday, Feb. 11. That came after the Vikings rolled by host Fort Atkin-son on Friday, Feb. 8.

S t o u g h t o n ( 1 2 - 8 ) received a sixth seed in the top half of the WIAA Division 2 Oregon section-al and will host Sauk Prai-rie Tuesday, Feb. 19 in a regional quarterfinal.

Stoughton 59, Edgewood 36

Senior Peighton Triel-off scored a game-high 17 points on Monday to lead the Vikings to a 59-36 win over Edgewood in Madi-son.

The Vikings raced out to a 34-16 lead and cruised from there. Senior forward Ashely Nelson added 12 points and senior guard Emma Kissling chipped in seven.

“We played good half-court defense,” coach Brad Pickett said. “I thought we did a nice job controlling the boards against Edge-wood’s length.

Stoughton 49, Fort Atkinson 20

T r i e l o f f s c o r e d a g a m e - h i g h 1 5 p o i n t s and knocked down three 3-pointers Friday to power the Vikings to a 49-20 win over Fort Atkinson. Nelson

and senior guard Alex Ashworth each added nine points.

The Vikings led by nine points at the half . The Vikings dominated the sec-ond half, outscoring the Blackhawks 27-7.

Vikings sixth seedDespite finishing third

in conference, Stoughton didn’t earn a top five seed or a first-round regional bye.

Ins tead , the Vik ings received a sixth seed in the top half of the sectional and will host Sauk Prairie

(4-16) Feb. 19 in a region-al quarterfinal game.

Stoughton is 1-6 against

teams ranked in the top 10 in the state, and is one of two teams who have

beaten Monona Grove (18-2), which is ranked second on the WisSports.net D2 Coaches’ poll.

The Silver Eagles are the top seed in the top half of the Oregon sectional. Monroe received the sec-ond seed, Reedsburg the third seed and Oregon the fourth.

“I can’t control how oth-er coaches vote,” Pickett said. “They felt we were a sixth seed not there is much we can do about that.

“We are just focused on playing Sauk and we’ll go from there.”

Pickett is hoping those

seven games against teams ranked in the top 10 in the state are the opportunities the team will learn from and prepare them heading into the postseason.

“We’ve p layed good competition all year and hopefully, that helps us for a tournament run,” he said.

Sauk Prairie finished last in the Badger North this season. The Eagles are led by sophomore guard Oliv-ia Breunig (11.6 ppg) and sophomore Naomi Breunig (11.1 ppg). The Eagles have lost seven of their past eight games.

“Sauk will compete and they are well coached,” Pickett said. “We must take care of the basketball and continue to rebound on both ends of the floor.”

Pickett said the team must lean on its defense in the playoffs.

If Stoughton beats the Eagles, the Vikings would face third-seeded Reeds-burg in a regional semi-final game. The Beavers took third in the Badger North behind conference champion Beaver Dam, the two-time Division 2 state champion. Pickett isn’t looking down the road to a matchup against Reeds-burg.

“To be honest we must focus on Sauk first and that’s what our mentality is right now,” he said.

Badger SouthTeam Wins LossesMonona Grove 11 2Monroe 10 3Stoughton 9 4Watertown 8 5Oregon 7 6Edgewood 4 9Milton 3 10Fort Atkinson 0 13

Photo by Mark NesbittStoughton senior Peighton Trieloff drives to the basket against Beaver Dam’s Paige Schumann in the first half of a Badger Challenge game at Madison Edgewood High School.

What’s nextStoughton will travel to

Watertown at 7:15 p.m. Thursday to play the Goslings.

Stoughton bottles up King in win against MonroeMARK NESBITTAssistant sports editor

After finishing the sea-son sweep against Monroe on Friday, Feb. 8, Stough-ton boys basketball coach Nolan Weber doesn’t want to look too far ahead.

A couple weeks ago Oregon was on top in the Badger South and in a position to control its own dest iny. The Pan-thers (10-6 overall, 7-3 Badger South) have since lost three of their past four games. Stoughton (10-8, 8-2) has won three of four to move into a first place tie with Monona Grove in the conference.

“We have been so up and down this season, it is hard to say where we are,” Weber said. “We need to come out every game with the same level of focus and effort we played with against Monroe. Hopeful-ly we are moving in that direction.”

