By Andrew Horschak
Sports Correspondent
Comfortable in its home surroundings, the Burlington wrestling team had a standout showing in a WIAA Division 1 sectional on Saturday, Feb. 18.
With eight sectional qualifiers, the host Demons finished with two champions, three second-place finishers and three third-place finishers. On the day, the eight wrestlers had a combined record of 21-8.
The top two in each weight class moved on to the 74th annual WIAA Individual State Tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Preliminaries get underway at 3 p.m. Thursday with quarterfinals at approximately 5:15 p.m. The tourney continues at 10 a.m. Friday and wraps up with championship matches at 5 p.m. Saturday.
After having only two state qualifiers a year ago, the Demons will be well-represented this year by sectional champions Nate Crayton (182) and Max Travis (285) and runners-up Ben Kumprey (120), Jake Skrundz (126) and Lance Otter (170).
“We definitely did pretty well,” Burlington coach Jade Gribble said. “For the most part, we had a really good tournament. Real easily we could’ve had seven (state qualifiers).”
Third-ranked Oak Creek placed first in the 14-team sectional with 173 points. Burlington beat out regional champion Kenosha Bradford for second, 139.5-112.5.
The junior duo of Crayton (30-3) and Travis (30-9) dominated en route to their titles.
Crayton pinned his first two opponents in 53 and 24 seconds, respectively, before winning by a 4-1 decision over Franklin’s Steve Djurina in the final.
“With Nate, he’s looking to score and get after people,” Gribble said. “When he does that, he’s real dangerous because he can do a lot of good things and he’s really hard to score on.”
Travis, a lighter heavyweight weighing between 230 and 235 pounds, pinned all three of his foes in less than three minutes. In the final, he took care of Oak Creek’s Brycen Hakes in 2:00.
“Max has wrestled really well the last few weeks,” Gribble said. “If he makes a mistake, he keeps wrestling through them. That’s what he did (in the sectional). In both his semifinal and final matches, he was actually losing to start and came back and pinned his opponent.”
Otter, one of two seniors in the varsity lineup, became a first-time state qualifier when he beat Bradford’s Logan Ramos by a 10-2 major decision in a wrestle-back for second place. Otter (31-10) went 3-1 on the day, losing to fourth-ranked Nolan Paar of Oak Creek, 9-3, in the final.
“Lance has always been right on that edge – always close, but could never quite get there,” Gribble said. “This year, I think he put himself in a good position to be there.”
The freshman duo of Kumprey (34-8) and Skrundz (31-9) both went 3-1 and had to battle back to secure their spots at state.
Kumprey cruised to a pair of victories in his first two matches before falling short in a 4-1 decision to sixth-ranked Mitch Landgraf of Oak Creek in the final. Kumprey regrouped to beat friendly rival Ben Stevenson of Kenosha Indian Trail by a 5-2 decision in a wrestle-back for second.
“They have kind of gone back and forth,” Gribble said. “Ben lost to him in the Youth State Finals last year. They’ve wrestled each other several times. Against Landgraf in the final, Ben was losing 1-0 when we chose down and he got turned. He wrestled him tough.”
After losing a 13-7 decision to eighth-ranked Matt Berlin of Oak Creek in the semifinals, Skrundz responded by pinning Racine Park’s Dashawn Bolton in 1:46 and Bradford’s Abel Castillo in 4:43 for second. Castillo pinned Skrundz in the regional final the week before in 1:30.
“In the wrestle-back, he just continued wrestling,” Gribble said. “We tried to work on not taking any really big risks. With Jake, sometimes he takes really big risks because he’s so explosive and is able to score points in a lot of ways. Sometimes you don’t need to be so high-risk. You just need to wrestle a good, fundamental match and believe that your technique and skill is good enough.”
Sophomore Zach Weiler (113), freshman Max Ehlen (132) and senior Juanye Thornton (220) all won two matches and placed third.
Weiler (32-12) won his first two matches by pin and major decision and then suffered a 3-2 loss to fifth-ranked Mason French of Kenosha Tremper in the final. Needing a wrestleback for second place, Weiler was pinned by Bradford’s Cole Ramos in overtime in 6:28.
Ehlen (31-11) also won his first two matches before losing a 5-4 sudden-death overtime decision to fourth-ranked Veliko Kochiu of Oak Creek in the final. Ehlen was then pinned by Tremper senior Kyree Noble in 5:58 in a battle for second.
Thornton (21-14) opened with a pin and then lost 2-1 in a tie-breaker to Oak Creek’s Enrique Acevedo in the semifinals. Thornton won his next match, but he didn’t get a wrestle-back when Acevedo lost in the final to Racine Case’s Luther Egerson, 11-6.
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