By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
The past three seasons, the Burlington High School wrestling squad has made it to the team state tournament, its first three times in school history.
In 2012, the Demons lost their quarterfinal dual in the last match, and last year they were dominated in a blowout.
This year, the boys finally broke through.
Burlington won their first dual meet in team state history Friday night with a 33-32 victory over Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin Wrestling Online’s fourth-ranked team.
Then, the Demons were given a brief break and had to wrestle their Division 1 semifinal match later Friday night.
It was against top-ranked Kaukauna, which is ranked No. 25 in the nation. Burlington gave a valiant effort, but it lost, 40-21.
Kaukauna would go on to win the state championship.
Burlington coach Jade Gribble said the team state dual victory was a huge moment for the program.
“It means a lot for the program,” he said. “The young men that have come before this group started the tradition and set the tone for wrestling at team state. We haven’t wrestled well at team state in previous years, and this year we were able to put it together and wrestle well when we needed to. It was a complete team effort. We need to make that jump to the next level and work to bring home a trophy.”
Burlington’s team captains, Greg Miller and Tyler Kirkeeng, opened up the Sauk Prairie dual with two pins. Then, at 106, Luke Iverson followed with a 20-3 win. The Demons led, 17-0, before Sauk Prairie knew what hit them.
“We knew we needed to get bonus points at 220, 285, and 106, which we were able to do,” Gribble said.
In the next two matches, Burlington lost, but both Demons were able to avoid being pinned.
The Demons won the next three matches, a Ben Hornickle pin (126), a Josh Bird major decision (132) and a Lucas Shenkenberg decision (138).
Burlington was now up, 30-10, but Sauk Prairie answered with three straight victories to cut the lead to 30-23.
Then, at 170, Burlington’s Jose Montez sealed the victory.
“The match of the dual was at 170, a huge win by Jose Montez in overtime,” Gribble said.
Gage Neumaier won the next match by pinning Hegeman Tiedt, and Sauk was now down 33-29 with one match left. A pin would mean a dramatic comeback victory for Sauk Prairie.
But at 195, Chris Marks was able to stay off his back and only lose by a decision, and the Demons held on for the one-point win.
“All of the young men stood out on Friday night,” Gribble said. “The Sauk Prairie dual was a complete team effort, and if one person doesn’t do their job we don’t win that dual.”
In the semifinal, Kaukauna jumped out to a 19-0 lead through four matches and cruised to victory.
Hornickle picked up a 4-0 decision, and Bird followed with a pin, but Kaukauna won the next five matches to take an insurmountable 40-9 advantage.
The Demons finished strong, however, with Tiedt and Marks winning by decision and Miller earning a pin fall in the final three matches.
“Kaukauna’s depth is unbelievable,” Gribble said. “Their kids have completely bought into their program. It’s where we need to be. I was very happy with the effort of our student-athletes. Each young man competed hard and left it out on the mat.”
Gribble was impressed with Hornickle, who had a rough individual state showing but was able to knock off Kaukauna’s Kolten Jansen, who was the state runner-up at 126.
“It was nice for Ben to have a great night scoring a pin and then a dominating win against the state runner-up,” Gribble said. “Josh came back after losing in the state finals to win two great matches, and co-captain Greg Miller finished his high school career with a pin after not qualifying for state his senior year (he did qualify as a junior).”
“I’m happy with the progress the young men made on and off the mat this year. I am very proud of all of them.”
Burlington finished the season 13-2 in duals and spent most of the year in the Wisconsin Wrestling Online top-10 state rankings.
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