Stoughton 61, Monroe 49

Junior guard Adam Hob-son and senior guard Drew

Anderson combined to score 34 points and pow-ered the host Vikings to a 61-49 win Friday over Monroe.

“It was encouraging for both Drew and Adam to play so well in the same game,” Weber said. “They are vital to what we do on both ends of the floor. Drew probably played his all-around best game of the season.”

The Vikings jumped out to a 30-16 lead against the Cheesemakers at the half.

“We did a good job of mixing things up on the

defensive end and keep-ing them on their heels a bit,” Weber said. “On the offense end, we made some perimeter shots and got out in transition a bit.”

Sophomore guard Cael McGee added nine points and junior center Jack Nelson chipped in eight. Nelson made his biggest impact on the game on the defensive end where the 6-7 center l imited 6-6 Monroe center Kade King to three points. King entered the game averag-ing 14.4 points per game.

Weber said King is a

good player and keeping him off the glass was a key against the Cheesemakers.

“ I thought we were very focused and played with a sense of urgency on defense,” Weber said. “Jack Nelson did a nice job on King when we were playing man-to-man. Our team as a whole did a good job in the zone of limiting his opportunities.”

Stoughton, Fort Atkinson (ppd.)

Tu e s d a y e v e n i n g ’s conference game at Fort Atkinson was postponed until Wednesday after the Courier’s Hub press dead-line.

See next week’s paper a recap of that game.

Badger SouthTeam Wins LossesStoughton 8 2Monona Grove 8 2Oregon 7 3Monroe 7 4Edgewood 4 6Watertown 3 6Fort Atkinson 2 9Milton 1 9

What’s nextStoughton will trav-

el to Oregon Friday at 7:15 p.m. to play the Panthers.

Icebergs lose to Wisconsin Valley Union on Senior NightJEREMY JONES Sports editor

The I cebe rgs (7 -14 -0 overall, 3-6-0 Badger Conference) girls hockey co-op closed out the 2018-19 regular season Satur-day, Feb. 9, against the Wisconsin Valley Union.

Third-seeded Onalaska hosts the Icebergs, who received the sixth seed, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Wis. Valley Union 5, Icebergs 1

A f o u r - g o a l d e f i c i t against the nonconference Wisconsin Valley Union

proved more than the Ice-bergs could handle, drop-ping the nonconference game 5-1.

M c F a r l a n d j u n i o r

Badger ConferenceTeam Wins Losses Ties PointsRock County 7 0 2 16Cap City 7 0 1 15Metro Lynx 5 4 1 11Viroqua 5 5 0 10Icebergs 3 6 0 6Badger Lightning 0 10 0 0

What’s nextThe sixth-seed-

ed Icebergs travel to third-seeded Onalaska 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14 for the WIAA regional semi� nals.

Turn to Icebergs/Page 11

f o r w a r d A e r y n O l s o n scored the Icebergs’ lone goal 9 minutes, 8 seconds in to the third period. The goal cut the WVU lead to 4-1.

Alayna Bruneau scored a power-play goal in the first period and assisted on another in the third period. Cadie Ash, Emily Nolan, Shelby Tryba and Anna Ryder added goals for the Wisconsin Valley Union.

Junior goaltender Cora Zimmerman stopped 16 of 20 shots on goal and soph-omore Abby Seybold made 14 of 15 saves. Wisconsin Valley Union goaltender Mad i son Wagne r-Dur r made 17 saves on 18 shots.

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ConnectStoughton.com 11February 14, 2019 Stoughton Courier Hub

Continued from page 10

Icebergs: Open playoffs in Onalaska

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lost two previous games to the Vikings.

Stoughton senior Carter Hellenbrandt had a game-high 44 saves.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row,” Hel-lenbrand said. “At the end it’s a team game. It doesn’t really matter exactly how well I play.”

“We tried hard. We put it all out there. Milton has been playing well lately. They came out on fire.”

The Vikings were locked in a 1-1 game entering the third period, but had four penalties in the final peri-od.

“We had some issues with quite a few penali-ties this year,” coach Doug Kraft said. “I thought we had worked through it, but it kind oif reared its head here tonight.”

Kraft credited Hellen-brand for keep ing the Vikings in the game.

