By NATE BEIER | For the County Line
A four-pack of bronze finishes for the Royall wrestling team highlighted action at the Hillsboro Tiger Invite on Jan. 17.
Connor Gates (19–8) finished third at 120 by winning his last two matches of the tournament. Gates’ final match resulted in a 9–7 decision over Mondovi’s Austin Fedie, who was an honorable mention in wiwrestling.com’s rankings last week.
Taking third at 145, Noah Friedl (15–7) defeated Kickapoo/La Farge’s Brandon Aardahl 6–2. Friedl was 4–1 in the tournament.
Austin Johnson improved to 16–10 with a 4–1 finish at Hillsboro, claiming third place at 160. Mark Preuss, who is an honorable mention in the state rankings at 170, went 3–2 at Hillsboro and took third.
The Panthers’ only champion was Trenton Pasch at 152. Though Pasch (26–4) lost his fourth-round match by injury to Pittsville’s Dylan Grossbier, he bounced back to claim his final victory of the day in a quick match against Westfield’s Lucas Nelson, winning by fall in 1:12.
Kevin Sugden finished fourth at 138, and Matt Preuss was fifth at 220.
Fennimore won the team title with a score of 314. Wautoma/Wild Rose was second with 213 points; Royall, seventh, 161 points; Hillsboro, ninth, 108 points; and Necedah, 11th, 94.5 points.
Cashton 54, Royall 15
Royall won just four matches in last week’s conference dual, falling 54–15 to the conference-leading Eagles (4–0).
Cashton picked up forfeits at 106, 126, 152 and 195. There was a double forfeit at 220.
Gunnar Juresh won the Panthers’ first match of the night, a 15–0 decision over Anthony Whitehead, plus Noah Friedl carved out an 8–3 win over Jeffry Janzen at 145.
Also, Trenton Pasch bumped up to 160 to face off against Jaden Schmitz, emerging with an 11–1 win. Both wrestlers are honorable mentions in last week’s state rankings.
To round out the scoring for Royall (1–3), Mark Preuss defeated Drew Pieper 6–1.
Ottum, Sletten lead way at Raider challenge
Cory Ottum notched four wins and moved closer to the 30-win mark on the season at the Raider Challenge in Arcadia on Jan. 24.
Ottum scurried through the 170 bracket by pinning all four opponents he faced, improving to 27–6 on the season. Ottum won the first and third match with a first-period pins and earned second-period pins in the other two matches.
After going 3–1 on the day, Ike Sletten took second at 285. Sletten notched his first win by fall over Patrick Higley (Melrose-Mindoro/G-E-T) and followed it with a 10–5 decision over Eau Claire Memorial’s Ben Laube. Sletten took a forfeit in his third match and lost 7–2 to Andrew Whelan (Eau Claire Memorial).
Garrett Atteln and Levi Dunwald each placed fourth at 132 and 145, respectively. Atteln (17–12) recorded two pins and went 2–3 on the day. Dunwald (19–11) also recorded his two wins via pin.
Lane Koltermann (19–13) finished sixth at 113; Jaden Havlik (19–11), sixth at 182; and Tristan Glass (12–14), seventh at 220.
Brookwood finished sixth among 16 teams at the Raider Challenge. Melrose-Mindoro/G-E-T and Viroqua shared the team title with 411.5 points apiece.