Report card
Wrestler of the day: Jesse Thielke, a junior from Germantown who began his bid for a third straight WIAA Division 1 state title in convincing fashion Friday at 125 pounds. He won both of his matches at the Kohl Center on technical falls -- 15-0 over Hudson's Tanner Owens (35-10) in the preliminaries and 19-4 over Oconomowoc's Zach Mommaerts (43-3) in the quarterfinals. Thielke (45-0), who won all four of his regional and sectional matches on pins, will face Port Washington's Justin Meins (36-6) in tonight's semifinals.
Best match
It might have been the last one of the Division 1 competition at heavyweight where Wausau West's Evan Knutson (49-2) got the escape in double overtime to edge Wisconsin Valley Conference rival Curt Fuller (46-4) of Wisconsin Rapids 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
Biggest upset
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There weren't many surprises on opening day, but one cost Lodi's Tony Zeman, who brought a 45-2 record into the Division 2 preliminaries at 152 and fell on a pin in 3 minutes, 18 seconds to Bloomer's Justin Sarauer (36-9).
Quickest pin
Superior's Nikoa Bogojevic (46-0) needed just 37 seconds to pin Reedsburg's Seth Brandt (31-9) in their Division 1 preliminary match at heavyweight. That was 1 second faster than Wisconsin Rapids sophomore Kasey Einerson's 38-second pin of Schofield D.C. Everest's Josh Dupis in their Division 1 quarterfinal at 130.
Tracking the champions
Division 1: Besides Germantown's Thielke, Marshfield's Torin Boernke (130), Port Washington's Alex Dieringer (140), Marshfield's Brad Dolezal (145) and Kaukauna's Noah Budi (189) all swept their first two matches to earn berths in tonight's semifinals. Dolezal survived a 3-0 match against Kaukauna's Brandon VanSchyndel in the preliminaries and Budi had to earn a 12-7 decsion over Stoughton's 189 in their preliminary match.
Division 2: Cuba City/Southwestern's Jarod Donar (125), Tomahawk's Zach Zehner (130) and Rudy Chagoya (135) and St. Croix Falls' Joe Raygor (171) qualified as sectional champions and received first-round byes. Donar will wrestle Pewaukee's Josh Berg (37-18) -- a 4-3 preliminary round winner over St. Croix Falls' Shaw Amundson -- in the quarterfinals this morning at about 11:15.
Division 3: Random Lake's Justin Mudlaff (119), Bruce's Bubba Gudis (130), Clear Lake's Brayden Wienke (152), Waterloo's Buddy Lincks (160), Oostburg's Patrick Kissel (171) and De Soto's Chad Johnson (215) earned first-round byes by winning sectional titles. Lincks will wrestle Spencer-Marshfield Columbus' Tye Ackman (32-8) -- an 8-5 winner over Johnson Creek's Zak Pernot in the preliminaries -- in Friday's quarterfinals.
Around the Kohl Center
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Retro look fits River Valley
River Valley's trio of qualifiers -- Nick Lechnir, Seth Liegel and Tyler Ryan -- wore singlets from the late 1980s. "It was our senior leader, Tyler Ryan," Liegel said of who made the decision. "He decided to wear them so I said OK. They're pretty old and ... pretty tight."
Unbeaten watch
All 10 Division 1 unbeatens survived -- Germantown's Thielke (45-0 at 125), Pulaski's Justin Enderby (47-0 at 119), Janesville Craig's Siven Fursteth (36-0 at 130), Marshfield's Dolezal (44-0 at 145), West Allis Central's Joe Immekus (46-0 at 152), Green Bay Preble-East's Matthew Pennings (47-0 at 160), Kaukauna's Budi (46-0 at 189), Beloit Memorial's Alex Polizzi (43-0 at 215), Superior's Nikoa Bogjevic (46-0) and South Milwaukee's Bill Mitchell (17-0) at 285. All of the six unbeaten wrestlers in Division 2 or 3 will begin competition this morning.
A perfect 10
Wisconsin Rapids went 10-for-10 in the Division 1 preliminaries -- winning five of those matches via pins. The Raiders advanced half of their contingent to tonight's semifinals.
Friday's schedule
Session 2: Division 1 consolation matches, 10 a.m.; Division 2 and 3 quarterfinals, approximately 11:15 p.m.; Division 1 consolation semifinals, approximately 1:45 p.m.; Division 2 and 3 consolation semifinals, approximately 2:45 p.m.
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Session 3: Division 1, 2 and 3 semifinals, 7 p.m.
Admission: $8 per session.
-- Copyright (c) 2010, The Wisconsin State Journal/Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