“He’s been the backbone of our team all year,” Kraft said. “He’s probably seen more shots than anybody in the entire conference. Carter did everything he could. If he keeps a team to two goals we expect to win that game.”

Milton freshman forward Mason Pusateri scored a game-winning power-play goal on a rebound with 4 four minutes, 32 seconds left to seal the victory for the Red Hawks.

The Vikings had a couple of scoring opportunities in the final 3 minutes to force overtime. Senior forward Nolan Stapefeldt faked a shot on Milton junior goal-tender Luke Grote’s glove

side in the final 2:30, but the shot came up short.

Milton freshman forward Gannon Kilgora scored a goal on asissts by senior forward Nick Robinson and sophomore defender Wyatt Frison to give the Red Hawks a 1-0 lead at 8:40 in the first period.

The Vik ings ou t sho t the Red Hawks 19-10 in the second period, and tied the game on junior forward James Hanson’s power-play goal on assists from Hlavacek and Stapel-feldt at 5:52.

“I thought the first peri-od we could have skated a little harder,” Kraft said. “I thought Mil ton was ready to go. The plan was to make him (Grote) see a lot of shots and make him when they game for them and unfortunately he did.”

The Red Hawks outshot the Vikings 46-31 in the game. Grote had 30 saves for Milton.

Hel lenbrand plans to attend UW-Eau Claire and will play in the senior Wis-consin hockey tournament later this year. He said he may also play club hockey at Eau Claire.

Stoughton 9, Viroqua 6

The Vikings closed out the regular season with a 9-6 win in Viroqua. The game ended a sl ide by Stoughton.

Hlavacek scored a pair of even-strength goals to give the Vikings a 2-1 lead in the first period.

Three power-play goals by Viroqua helped the Blackhawks turn the tide in the second period but

two more goals by Hlava-cek helped Stoughton tie the game 5-5 entering the second intermission.

Hlavacek scored the go-ahead goal 9:26 into the third period. Senior forward Jack Sundby had two goals in the win and sophomore forward Dustin Woelke ( three ass i s t s ) and senior forward Simon Shelley each had a goal.

Junior goaltender Quinn Ziemann made 17 saves on 23 shots. J.J. Hertel stopped 31 shots for Viro-qua.

Boys hockey: Hanson’s goal and Hellenbrand’s performance in net not enoughContinued from page 9

Photo by John MillerStoughton senior goaltender Carter Hellenbrand stops a shot by Milton Tuesday in the Vikings’ 2-1 loss to the Red Hawks in a first-round WIAA regional game at the Mandt Center. Hellenbrand had 44 saves.

Swimming in only his s ix th meet of the sea-son, junior Conner Clark put himself in position to become the first medal-ist for the Stoughton boys swimming team at the D2 state meet since the mid 1990s.

T h e j u n i o r wo n t h e 100-yard butterfly t i t le Saturday, Feb. 9 at the WIAA Division 2 Baraboo

sectional, in a school-re-cord 53.67 seconds. He went on to also qualify for state in the 200 individual medley and as a member of the school-record 200 medley relay.

“I think Conner had a lot to prove today,” coach Katie Talmadge said. “He went through a hard time this season overcoming personal obstacles that led

him to his moment today, which I think just made it sweeter for him.”

Clark missed a month-and-a-half of a season that runs slightly longer than two. He returned Tuesday, Jan. 8, at home against M o n o n a G r o v e . A n d although he doesn’t think miss ing so much t ime affected his swims in the pool, it affected him men-tally.

“I realized how easily you can lose everything and how a season can just come crashing down,” he said. “It kind of made me thing about this being my last race, so I wanted to treat all my races like that today.”

Clark admitted he even contemplated quitting the team and just focusing on club swimming. “I didn’t think about it

a lot, but going through practices (and not being a b l e t o c o m p e t e ) , I thought, why am I here?” he said.

He stuck with it , and Talmadge applauded her swimmer’s decision.

