Union Grove High School, Waterford High School

Waterford wrestling wins Badger Invite

Waterford’s AJ Guardiola is in control at 145 against Union Grove’s Jake Andersen Jan. 12 at Union Grove. (Rick Benavides/SLN)

 

By Chris Bennett

Sports Correspondent

The Waterford Union High School wrestling team won six individual titles and finished first Jan. 14 in the Badger Invitational at Badger High School in Lake Geneva.

The Wolverines routed Union Grove 67-3 Jan. 12 in a Southern Lakes Conference dual meet at Union Grove.

Waterford wrestles at home Thursday against Delavan-Darien in a SLC dual meet, and wrestles Saturday at Fort Atkinson in an invitational.

The Wolverines wrestled for nine titles at Badger. Cody Welker (113), Sam Winski (120), AJ Guardiola (145), Tanner Cadman (170), Jared Krattiger (182) and Boyd Biggs (220) each won their weight class.

Welker (27-5) beat Racine Park’s Joseph Mendoza (14-10) by major decision (16-2) for the title at 113. Winski (26-6) pinned Edwin Jimenez Perez of West Allis Central (16-5) in 2:43.

“Sam dropped down to 120 for the first time this year from 126,” Waterford coach Tom Fitzpatrick said. “Sam won the tournament in typical Sam fashion – with heart and attitude.”

Guardiola (19-3) beat Michael Sanders of Badger (21-6) 3-1.

Cadman (23-5) pinned Oregon’s Parker Ehn-Howland (12-5) in 5:06 and Krattiger (29-0) won by major decision (17-6) over Tristan Griswold of Port Washington (20-6).

Biggs pinned West Allis Central’s Darrius Adkins (13-5) in 5:10 for the title at 220.

“Boyd dominated the rest of his matches, and is another wrestler that is really starting to hit his stride,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was a great tournament for Boyd.”

Jordan Danowski (160), Jack Trautman (195) and EJ Mastrocola (285) each finished second. Anthony Christenson (138) finished third and Tony Mastrocola (195) finished fourth.

The Wolverines scored 298.5 points as a team. Among SLC teams Badger finished third (238.5) and Union Grove 10th (72.5) in the 10-team tournament.

Biggs wrestled what Fitzpatrick called the match of the meet in the dual against the Broncos. Waterford won 13 or 14 matches against the Broncos, and finished with five pins. Biggs pinned Clayton Esch in 5:45.

“It was a back and forth match throughout,” Fitzpatrick said. “With approximately 20 seconds left in the match Boyd gave Clayton an escape and wanted to finish the match on his feet. Boyd tossed Clayton with an unbelievable head lock that ended the match by pin fall.”

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