Burlington eclipses .500 mark in SLC season
By Mike Ramczyk
Buoyed by 30 free points, the Burlington wrestling squad continued its Southern Lakes Conference dual success Thursday night at Burlington High School.
The Demons opened the match three forfeits and five overall to help hold off a strong Wilmot squad and improve to 3-2 in SLC dual action with a 45-27 victory.
Starting at 182, Nate Crayton, Jacob McCarty and Juanye Thornton recorded forfeit wins for Burlington, and a Max Travis pin fall in 3:31 at heavyweight helped the Demons to a 24-0 lead.
The Panthers, who began turning their season around after a rough start with a 70-66 win over Lake Geneva Badger last week, outscored Burlington the rest of the match, 27-21.
Burlington’s lead built to 30-6 after a Kyle DeRosier forfeit win at 113, but Wilmot won four of the final seven matches.
After Wilmot’s Jacob Wagemann (120) and Burlington’s Ben Kumprey (126) picked up victories, Wilmot’s Erik Tucknott beat Jake Skrundz due to an injury.
Then, the Demons’ youth took over, as freshmen Max Ehlen followed with a 3-2 decision over Kyler Moudy, and Qwade Gehring (145) continued his stellar season with a 7-2 win.
Wilmot’s Logan Pye pinned Eli Kiesler in the final match before each team won a match via forfeit to close things out.
Burlington will take part in the 17-team Freedom Invitational on Saturday.
“That’s a 5, 5:15 (a.m.) bus time, but it’s a great tournament,” Gribble said, “We see different competition. I’m a true believer in going all over to see different teams.”
Burlington (BURL) 45, Wilmot Union (WIUN) 27
182: Nate Crayton (BURL) over (WIUN) (For.) 195: Jacob McCarty (BURL) over (WIUN) (For.) 220: Juanye Thornton (BURL) over (WIUN) (For.) 285: Max Travis (BURL) over Seth Willis (WIUN) (Fall 3:31) 106: Joey Graham (WIUN) over Grant Zelechowski (BURL) (Fall 0:36) 113: Kyle DeRosier (BURL) over (WIUN) (For.) 120: Jacob Wagemann (WIUN) over Zach Weiler (BURL) (Dec 10-5) 126: Ben Kumprey (BURL) over Drew Hebior (WIUN) (Dec 4-3) 132: Erik Tucknott (WIUN) over Jake Skrundz (BURL) (Inj. [time]) 138: Max Ehlen (BURL) over Kyler Moudy (WIUN) (Dec 3-2) 145: Qwade Gehring (BURL) over Jeremy Toro (WIUN) (Dec 7-2) 152: Logan Pye (WIUN) over Eli Kiesler (BURL) (Fall 4:33) 160: Hunter Valach (WIUN) over (BURL) (For.) 170: Lance Otter (BURL) over (WIUN) (For.)
Demons impressive after long layoff
By Andrew Horschak
Sports Correspondent
Idle since Dec. 15, the Burlington wrestling team made its long-awaited return to the mats.
Understandably rusty after the lengthy holiday break, the Demons rolled to a dominating 69-3 Southern Lakes Conference victory at Delavan-Darien on Thursday, Jan. 5. Two days later, they won three of five matches en route to a third-place finish in the 30th annual Demon Invite.
“The kids had been off for a long time, which is not what I intended, but unfortunately that is what we were dealt,” Burlington coach Jade Gribble said.
“People are probably going to think that I’m being ridiculous, but I don’t think we performed very well against Delavan-Darien. We won big, but we looked a little sluggish. We’ve been spending a lot of time talking about our effort and how we performed because we’re a very young team.”
In Saturday’s six-team dual-meet tourney, the Demons posted victories over South Milwaukee (57-15), Port Washington (56-24) and East Troy (54-30), while losing to eventual champion Oak Creek (57-9) and runner-up Fort Atkinson (39-30).
“I think the kids picked it up as the day went on and battled through in different matches,” Gribble said. “I knew there were going to be ups and downs in the day, but I was happy with our effort. It was nice to see what we need to work on and improve on as we get going here in January.”
Oak Creek, which won its five matches by a combined score of 269-67, was ranked No. 7 in Division 1 in the latest WiWrestling.com state poll and No. 3 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel area poll.
“Top to bottom, they are a solid team and well-coached,” Gribble said. “They do a lot of the little things right that you need to be successful.”
Junior Nate Crayton (182 pounds) and freshman Qwade Gehring (145) both went 5-0 in the Demon Invite to lead Burlington. Ranked eighth in the state, Crayton recorded three more pins after notching a 10-second pin in the SLC victory over Delavan-Darien.
“They really had a good day,” Gribble said. “If you asked either one of them, though, they’d both tell you that they have plenty to work on.
“Qwade came off a couple times and said to me, ‘Man, I’m sloppy right now.’ Of course, we’re going to be a little sloppy. We’ve been off for three weeks. You just have to work and continue to get better.”
Ninth-ranked Zach Weiler (120) went 4-1 on the day along with Ben Kumprey (126), Lance Otter (170) and Max Travis (285). Otter finished with four pins and Weiler, Kumprey and Travis had two each.
Weiler’s lone defeat was by a 3-2 decision to sixth-ranked Mitch Landgraf of Oak Creek, while Otter’s lone defeat was by a 6-4 decision to fifth-ranked Nolan Paar of Oak Creek. In the season-opening Slinger Tournament on Dec. 3, Landgraf pinned Weiler in 5:14.
Jake Skrundz (132), Max Ehlen (138) and Juanye Thornton (220) all went 3-2 and combined for five pins.
The highlight of the day for Burlington was its victory over Port Washington, which was ranked eighth in the Journal Sentinel area poll. The Demons recorded six pins in the match.
“In wrestling, it’s a lot about matchups,” Gribble said. “I think we matched up real well against them. Overall, that was probably our best dual of the day.”
The Demons won by forfeit in six matches in the SLC triumph over Delavan-Darien, but pins by Skrundz, Gehring, Otter, Crayton and Thornton helped even the team’s conference record to 2-2.
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