Pierce County wrestlers hope to make return trip to state

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At least seven of the 20 Pierce County qualifiers for this weekend's WIAA Individual Sectionals made it to state last year.

These seven will look for repeat trips to Madison for next week's state individual tournament in their respective divisions. The Division 2 Sectional is at Osceola and the Division 3 Sectional is at Osseo-Fairchild High School in Osseo and is hosted by Independence-Gilmanton.

All of Ellsworth's qualifiers from last year are favored to make it back, including defending state champ Hayden Hauschildt at 145 pounds, state runner-up Sam Huppert at 112, D.J. Yarwood at 119, and Shawn Helmueller at 160. Hauschildt, Huppert and Yarwood all have good chances of winning sectional titles and Helmueller should have his anticipated sectional title showdown with Amery's Blake Lundgren at 152 barring any upsets.

Prescott two state qualifiers from last season, Jake Filkins at 189 and John Kariesch at 285 also look set to make it back to state. Filkins is unbeaten at 189 and Kariesch is one of top five Division 2 heavyweights in the state.

For Spring Valley-Elmwood's Cory Lasure, getting back to state could prove to be more difficult.

Lasure moved down to 189 pounds which puts him the same weight class as Boyceville's undefeated Jack Duerst. Not only that but there two other top ranked wrestlers in the Division 3 field in Whitehall's Cole Myron and Flambeau's Rocky McKittrick. Only the top three can advance to state.

The key matches in an individual sectional are the semifinals and the consolation finals, for they determine who gets to go to Madison (the championship match and second place wrestleback determine seeding at state.) Last year Spring Valley-Elmwood's Justin Keenlyne just missed out on qualifying to state as he lost in the 103-pound consolation finals 4-2 to Cornell-Gilman's Corey Hodwanic.

Keenlyne is back to try again along with sectional newcomers for SVE, Brady Webb at 103, regional champ Robert Trealoff at 125 and Logan Falde at 171. Willie Coyne at 145 was in last year's sectional meet in Eau Claire.

Keenlyne weight class is tough with top-ranked wrestlers like Cadott's undefeated Mike Sonnentag, Mondovi's Mike Peterson along with Hodwanic. Coyne has a tough weight class as well with defending sectional champ Brayden Wineke of Clear Lake and Alex Norby of Mondovi. Trealoff's weight class is just as tough with state ranked wrestlers Andrew Pehlps of Cornell-Gilman, Nathaniel Behnke of Bruce-Weyerhaeuser and Ryan Capouch of Blair-Taylor.

Back in Division 2, sectional newcomers like Prescott's Mike Feriancek at 135 and Ellsworth's Tyler Thoen at 103, Taylor Boettcher at 130 have tough brackets to get through, but Joe Kornmann as a good shot of making the top three at 140 as does Roarke Langer at 125 and Noah McLay at 160. EHS' Jordan Borst made sectionals last year but has a tough 171 bracket led by St. Croix Falls' unbeaten Joe Raygor. Like Keenlyne, Ellsworth's Alex Hoyer just missed out on berth at state in the consolation finals but he has a good shot of qualifying this year at 215.