PREPS ALCOVE

Revisiting memorable state-championship wrestling matches

JR Radcliffe
jr.radcliffe@jrn.com

The finals round of the WIAA individual state wrestling meet is a favorite of mine to cover, with a spectacular introduction (the “March of Champions,” where wrestlers travel a circle around the Kohl Center in Madison) followed by a frenzied barrage of memorable, championship-clinching moments.

Lake Country was heavily represented in 2017 once again, including a pair of Pewaukee wrestlers seeking to defend state titles and two others (Mukwonago’s Aaron Schulist and Arrowhead’s Dominic Dentino) looking to get back to the finals and even one step further.

It prompted me to look at some of the more-memorable state-finals matches involving area teams over the past few years. I intended to go back to 2001, the year the WIAA-WISAA merger began, but I cheated and went one year further back.

1. Ben Askren’s legend is born. In 2000, Arrowhead sophomore Ben Askren was already developing a reputation as a talkative lad. He headed into his finals match with Trevor Spencer of Baraboo and won, 21-8, for the 130-pound title.

"I said (online) I would tech-fall him,” Askren said afterward to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a nod to the public trash-talking Askren (40-1) had been lobbing toward Baraboo fans and Spencer in particular.  "I said those things because I knew I could do it. Nobody trained like I did. Nobody put in the effort. With all of the training I did this past year, nobody could stop me."

It wasn’t a tech fall, but it was close. The following year, Askren did log a tech fall in a win over Dustin Hillman of Racine Park for the 152-pound title. Injuries kept Askren from winning as a senior, but he went on to become a U.S. Olympian and compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, then cultivate a career in MMA and with the Askren Wrestling Academy.

2. Two all-timers collide. Two of the state’s greatest wrestlers in the past 15 years are Jesse Thielke of Germantown, himself an Olympian who just competed for the U.S. in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and Jake Sueflohn of Arrowhead, who went on to wrestle at Nebraska.

Thielke was a returning state champion when he came into his sophomore year, and to that point, the only loss of his career came at the hands of Sueflohn in the state series leading into the 2009 state meet. It turned out to be the only loss of Thielke’s high-school career, period. Thielke avenged the loss in the 125-pound title match, 8-5, and finished 43-1. The two never met again, with Sueflohn bumping ahead of Thielke in weight class, and both won two more state titles. Sueflohn dominated Jackson Urso of Stoughton for the 135-pound title in 2010, 7-2, then beat Rylan Lubeck of Wisconsin Rapids with an 8-0 major decision in 2011 to finish 49-0.

3. 2007: the year of Mukwonago. Mukwonago superstar wrestlers Chad Leviner and Billy Schlottke both reeled in a pair of state titles during their career. Their paths toward greatness intersected in 2007, when Leviner topped Darren Langer of DeForest in a 12-9 decision to win at 112, and Schlottke defeated Merrill’s Aaron Erickson for the 152 title, 10-4. One year earlier, Leviner won an 18-12 battle over Adam Van Schyndel of Kaukauna to win at 103, while Schlottke fell in the final as a sophomore at 145. The year after both stood atop the podium, Schlottke repeated his own title with an 11-4 win at 152 against Jake Abhold of Hortonville.

4. 2011: the year of Arrowhead. Brad Yde won a state title in 1990, but in the current generation of Ydes wrestling at Arrowhead — all of whom enjoyed considerable wrestling success — Adam Yde has bragging rights over his brothers and cousins in one area. Yde finished 40-8 in 2011 and won the 125-pound title over Logan Cudd of River Falls, 7-5. It was part of a huge day for Arrowhead, which also picked up state titles at 103 (Andrew Crone topped Ben Thornton of LaCrosse Central, 5-4) and 140 (Sueflohn), plus another finalist at 189, where Shane Hughes fell to Roland Dunlap of Muskego. Crone didn’t place as a junior the next year but redeemed himself in 2013 with his second state title, the 132-pound crown with a 7-2 win over Joe Umlauf of Wausau West.

