Two consolation pins send Duellman to state

Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestler Troy Duellman didn’t get off to the ideal start in Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 St. Croix Falls sectional, but he got the opportunity to keep wrestling and he took advantage, earning a third-place finish at 145 pounds and his first trip to the WIAA state championships.

The Gilman High School sophomore takes a 32-12 record into the state tournament’s opening round, set to start tonight, Thursday, at about 7:15 p.m. at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Duellman will get a rematch with St. Croix Falls freshman Griffin Marko (26-9) in tonight’s opening round. Marko beat Duellman 5-1 in that first match this past Saturday and went on to win the sectional championship. Marko is seeded fifth in the state bracket, while Duellman is ranked 12th. The winner gets at least two matches on Friday, starting with fourth-seeded Blake Delsman, a 33-5 senior from Reedsville in a quarterfinal match at about noon. Tonight’s loser will be eliminated.

“I’m pretty pumped,” Duellman said Tuesday. “It will be a neat experience. I know my first kid will be pretty tough. I’ve been watching some film on him, seeing what to do and what not to do.”

“I thought Troy wrestled really well,” Wolfpack head coach Greg Sonnentag said of Duellman’s sectional performance. “He lost a couple close matches against some really good opponents. He needs to tighten a few things up to win those close matches. The good news is he is confident he can do so. His offense has improved a lot this season as his confidence in his shot has grown. I’d like to see him get out from the bottom when we need to this weekend. That might be the key to winning this first match-up.”

A fifth-place finisher at 132 pounds in last year’s sectional meet, Duellman said he didn’t necessarily see state as a goal to start the year. But it’s something that materialized as he built up wins and improved during the season.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d make it this far but I kept going in practice, I kept my head high, kept practicing hard and hoping I could make it,” he said.

The hopes got higher as Duellman finished second at his weight at 145 pounds, won the regional title in Cadott and got a draw in the sectionals that, on paper, made a top-three finish look quite realistic. But, as many wrestlers will tell you, nothing is guaranteed at the sectional level.

In his opening match with Marko, Duellman gave up a takedown in the final seconds of the first period. He scored his point with a third-period escape, but Marko never let Duellman get anything started offensively and scored a clinching takedown with 30 seconds left.

Marko’s 8-0 semifinal win over Blair-Taylor’s Ryan Flynn (20-19) gave Duellman a wrestleback chance against Flynn and he took advantage with a quick takedown that eventually turned into a pin at 1:33.

“I had actually never heard of Flynn before,” Duellman said. “I didn’t really know what to expect going into that match. I just went in knowing I have to beat him if I want to move on and went out there and got it done.”

That win put Duellman in the thirdplace match against Jesse Bruhn of Phillips (24-12), who he had already beaten twice this year.

“He does a lot of rolls and stuff,” Duellman said. “I had to just take him down and get a good lead I guess you could say. He did a couple times, he actually threw me and almost put me to my back but I was fortunate enough to get off and counter.”

Duellman avoided one potential scoring chance for Bruhn between two firstperiod takedowns and another to start the second. Duellman’s counters helped build a 9-3 lead by the midway point in the match. It was 11-4 when Duellman got Bruhn turned and pinned at 4:51 to clinch his state berth.

Marko’s 6-1 win over Clear Lake’s Tyler Sunday (19-2) gave Duellman a second- place wrestleback against Sunday, who beat him 5-2 in a good, competitive match. Sunday is the sixth seed in the state field.

“One other time I faced him,” Duellman said. “I think I wrestled him a lot better this time. When I got the first takedown, I felt pretty good. Going into the second period I was pretty confident I could take him down again and I almost did, but then he ended up taking me down, so it was 2-2 going into the third period. I chose bottom and I knew I had to get out if I wanted to win. But he rode me and turned me and got some back points.”

Duellman is the Wolfpack’s first state qualifier since Sam Pickerign and Spencer Kraus in 2019. He’ll actually be joining his cousin, Medford freshman Gage Losiewicz, as Taylor County’s lone representatives in Madison this weekend.

“That’s pretty cool seeing how I’ll get to go down with my cousin and wrestle Thursday night with him,” Duellman said.

The Wolfpack, for the most part, wrestled with just three athletes this season. Fortunately for Duellman, he had a 152-pound partner in junior Braeden Person, who he credited with helping get to where he’s at. Duellman also fought through a brief bout in January with illness and injury and returned just in time for the tournament run.

“That’s definitely very fortunate to have (Person) to be the same exact weight and to push me in practice,” he said. “It drives me to be even better in the long run.”

Now Duellman hopes to finish the year with his best wrestling yet.

“I feel like I could definitely do better (against Marko) knowing a little more what he is going to do and how he wrestles,” he said. “I feel like I can do a little better the next time I wrestle him. It kind of sucks that I have him first round and if I lose I’m out, but I also can use that as motivation to go out there and get it done, beat him and he’ll be out and I’ll move on.

“If I can score on him, hopefully win it and get to Friday, that’d be awesome. Then keep going from there and just wrestle hard.”