“I t was rea l ly rough there for a while,” she said. “Conner could have just gone back to club and called it good, but he decided to persevere and push past that, and I think he learned a huge lesson. It’s worth pushing through hard times, because good

times are coming.”Seniors Hayden Ham-

mond (500 freestyle) and Patrick Regan (100 back-stroke) will also be com-peting at the state meet inside the UW-Madison Natatorium at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Senior Jacob Turner, Hammond , Regan and Clark broke the school-re-cord in the 200 medley relay at state and are look-ing to go even faster at state.

energy afterwards. They saw their teammates swim-ming well and thought, I’m part of this team, I can do that too. That logic just flowed after Conner and the medley set the tone.”

Clark shaved nearly four seconds off his season-best to finish fifth in the 200 IM to qualify for state with a time of 2:06.08. He is the 14th seed at state.

“For me, I think this was one of the best meets I’ve swam my entire life,” Clark said. “As a team, I think this is the best the team has ever swam in program history.”

Regan, 100 backRegan went under a min-

ute for the first time in his career to win the second of three heats of the 100 back. His nearly four-sec-ond PR of :57.46 earned him a sixth-place medal and the 11th seed at state.

“I was really excited to see that big of a time drop,” Regan said. “I got s ixth overal l , which is better than I did at confer-ence. It’s really exciting to see that I made that big of a drop here at sectionals.”

Desp i te h i s success , Regan said he felt awful going into the race.

“I fel t untapered and really nervous,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I just trusted the process, and the taper worked out.”

He i s now .21 away from the 100 back school record, which he hopes to break at state.

Regan swam with the STAR (Stoughton Aqua Racers ) f rom a young age and then took some time off to focus on other sports.

“We worked really hard on his mental toughness and being able to train to what he’s capable of … It’s typically his mind that holds him back,” Talmadge said. “I think he just let go of all the mind stuff today and let his body perform, and I think that was the key to his performance today.”

Hammond, 500 freeHammond finished sixth

and earned a spot in the first heat at state with a 5:09.3 in the 500 free. His previous best t ime was a 5 :21.03. Hammond’s time, slower by about 12

seconds. He is the 14th seed at state. Hammond is six seconds off the school record.

200 medley relayStoughton’s 200 med-

ley relay of senior Jacob Turner, Clark, Hammond and Regan cut more than a second-and-a-half off of its seed time to finish sixth in a school-record 1:44.06. They earned the 14th seed for the state tournament.

“That was exciting to final ly get that record because we’ve been so close all season,” Regan said.

Clark said he thinks the

relay has the potential to crack the top eight and medal at state.

Other finishesTalmadge said she felt

the Vikings had eight races with the potential to quali-fy for the state meet.

Regan, Hammond and Clark closed out the meet, taking seventh place as a 400 free relay in 3:35.73. J u n i o r I s a i a h R ow l ey rounded out the re lay, which missed the state qua l i fy ing-s tandard of 3:28.56. Rowley had a season-best every time he entered the water at sec-tionals.

“Isaiah swam extremely fast today,” Talmadge said. “He hadn’t touched a lot of those times since this meet last year, so that was won-derful to see.”

Sophomore Cade Mil-lam, Rowley, senior Jacob Turner and Regan fin-ished ninth on the 200 free relay but didn’t meet the state-qualifying standard time of 1:33.77. They had a time of 1:39.53.

Turner fin ished 10th in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.64) but missed the state cut of 1:03.29.

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ConnectStoughton.com12 February 14, 2019 Stoughton Courier Hub

Swimming: Clark wins � rst sectional title for Stoughton boys program in 24 yearsContinued from page 9

Sectional champsDiving: Ben Stitgen,

so., Edgewood, 408.4

200 medley relay:Edgewood, Alex Moen, Truman teDuits, Colin Senke, Tommy Beyer, 1:39.44

200 freestyle: Nate Frucht, jr., Edgewood 1:45.68

200 individual medley: Aidan Lohr, jr., Baraboo, 1:55.87

50 freestyle: Jer-emiah Mansavage, sr., Fort Atkinson, :21.53

100 butter� y: Con-ner Clark, jr., Stoughton, 53.67

100 freestyle: Jere-my Mansavage, sr., Fort Atkinson, 47.52

500 freestyle: Ben Ramminger, jr., DeForest, 4:46.83

200 freestyle re-lay: Edgewood, Tommy Beyer, Sean O’Connor, Chase Korb, Nate Frucht, 1:30.33

100 backstroke:Aidan Loh, jr., Baraboo, 50.72

100 backstroke:Young Liang, so., White-water, 58.69

400 freestyle re-lay: Edgewood, Nate Frucht, Colin Senke, Alex Moen, Truman teDuits, 3:17.53

Back in the pool, Clark making the most of his opportunities

Photo by Jeremy JonesJunior Conner Clark broke the Stoughton High School record in the 100-yard butterfly and as part of the 200-medley relay Saturday, Feb. 9 at sectionals. Clark qualified for state in both events, as well as in the 200 individual medley.

