Whitnall Hosts Regional Wrestling Tourney Saturday, Expects Top Competition

The path to the WIAA state wrestling championships begins Saturday for high school wrestlers throughout Wisconsin. The regional tournament at will feature several of those most likely to succeed.

Whitnall's tourney will include 25 wrestlers who are ranked among the state's top 15 in their respective weight classes. Mathematically, that's about double the average number of ranked wrestlers in any of the state's regionals.

Tops among them are Muskego's Justin Scherkenbach (126 pounds) and Jordan Gruettner (220), both rated as Wisconsin's best at their weights; Muskego's Roland Dunlap, ranked second at 195 pounds; Burlington's Willie Ehlen (145) and Mukwonago's Tyler Ladwig (285), both ranked third; and fourth-ranked Kody Azarian (120) of Waterford, Derek Gill (126) and Brandt Gavin (152) of Burlington, and Luke Belich (220) of Mukwonago.

The eight teams in the Whitnall event also include Fort Atkinson, Union Grove and New Berlin.

The top four wrestlers in each weight class will advance to sectionals a week later, with the top two finishers in the sectionals advancing to the state tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Traditionally, Whitnall has faced teams from the extreme southeast part of the state--roughly from Franklin to Kenosha--in regional and sectional competition. This year, a WIAA tweak has moved Whitnall west, and from a competitive point of view, the change isn't to Whitnall's advantage.

"It's a meat grinder," said Falcons coach John Quinlan. Muskego, Mukwonago and Fort Atkinson have been ranked at various times this season, and three more top-10 teams await at the sectional level. As a result, Quinlan and the rest of the Whitnall coaching staff are focusing on individual results, conceding that it's unlikely if not impossible for the team as a whole to advance.

"Sometimes it falls that way," said Quinlan of the way the odds are stacked against his team in the tournament series. "This kind of situation is the same in every sport, but it evens out in the long run. So we'll have to look more at individuals than the team this year and concentrate on getting as many kids through as possible."

Quinlan thinks it's possible that as many as eight of the 14 starters could advance to the sectionals. "The slate's wiped clean again at the start of the tournaments," he said. "Just like at the conference tournament, a fourth or fifth seed can come through. Everybody's at a different point at this time, so it's going to come down to who's peaking at the right time. We hope the schedule we had is enough to prepare them for facing these teams."

Junior Varsity Second in Conference Tourney

Whitnall's junior varsity wrestlers finished second, 13 points behind Pewaukee, in the Woodland Conference JV Tournament Wednesday at Pewaukee. The Falcons were entered in 10 of the 14 weight classes, and came away with five champions.

John Homontowski (132), Mark Burakowski (138), Manu Schumann (145), Ben Stojcevic (152) and Zach Barnhart (170) were undefeated. Schumann pinned all three of his opponents. Amol Mody had a second place finish and Zach Price finished third.