Ready? Wrestle! by Caitlin Lyga
2005 "Bi State" Day One REVIEW
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"Bi-state" Next to Christmas, it’s the pinnacle of my holiday season. Fifty-one teams, hundreds of wrestlers, and even more hundreds of fans all packed into the La Crosse Center for two days of heated competition between top-notch wrestlers. There are returning tournament champions trying to defend their Bi-State titles and state champions trying to live up to their hard-earned reputations. There are wrestlers who hope to place and wrestlers who aim to make it to the second day. Bi-State isn’t the only holiday tournament, but it’s the one that I attend every year, and I don’t think many people could argue with its level of competitiveness. Before I begin, let me just say that I love the people that put together the Bi-State program. It’s the first year that I actually did buy the thing, and I’m glad I did. For five dollars you get the tournament’s history, team summaries and enrollment information, tournament results dating back to 1983, Wisconsin Wrestling and Crossface team rankings, last year’s state championship match results, a history of the host city, and even lets you know what color singlets each team has (this one I appreciated most). Another plus to buying the program is that you can pick up you own copy of the updated brackets before each session. Ready? Let’s wrestle… SCHEDULE 1st SESSION The first round of wrestling in session one paired the highest seeds against the lowest, so I wasn’t expecting many surprises. The round was also filled with byes. This made the round fly by and morph into the second. The second round had a handful of upsets, the first being at 112. Willie Christ of Shell Lake, a 10-0 sophomore with the #7 seed was defeated by Luke McGann of Baraboo, a 5-6 freshman, with a score of 7-3. At 125, 7-6 senior Lee Herfel of Mount Horeb pinned Holmen’s Wayne Schmitz, ranked #10 at 125 with a 10-0 record, in 3:57. At 189, #8-ranked Kelly Kidder of Shell Lake was decisioned 16-11 by 7-6 E.J. Pilarski of Hudson. #8-ranked 215-pounder Pat Canales was major decisioned 9-0 by Jesse Olson of Loyal Greenwood, who was 1-0 coming into the tournament. Also at 215, #5-ranked Brian Volkert of New Richmond was upset 11-10 in a close match with 0-0 junior Matt Scott of Monroe. The third round of session one was the preliminaries round. In this round competition was beginning to rise. Upsets included NR Ryan Ramstack of Fon du Lac over #9 Brandon Karl of Stratford by a score of 3-1 at 112 pounds, NR Ryan Seidler of Adams-Friendship over #4 Tyler Mills of Athens by a pin in 2:20 at 112, and NR Dan Tisdale of Riverdale over #4 Chris Senner of Heartland Arrowhead by a score of 2-0 at 125 pounds. NR Craig Schank of Arcadia decisioned the #2 seed, #10-ranked Craig McKelvey of Lancaster, by a score of 3-1 at 135 pounds, and #9 Nick Moore of Royall decisioned #7 Dave Hoy of Heartland Arrowhead 10-7 at 152 pounds. 5-8 Tommy Sanders of Bloomington-Kennedy surprised Holmen’s 15-1 Bryan Hanson, the #3 seed, with a win of 4-2 at 160 pounds. There were two upsets at heavyweight: #8 Andy Fowler of Lancaster was beat 3-2 by Holmen’s NR Jordan Abeyta, and 6-7 Matt Stark of Bloomington-Kennedy beat #7 Grant Pauls of Ithaca in double overtime, 3-2. The following matches between ranked individuals also took place during the preliminary round. 103: #6 Cameron Flock (Cashton) v. #5 Brian Lewis (Verona) The 103-pound match between #6 Cameron Flock of Cashton and #5 Brian Lewis of Verona began with a takedown by Cashton. Cashton hooked in the legs on top but got too high, and Verona popped his head out to get the reversal. Tied at 2-2 going into the 2nd, Verona deferred the choice, and Cashton chose down. Cashton sits, scores a reversal, and hooks the legs in again. After a couple stalemates, Verona gets to his feet, breaks Cashton’s hold, and scores a reversal near the edge of the mat with :15 left in the 2nd to tie it back up. Verona chose down to start the 3rd, gets to his feet, and gets the escape to claim the lead at 5-4. With a minute left, Verona goes in for the leg, Cashton tries to counter, but Verona nails the takedown to put him up 7-4. Within the last :30 Verona turns Cashton to his back and gets the pin with :19 left in the match. 140: #5 Jared Rickert (Sparta) v. #9 Cole Lambert (Arcadia) The 140-pound match between Jared Rickert of Sparta and Cole Lambert of Arcadia was one I wanted to watch, but the weight on the scoreboard hadn’t been changed, so I didn’t notice it had started until :30 into the match and Sparta leading by a takedown, 2-0. Sparta’s other point was with an escape, and the final ended up 3-0 in Sparta’s favor. In another 140-pound bout, Justin Flock of Cashton wrestled Justin Peterson of Holmen. Although Flock holds a #9 ranking, Peterson was seeded 5 places higher than him at the tournament. The match began with a takedown by Cashton. Holmen rose back up to his feet, tried to bear hug Cashton, but Cashton throws Holmen back down to the mat and gets 2 back points. Before the period ends, Holmen gets an escape. Cashton chooses down for the 2nd period, gets the escape, and puts the score at 5-1 with 1:30 left in the 2nd period. Holmen gets a takedown on the edge of the mat, but lets Cashton go, changing the score to 6-3. Holmen tries twice to go in for the shot, but Cashton sprawls. Holmen chooses down for the 3rd period, and stands up on the whistle, forcing Cashton to drop to Holmen’s leg to hang on to control. Cashton trips Holmen back down to the mat, and they go off the mat. Cashton is riding Holmen high, and Holmen uses that to claim a reversal with 1:00 left at 6-5. Holmen lets Cashton up again with :20 left, tries to go in for the double leg, Cashton sprawls and ends up with another takedown in the final seconds to put the final score at 9-5. 