Prep wrestlers ponder moving questions before Regionals

• WIAA

WIAA

Talk about it

To move or not to move, that is the question.

When it comes to moving forward in postseason prep wrestling tournaments, sometimes being in the right weight class can make a big difference.

Several Pierce County wrestlers will ponder such moves before this Saturday WIAA regional tournaments.

No. 2 ranked Ellsworth will play host to a Division 2 regional and Prescott will be there along with Baldwin-Woodville, Durand, Melrose-Mindoro/Gale-Etrrick-Trempealeau, Black River Falls and West Salem-Bangor.

The county's other prep wrestling team, Spring Valley-Elmwood, will be at St. Croix Central for a Division 3 regional. Also there are Clear Lake, Shell Lake, Turtle Lake-Clayton, No. 4 Boyceville, Glenwood City and the host SCC.

A good example of the moving question is Prescott wrestler Kyle Koele. He finished second at last weekend's Middle Border Conference meet to Ellsworth Hayden Hauschildt at 145 pounds. He could stay at 145, but with Mel-Min/G-E-T having a strong 145 pounder in James Marker as does West Salem-Bangor with Tyler Arntz, Koele may find his chances of moving on to sectionals (only the top two placewinners qualify for individual sectionals) easier by a moving up a weight class to 152 or moving down to 140 pounds.

But moving isn't easy either. At 140 is Koele's PHS teammate Mike Feriancek just fresh off winning the MBC title at that weight. Moving down would affect the entire Prescott line-up. Plus Koele would run into West Salem-Bangor's Steve Stark who has a 30-1 record. Moving up would be a better possibility, but there are good wrestlers at 152 as well like Ellsworth's Shawn Helmueller, Black River Falls' Henry Darst.

Prescott head coach Jeff Poliak said he leaves the decision of moving weight classes up to the wrestler himself but not without presenting all options avaliable and giving the best advice.

"That's a decision a wrestler has to make. He has to go with his gut and mind where he feels comfortable wrestling at and where he feels he has the best chance of success." Poliak said.

MBC champion Ellsworth is the clear favorite in the regional, the winner of which advances to the team sectional tournament next Tuesday in Somerset. The Panthers had all of their line-up place fifth or above at the MBC so all 14 wrestlers have a chance to move on to the individual sectional meet next Saturday in Osceola.

Prescott too, has a shot of getting handful of wrestlers to sectionals, including MBC champions like Feriancek, Jake Filkins at 189 and John Kariesch at 285.

Other top wrestlers who will be in Ellsworth will be Black River Falls' Joey Reidel at 135, Roger Stahl at 103 and Damion Benedict at 215; Baldwin-Woodville's Tyler Klund at 119, Zac Weyer at 135 and Hunter Campbell at 160 and Durand's Andrew Hartmann at 125 and Jacob Bee at 135. Melrose-Mindoro/Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau, the Dairyland Conference runner-up, will have three Dobbs boys in their line-up starting with Nick at 171, Jorey at 189 and Frank at 215. Another good wrestler for the Mustangs is Ben Rodeburg at 160.

Meanwhile Spring Valley-Elmwood is in another tough regional that features some of the best teams in the Indianhead like Dunn-St. Croix champion Boyceville, West Lakeland and overall Lakeland champion Clear Lake, East Lakeland champion Shell Lake and plenty of good wrestlers from St. Croix Central and Glenwood City too.

SVE head coach Carter Turner said he hopes wrestling in last weekend's BRC/D-SC Jamboree will help his club get through a tough regional.

"One of the things I like about wrestling in the (Jamboree) is that it really gets us going for regionals," Turner said. "It's a great way to start off the tournament season because its such a competitive meet and forces you to wrestle with intensity."

SV-Elmwood wrestlers that have good shot at sectionals inlcude Brady Webb at 103, Justin Keenlyne at 119, Robert Trealoff at 125, Willie Coyne at 145 and Cory Lasure at 215.