Photo by Jeremy JonesSenior Hayden Hammond finished sixth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5 minutes, 9.3 seconds. It was his first time qualifying for state as an individual.

comes in the first period or the third, it’s still six points on the board.”

With his arm hooked around the back of the head, Devore was able to walk of Bellomo over and keep it tight for the pin.

Having spent the last three years wrestling in Minnesota, Devore said his family relocated to Madi-son over the summer when his father was transferred for work. He open-enrolls to Stoughton High School.

“I live in Verona, so I’ve been commuting back and forth,” Devore said. “I fig-ured I’ll be wrestling in col-lege next year, I should get some great practice partners and build myself up for the next level.”

Stoughton led 4-3 follow-ing the first two matches as senior Dante Steinmetz (120) opened with an 8-1 major decision. Trenton Dow got the start in place of senior Freeman Detweiler and lost a 16-14 decision in overtime at 126.

The coolest part about this victory, compared to the previous five sectional titles, Empey said, is that Stoughton got a lot of peo-ple involved.

“Trent wrestled a great kid there right to the end,” he said. “Ethan Devore wrestled great and Ethan Peterson (106) scored late on a single-leg attack, I thought that was awesome.”

Junior Braeden White-head, ranked third at 132, wrestled up a weight and earned a fall over Cody Johnson in 1:57 at 138. Sen io r Hun te r Lewis , ranked first at 138, moved up to 145 and added a pin of Aiden Romack in 2:23.

Junior Gavin Model , ranked third at 152, earned a 15-0 tech fall against Davin Serrano.

Senior Cade Spilde and Craig’s Marshall Getch-ell fired up the crowd with one of the most exciting matches of the night at 160. Spilde led 11-3 early in the second period but Getchell rallied with a takedown at the end of the period to pull to 12-5. The Craig wrestler kept coming in the third period and pulled with a point 14-13 with an escape moments after a near fall by Spilde, who was able to sur-vive the final :15 on his feet for the win.

Cade’s cousin, Brandt, didn’t need to go down to the wire and pinned Grant Mullen in 3:21 at 170 for a 36-3 lead with six matches remaining.

Sophomore Rudy Detwei-ler was aggressive from the start at 182 and added an 11-3 major decision.

S o p h o m o r e B r o o k s Empey continued to be a master of conserving ener-gy, pinning Braden Hopkins in :23. It was his 35th pin of the season. He is now three matches away from the school’s single season pin record of 37.

“I’m very excited about poss ibly breaking that record this weekend at sec-tionals,” he said.

Drew Pasold won a 5-2 decision at 220 and fresh-man Ethan Peterson add-ed an 11-3 major decision

at 106. Freshman Nicolar Rivera, the nation’s top wrestler at 106, moved up to 113 and closed out the win, pinning Belle Goethe in 4:23.

Rivera improved to 48-0 on the season with the win.

“He’s very gifted in terms of his speed, and I think his transition from one move to another is just so different than anyone else. It’s hard to keep up,” Dan Spilde said. “He works hard and has a good gas tank.

“Every match he is men-tally ready. He never over-looks anyone or is intimi-dated by anyone.”

That comes from all the work he put in even before donning the purple singlet of a Stoughton varsity wres-tler.

“His parents have giv-en him a lot of opportuni-ties in terms or where he’s been able to compete,” Dan Spilde said. “He’s stepped up every time they’ve chal-lenged him and he’s done the same thing for us.”

The \Vikings open the team state tournament Fri-day, March 1, at 5:30 p.m. The top-seed, Stoughton will face the eighth-seed, which hadn’t been deter-mined as of Tuesday, in the quarterfinals.

Oconomowoc regionalTwelve of 14 reached the

finals Saturday and Stough-ton crowned 10 champions and finished second and third twice to score 318 points. All 14 wrestlers advanced to sec-tionals.

