Seniors Crayton, Travis qualify after tough losses
By Troy Sparks
Sports Correspondent
There were some tense moments for the Burlington wrestling team at the Division 1 individual sectional meet at Racine Park Feb. 17.
Two of last year’s state qualifiers were on the brink of missing out on a return trip to the Kohl Center in Madison for the state tournament this weekend.
Seniors Nate Crayton (182 pounds) and Max Travis (220) lost in their championship matches. The end of their high school careers were in jeopardy. They wrestled the matches of their lives to win their second-place wrestle-backs and qualify.
Burlington, which sent only five wrestlers to state last year, will be represented in 11 of the 14 weight classes.
Freshman Hayden Halter (106), sophomores Cody Welker (120) and Ben Stevenson (126), junior Zach Weiler (132) and sophomore Jake Skrundz (145), a repeat state qualifier, won their championship matches.
Sophomores Max Ehlen (138), Qwade Gehring (160) and junior Wyatt Hayes (285) won their second place wrestle-backs. Sophomore Ben Kumprey, another repeat state qualifier, lost in his championship match at 152 pounds to senior Jesse Kovnesky of Oak Creek 9-1 but automatically qualified by rule without a second place wrestle-back.
“It was better than I expected,” Burlington coach Jade Gribble said. “My hope was that maybe the best case scenario was probably ten (qualifiers). And somehow we were able to have a better scenario than our best case.”
Halter pitched a shutout on a 15-0 technical fall over Oak Creek freshman Luca Paladino in his first match of the day at 106. He pinned Kenosha Bradford freshman Santiago Castillo in the semifinal round in 1 minute and 25 seconds.
Halter faced a familiar conference opponent in freshman Cade Willis (Union Grove) and held a 2-0 lead through two periods. He scored on a reversal to lead 4-0 and held on to win by that margin.
“I just kind of held the lead (and hung on),” Halter said. “I was going to let him up and start taking him down more but he was kind of holding out down there and trying to keep it close.”
Hayden will have more time to rest since he’s making his first trip to state, but he was restless the night before the sectionals.
“I really couldn’t sleep (the night before),” he said. “I was just kind of thinking about it. I was just preparing myself mentally and physically also. I thought about not stalling and keep moving (throughout the matches).”
Welker (120) pinned sophomore Tyler Friese (Oak Creek) in 2:40, beat junior Josh Finerty (Franklin) 9-2 and had a 14-4 major decision victory over Racine Park senior Isiah Culp. Stevenson (126) pinned Brady Schmidt (Oak Creek) in 40 seconds and Colin Widmar (Kenosha Bradford) in 2:34. He scored a 14-0 major decision win over Bradley Tech sophomore Jalin Conner to punch his ticket to state.
The momentum-changing match of the day for Weiler at 132 was against Jake Skattebo. The South Milwaukee senior built a 7-2 lead after the first period and things didn’t look good for Weiler. He waited until Skattebo made a mistake, flipped Skattebo on his back and pinned him with eight seconds remaining in the second period.
“After the first period, I looked over at my coach and he told me to keep my left hand down, which would have ended up blocking (Skattebo’s) shots,” Weiler said. “So once I did that, I felt his offense was kind of slowing down. I found an opportunity when he shot a double (leg move) and he’s running into me hard. I went for it (after he missed) and then tried to tighten it up as much as I could.”
Crayton won his first two decisions and faced Franklin senior Murphy McCutcheon. It was a scoreless first period. Heading into the third period, Crayton trailed 3-0. He scored on a reversal with 1:30 left but McCutcheon held on for the 3-2 win.
“I think Nate struggled because he was very, very sick,” Gribble said. “He was not feeling good. If you watched him wrestle, you could kind of see that. He just didn’t have much in his gas tank. So he had to battle.
“He was definitely down because I knew he believed that he was going to still win the tournament. In those cases, we just had to tell him that he can’t be a state medalist or a state champion if he’s not wrestling at the state tournament.”
Freshmen Grant Koenen (113), Zach Wallace (170) and Nate Bousman (195) didn’t qualify for state. Koenen won his first match but was pinned by senior Antonio Puentes (Racine Horlick) in 3:18 in the quarterfinals. Wallace was pinned in his second place wrestleback match by Jake Deates (Kenosha Bradford) in 1:12. Bousman lost in the first round to Logan Brahm (Oak Creek) 8-4.
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