By Tim Wester
Sports Correspondent
Union Grove junior wrestler Cole Ryan’s main goal this season is stand victorious at the State Championship podium in Madison this March.
Ryan may have had his championship dress rehearsal at the Mid-States Tournament Jan. 4 at UW-Whitewater.
Ryan (17-0) stormed through the competition at the 220-pound weight class, including a commanding 11-0 victory over Fort Atkinson’s Ethan Foerster in the championship match.
“Cole wrestled well our weekend long,” Union Grove wrestling coach Andy Weis said. “Going into the tournament, we knew he was going to do well because you can see him getting more and more comfortable as the season goes on.”
Ryan’s championship helped the Broncos rack up 92 points and a 14th place tournament finish against a full complement of tough competition from Wisconsin and Illinois teams.
“Overall it was a solid tournament,” Union Grove wrestling coach Adam Weis said. “We were hoping to be in the top 15 and we basically stayed around 14th for the entire tournament.”
Senior Tony Beck also had a solid weekend for the Broncos, finishing fourth in the heavyweight class. Beck finished just three points short of third place after dropping a grueling 6-3 decision to Hunter Toppel of Deforest.
“Tony had a tough weight class going up against 2 or 3 undefeated kids and a few 1-loss kids who all finished in the top 8 of the tournament,” Weis said. “For him to finis fourth is a pretty good accomplishment.”
Junior Adam Braley rounded out the Broncos’ top eight placements with a seventh place finish in the 195-pound weight class. Braley went 4-2 in the tournament, including a 10-2 decision over Brett Dunkleberger of Fort Atkinson and an 8-1 decision over Brett Zahn of Platteville in the seventh place match.
“Adam had a really solid tournament,” Weis said. “He was disappointed that he didn’t finish higher, but he still finished strong and had a good win in the end.”
Other Union Grove wrestlers that advanced to the second day of the tournament included Todd Willms at 182, Riley Mann at 160, Josh Graf at 132, and Ben Wakefield at 126.
“It was great to get some of our younger guys some valuable experience in the tournament,” Weis said. “As they develop on top of the fact that most of major point scorers are coming back next season, the program is definitely heading in the right direction.”
The Broncos are now currently in the midst of a two-week layoff before returning to mat Friday January 9th at home against Elkhorn. The Elks finished seventh at the Mid-States Tournament, led by Jake Stilling’s championship at the 170-weight class.
“Elkhorn is really tough, finishing in the top 10 at Mid States,” Weis said. “Hopefully our bigs get us bonus points against the Elks.”
Weis added, “During our layoff we are going to work on staying in good position and working on offense from the top position and taking the shot when its there. We need to be more aggressive.”
Only time will tell if the Broncos hard work will pay off in 2014.
-
-
-
-
-