171: #3 Max Smith (Shell Lake) v. #3 @ 189 Jacob Sparrgrove (Boscobel) Both #3-ranked wrestlers, Max Smith of Shell Lake and Jacob Sparrgrove of Boscobel wrestled in the preliminaries at 171. When I began watching it was 6-2 in Shell Lake’s favor with :35 left in the 2nd. Shell was trying to hook up the cradle, but time ran out. Boscobel chose both up for the 3rd period, goes in for the single leg, but Shell Lake counters hard and uses the move to his advantage. Shell Lake gets the takedown and puts Boscobel to his back. He ends up pinning Boscobel with 1:05 left in the match. 2nd SESSION The first big upset of the night was pulled by Holmen’s Michael Priem over #2 Jared Klimmer of Stratford at 130 pounds. Priem won 6-4 in overtime. The now 6-8 Tommy Sanders of Bloomington-Kennedy defeated 8-2 Cody Knoop of Shell Lake 6-4 at 160 pounds. At 171 pounds, I would’ve recorded the match if I could have, but I have to be honest. I was too nervous. The bout was between #7 Trevor Lyga of Aquinas and #7 Jeremiah Hatfield of Cashton. After a kick to the gut in the first :30 or so, Lyga came back to pin Hatfield in 4:33. At 215 pounds, Logan’s Phil Zibrowski pulled a shocking pin over #3 Lucas Clayton of Belmont/Platteville in :51. #1-seeded, #5-ranked heavyweight Sean Garrigan of Mauston lost to Eric Stanford of Portage 10-3. Other ranked matches follow. 119: #3 Jed Domke (Viroqua) v. #10 Chad Schultz (Mauston) In my last article on the Tomah Scramble, Chad Schultz of Mauston and Jed Domke of Viroqua met up in the last round of the tournament. Unranked Schultz pulled a surprising win over Domke of 12-5. Now, in the quarterfinal round of Bi-State, it was re-match time. Domke goes in for the takedown, but Schultz sprawls. Domke moves back towards the center of the mat, then tries a duck under, but they’re off the mat. Domke drops to a level, backs up, and grabs Schultz’s head. With no score and 1:00 left, the two wrestlers circle each other. They tie up with Schultz controlling the tie-up, he tries to bear hug, but time runs out. In the 2nd period, Schultz chooses down. Domke puts the legs in and tries to flatten out Schultz. Schultz scores a reversal with 1:12 left in the 2nd and tries to break down Domke’s base. Domke doesn’t give it up and rises to his feet, scoring an escape point with :20 left. Before the ref asks Domke his choice for 3rd period, Domke is already pointing down. Schultz lets Domke up to tie up the score at 2-2. With :05 left in the match, Domke grabs for a leg and nails a takedown for a final score of 4-2. 140: #2 Mike Seitz (Royall) v. #5 Jared Rickert (Sparta) Sparta ends the tie up by reaching for Royall’s leg, takes him to the mat, but the takedown isn’t secured as Royall has hold on Sparta’s leg. Sparta puts all of his weight on Royall and secures the takedown. Royall tries to stand up but Sparta pulls him back down to the mat and puts the legs in. Sparta starts to ride too high, and Royall pulls the reversal. Sparta is up to his base, Royall tries to work the half. Sparta gets the escape to put the score at 3-2 in Sparta’s favor. In the 2nd period Sparta chooses down after Royall defers and gets away for one. Sparta goes for Royall’s leg, gets the takedown, and begins to ride Royall. With 1:00 and a score of 6-2 Sparta, Royall tries to reach behind him to pull Sparta off, then curls up under Sparta when that doesn’t work. Unfortunately, my tape ran out at this point, but Sparta ended up with the win of 9-2. 171: #5 Janin Seippel (Lancaster) v. #9 Jason Campbell (Riverdale) The bout starts out with both wrestlers reaching for the legs. Lancaster wins this battle and scores the first takedown with 1:00 left. The ref calls holding and gives one point to Riverdale; the score is now 2-1. Lancaster breaks down Riverdale’s base to flatten him, but Riverdale sits back up and tries to reach around for two. He gets it. With Riverdale leading 3-2 going into the 3rd period, my tape cuts out again. Riverdale pulls the upset with a decision of 12-10. I got home from the 2nd session of Bi-State and looked at the clock. 10:45. I had been at the La Crosse Center for a good twelve hours, although it hadn’t seemed that long at all. But we were only through the quarters! Tomorrow, wrestle backs… semis… finals. Team Scores after End of 2nd Session (only top 5)
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