Life after Jake Morrissey and Mitch Friedman has officially begun.
And the Oconto Falls High School wrestling team passed its first test with flying colors.
The Panthers opened the season Thursday night at home and got solid production up and down the lineup, winning nine matches en route to a 49-20 victory over Seymour in the Bay Conference meet.
“We were very happy with how the guys came out,” Oconto Falls tri-head coach Marc Kinziger said. “At the beginning of the year you know what you have, but you don’t know until you see it in live action and compare it to what the other schools are doing.”
Morrissey won three state titles while at Oconto Falls and Friedman took home a state championship last season. Both are competing in college, Morrissey at Purdue and Friedman at North Dakota State. Replacing those two leaders is going to take some time.
“It’s definitely different, missing Mitch and Jake,” Kinziger said.
The Oconto Falls coaches threw some freshmen in the fire for the opening match, and they came through. Five ninth-graders saw their first varsity action, and the Panthers got 15 points from the youngsters.
“We came in looking at them as eighth-graders with a lot of high hopes, and they looked good tonight,” Kinziger said. “We went to them, and they responded. That’s a credit to the middle school coaching and the program all the way up.”
Freshmen Garrett Cole (170) and Mac Winkler (182) both earned first-period pins in dominating fashion.
“You don’t have a lot of freshmen walk in and do what he did,” Kinziger said about Cole’s pin in just 1:05.
Winkler’s pin was in just 1:51.
Another freshman, Evan Konitzer, had the most competitive match of the night versus the Thunder’s Bennett Temple (106). Trailing 2-1 in the second period, Konitzer scored a reversal and hung on for the final two-plus minutes for a 3-2 victory.
The Panthers built a 37-7 lead, winning seven of the first nine matches. The team’s 132-152 weight classes notched 22 out of a possible 24 points. Gunnar Leisner (132) earned a pin in 50 seconds, and Sam Konitzer (138) followed with a pin at 3:02. Brett Ash (145) won by technical fall, as did defending state champion Dewey Krueger (152).
“That’s the heart of our lineup,” Kinziger said. “That’s where we’ve got to go, and that’s where we’ve got to make our bank, so to speak.”
The Panthers also got wins from senior Calvin Steinmetz (285), a pin to start the match, and a forfeit victory for Austin Vandenheuvel (113).
Getting down 15-0 early and then 37-7 doomed Seymour, which tallied the final 10 points of the match.
“We didn’t get a win in every weight class we thought we could have, but I don’t think you ever completely do,” Seymour co-head coach Mark Schmoll said.
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