Dewey Krueger now has motivation going into the state wrestling tournament.
That could be construed as a positive, but his performance at the WIAA Division 2 sectional Saturday in Seymour wasn’t at the level he’d like.
The Oconto Falls junior cruised to the championship match at 145 but ended up falling in a 3-0 decision to Southern Door senior Jacob Englebert. The loss is only Krueger’s third in the last two seasons.
However, the second-place finish sends Krueger – who won the state title last season at 132 — to the state tournament for the third straight year.
“Being a returning state champ, I know he’s feeling that pressure,” Oconto Falls tri-head coach Marc Kinziger said. “Hopefully this one kind of freed him up a little bit and just let him go.”
Out of the six wrestlers from Oconto Falls who qualified for sectionals, Krueger was the only one to get a top-three finish and advance to Madison.
“It was a frustrating day,” Kinziger said. “But on the bright side, I always try and stay positive, it was a huge learning day. Every one of those boys will be back to compete. If you look at those six kids coming back to compete next year, valuable lessons learned.”
Krueger (38-2) beat New London’s Gabe Oswald by a pin in 59 seconds in the opening round and then downed Luxemburg-Casco’s Austin Worachek 6-4 in the sectional semifinals to get to the title match.
Krueger had never faced Englebert (46-1), so early on the match was a feeling out process. Neither wrestler was very aggressive, almost not wanting to make a mistake, noted Kinziger.
“It was a good match,” Kinziger said. “You could kind of tell it was a game of cat and mouse. Neither one of them seemed to want to open up and do a whole lot.”
After two scoreless periods, Englebert finally broke through with one point via an escape with 38 seconds remaining in the third period and then he tacked on two points with a takedown with 7 seconds on the clock.
“We knew when we didn’t get our escape and it’s hard to ride a kid that good that long and he was going to give up that one point,” Kinziger said. “When he gave up the one, unfortunately it was without a whole lot of time left. We would have liked to get a little cleaner shot off, but he couldn’t get a clean shot.”
The loss makes it a tougher route at state for Krueger. A win would have secured him a first-round bye, Thursday night off and a free pass into the quarterfinals. Now, Krueger will have to wrestle Sparta’s Dylan Winchel (26-16) in the opening round at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the Kohl Center. If Krueger advances, he will face Tristan Brewer (41-3) of Luck/Frederick/Grantsburg at 11:15 a.m. Friday. The state semifinals begin at 7 p.m. Friday and the finals at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Englebert enters state with the best record at 145 and earned a first-round bye on the opposite side of the bracket from Krueger.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Dewey will work hard and he’ll come back and the next time (Dewey and Englebert) meet, I hope it’s in the state finals,” Kinziger said. “I’d like to see that again.”
Other wrestlers
Of the five other Oconto Falls wrestlers who competed at sectionals – Bryce Ash qualified at 113 but hurt his knee Thursday and couldn’t wrestle — Nate Trepanier and Brett Ash had the best opportunity at making it to state. However, they both came up one victory short.
Trepanier placed fourth at 126. The freshman (31-11) scored a first-round pin in 2:52 over Little Chute’s Jacob VanHandel, but lost to Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Bobby Uttecht 10-6 in the semifinals. In wrestlebacks, Trepanier beat Denmark’s Brian Van Rite 10-3 before falling to New London’s Scott Cook 3-1 in the third-place match.
Brett Ash (132) lost his opening-round match to the eventual sectional champion Josh Verbeten of Wrightstown by a 3-0 decision. Ash, a junior, got a second chance in wrestlebacks and downed New London’s Skylar Moderson in an 11-3 major decision to advance to the third-place match. Against Southern Door’s Hunter Pawelski, Ash was pinned in 1:07.
Sam Konitzer (138) won his first match by beating Nekoosa/Port Edwards’ Jamie Sarver. However, Konitzer (15-9) lost his next two matches to bow out of the tournament.
“Sam was on the wrong side of the bracket, to be totally honest,” Konitzer said. “I think if he’s on the other side, I think he goes (to state).”
Jake Yatso (152) beat Wrightstown’s Bryce Herlache 5-2 in the first round, but lost his final two matches.
“I think he saw his ability today,” Kinziger said about Yatso. “I think he might be one of those guys going on next year.”
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