No other team cracked 200 as Watertown finished second with 192.5 and the host Coons were third with 163.

Rivera (40-7), ranked No. 1 in the nation at 106 pounds earned the first of 10 cham-pionships with a fall in 11

seconds against Monona Grove/McFarland freshman Evan Rettkowski.

Sophomore Alex Wicks (24-7), who didn’t wrestle at conference, returned to the mat with a regional title at 113. He pinned Fort Atkinson junior Sawyer Brandenburg in 3:42.

Steinmetz (26-6) added the 120 crown with a fall in 1:52 against Watertown freshman Walker Wichman.

Whitehead (36-4) won the regional title with a 10-3 decision over Oregon’s Steele Mellum at 132. Senior Hunter Lewis (44-1) stuck Fort Atkin-son junior Tristin Trevino in 1:42 to add the 138 title.

Mechler (44-3) won the 145 title with a 13-6 decision over Madison La Follette senior Kyle Smith.

Model (44-5) earned a 7-2 decision over Oconomowoc senior Keagan Lazar to claim the 152-bracket.

Cade Spilde (38-6) claimed the 160 title with a fall in 3:41 over Oconomowoc senior Garrett Sobstad. Brandt Spilde (28-10) pinned Fort Atkinson senior Lois Jones in 3:35 to earn his first regional title at 170.

Brooks Empey (44-6) pinned Oconomowoc senior Alex Schmidt in 2:55 to win the 195 title.

Detweiler (26-13) was the runner-up at 126 after los-ing 17-3 to Watertown junior Edward Wilkowski. Junior heavyweight Tony Hohol (23-12) also finished second, los-ing 4-2 to Watertown senior Alex Nachtigall in overtime.

Senior Drew Pasold lost by fall in 3:02 to Oconomowoc senior Theo Ringolf at 220 and finished third. Sophomore Rudy Detweiler (32-14) add-ed a third-place finish at 182.

The two at sectionals advance on to the individual state tournament.

ConnectStoughton.com 13February 14, 2019 Stoughton Courier Hub

Regional champions106: Nicolar Rivera, fr., Stoughton def.

Evan Rettkowski, fr., MG/McFarland by fall :12

113: Alex Wicks, so., Stoughton def. Sawyer Brandenburg, jr., Fort Atkinson by fall 3:41

120: Dante Steinmetz, sr., def. Walker Wichman, fr., Watertown by fall 1:52

126: Edward Wilkowski, jr., Watertown def. Freeman Detweiler, sr., Stoughton by major decision 17-3

132: Braeden Whitehead, jr., Stoughton def. Steele Mellum, sr., Oregon by 10-3 decision

138: Hunter Lewis, sr., Stoughton def. Tristin Trevino, jr., Fort Atkinson by fall 1:42

145: Luke Mechler, so., Stoughton def. Kyle Smith, sr., La Follette by decision 13-6

152: Gavin Model, jr., Stoughton def. Keagan Lazar, sr., Oconomowoc by deci-sion 7-3

160: Cade Spilde, sr., Stoughton def. Ka-sey Logan, so., Watertown by fall 3:41

170: Brandt Spilde, jr., Stoughton def. Louis Jones, sr., Fort Atkinson by fall 3:35

182: Thomas Witkins, so., Fort Atkinson def. Robbie Ruth, sr., Oregon by decision 6-2

195: Brooks Empey, so., Stoughton def. Lex Schmidt, sr., Oconomowoc by fall 2:55

220: Matt Brewster, sr., Wartertown def. Theo Ringold, sr., Oconomowoc by deci-sion 4-2

285: Alex Nachtigall, sr., Watertown def. Tony Hohol, jr., Stoughton by sudden vic-tory 4-2

Wrestling: Vikings qualify for 13th team state tournament, advance all 14 to sectionals

Continued from page 9

Photo by Jeremy JonesDante Steinmetz scores a reversal in the third period against Janesville Craig’s Julian Garsia. Steinmetz won the match 9-1 to help Stoughton defeat Janes-ville Craig 59-9. The win sent the Vikings to a sixth straight WIAA Division 1 team state meet; (below) Junior Braeden Whitehead locks up Janesville Craig’s Cody Johnbson for a fall in 1:57.