5. Heavy hitters. In 2016, Pewaukee came into the state meet with two state champions in school history. By the end of the tourney, the Pirates had doubled that number. Jacob Raschka capped an undefeated season with a 14-7 win over 195 pounds of Dalton Hahn of Reedsburg, and Blaze Beltran won the heavyweight title with a 7-2 decision over Cole Mikrut of Badger. Beltran finished 53-2, and both were favored heading into the state meet in 2017 to repeat. It had been another upper-weight success in 2009 when Josh Mohr won the 189-pound title for Pewaukee, 2-1, holding on for dear life to beat Dylan Iczkowski of Mosinee.

6. Hucke proves it. Arrowhead's Nick Hucke won a state title with a 38-10 record as a sophomore in 2006, leading some to wonder whether the bracket wasn’t as tough as others. But if those 10 losses suggested he was anything less than one of the best wrestlers the area has seen, he silenced all doubters the next season with a dominating 18-3 technical fall victory in the 125 finals over Pulaski's Johnny August. Hucke would go on to win another state crown in 2008 for a third straight title, and he finished his junior and senior seasons a combined 90-0. Pretty impressive for a wrestler who didn’t win a tourney title as a freshman until he won the regional. His 2006 win produced a dramatic finish. He fell behind, 12-11, with 12 seconds remaining but reversed Justin Pollack of Tomah to his back for a 2-point nearfall, crashing into the referee and winning, 14-11.

7. What’s in a (last) name? Like his brother before him, Max Askren went to Missouri and won a national wrestling title. Unlike his brother, he won his only prep state title as a senior in 2005, capping off an undefeated season with a 7-6 win over Trevor Brandvold of River Falls (also undefeated) in the 189-pound title match. Askren surrendered a late takedown but held on to win the only match at the meet featuring two unbeaten wrestlers.

8. Blersch wins for Geno. After a narrow miss in 2004, Oconomowoc junior 106-pounder Brad Blersch reeled in the gold with a narrow 2-1 decision over Malachi Root of Green Bay Preble, never escaping in the third period but never yielding points that could tip the scales for Root. He beat three wrestlers who came into state with a combined two losses to get the title, and he did so with his late grandfather, Geno (who died in 2003), on his mind. He also said the sport gave him a connection to his dad, Bob, a former head coach at Oconomowoc. "Wrestling really brought my father and me closer," Brad said. "We got to spend time on the weekends and practices together. I remember junior year looking up at previous state champs and seeing there hadn't been one in a while, and I'd met some of those guys. It would be cool to be up there joining them."

9. Dunn edges Blersch. One year earlier, Arrowhead senior Richie Dunn defeated Oconomowoc sophomore Brad Blersch 13-6 in the state finals. The two had quite the rivalry the final three weeks of the season, with Blersch edging Dunn, 4-3, in the regional final, and Dunn getting the better of Blersch in the sectional final, 15-9. It was a precursor to another great area rivalry that unfolded a couple years later between Arrowhead's Andrew Zwirlein and Mukwonago's Chad Leviner.

10. Smith ascends rapidly. Mukwonago’s Nathan Smith didn’t even make the sectional as a freshman, but he quickly became one of the state’s best wrestlers as a sophomore and reached the state semifinals. As a junior, he was a state champion, topping Jaden Van Maanen of La Crosse Central in the final, 6-3, to cap off a 40-3 season at 120 pounds. The two wound up with a pretty great rivalry; Smith fell in the final as a senior to Van Maanen.

Other recent finalists

2004: Ryan Higgins, Oconomowoc (145)
2005: Nick Ryan, Arrowhead (275)
2006: Andrew Zwirlein, Arrowhead (112)
2012: Luke Belich, Mukwonago (220)
2015: Aaron Schulist, Mukwonago (106)
2015: Brett Samson, Oconomowoc (220)
2016: Dominic Dentino, Arrowhead (106)
2016: Aaron Schulist, Mukwonago (113)
2016: Nathan Smith, Mukwonago (132)