WIAA DIV. 3 WRESTLING - Duellman gets one last shot at state; Angell gets his first
WIAA DIV. 3 WRESTLING
Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestling senior Troy Duellman is headed back to Madison for his third WIAA Division 3 individual state tournament appearance and this year he’s bringing along freshman teammate Taydyn Angell.
Duellman’s second-place finish at 157 pounds and Angell’s third-place finish at 215 pounds in Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 Edgar sectional got the Wolfpack teammates from Gilman into the state meet, which gets underway today, Thursday, at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Duellman is looking to improve on his sixth-place finish a year ago when he wrestled at 145 pounds. Angell is hoping to make a strong first impression in what is just the beginning of a promising high school career.
Both will wrestle in must-win preliminary matches Thursday in order to advance to the quarterfinals, which start at about 11:15 a.m. Friday.
“It’s super exciting,” Duellman said Tuesday.
“It’s a big accomplishment for sure,” Angell said. “This was probably my main goal, just to make it down there this year.”
Duellman is the fifth seed in the 12man bracket at 157 pounds and carries a record of 36-6 into state competition.
At Saturday’s sectional, he had little trouble in his quarterfinal match, pinning Shell Lake’s Trey Bos (21-25) in 59 seconds. In the semifinals, he got a rematch with Cumberland junior Harrison Ruppel (4214), who pinned Duellman at the Northern Badger Invitational. This time, Duellman pinned Ruppel in 1:42.
“I definitely thought that was going to be a little tougher match,” Duellman said. “I just kinda came into it and got my stuff done and moved on. He pinned me early in the season. I was winning when it happened and I set out too far and he just countered and he pinned me. I should’ve never lost to him.”
As expected, waiting for Duellman in the finals was Clear Lake’s 43-1 Tyler Sunday, who had given Duellman three of his five losses coming into the sectional and five of his nine losses last year.
In another close match between the two, Sunday overcame a second-period takedown and a third-period escape by Duellman by getting a late takedown to win 4-3. Sunday won the regional championship match 1-0 and beat Duellman 3-1 in the Lakeland Conference championship on Feb. 3.
“I definitely felt good going into the match,” Duellman said. “I just need to hit my moves and finish them.”
Duellman faced a second-place wrestleback after the loss to Sunday, but Auburndale’s Wyatt Malsin forfeited.
Of course, Duellman and Sunday could very well meet again in Madison on Friday as Sunday got the fourth seed and will meet either Duellman or 12th-seeded Mitchell VanGoethem (35-13) of Kewaunee in the quarterfinal round. The two met in last year’s fifth-place match at state when Sunday got five last-second points with a takedown and near fall to win 6-2.
“He basically knows everything I’m going to do and I basically know everything he’s going to do,” Duellman said. “It doesn’t matter if he knows what I’m doing. If I do it right, it shouldn’t matter.”
What will matter is winning the first match with VanGoethem.
“I’m taking it one match at a time,” Duellman said as he enters his final high school tournament. “I still have to win my first one before I can even think about wrestling Sunday. Go down there and take care of my first match and then keep my head up and wrestle a good match with Sunday, hopefully win and just keep going one match at a time.”
Duellman’s side of the bracket includes top-seeded Tristan Steldt, a 38-4 junior from Fennimore. The other side features second-seeded Micah Kuchta (43-4) of Coleman and third-seeded Jaxon Busse (37-6) of Iowa-Grant/Highland.
While he hasn’t had any luck with Sunday, Duellman said he has no qualms about facing him one last time.
“I feel like I’m sitting in a better position than him honestly,” he said. “He’s got to be worried, thinking he wins every time but one of these times, it might not happen. We’re only going to wrestle one more time and that’s down in Madison. I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Angell improved to 35-11 with a 3-1 day at Edgar. He opened with a pin in 1:26 over Ladysmith senior Josh Baker (9-4), which was key to staying alive for the long haul.
“I definitely had a lot of nerves going into the match,” Angell said. “I just got the head throw and halved him over.”
That set up a semifinal match with a familiar foe he could run into a lot in the future, Boyceville sophomore Zach Hellendrung (24-5), who beat Angell for the fourth time this year, this time by a 12-2 major decision.
“He’s just tall, really strong,” Angell said.
Needing two wins on the consolation side of the bracket to earn a state berth, Angell got them with pins, sticking Flambeau’s Jakob Taylor (11-21) in 58 seconds and Stratford’s Walker Weis (13-8), who he also pinned at regionals, in 4:33.
“My first consolation match, I wrestled the guy earlier in the year,” Angell said. “I knew he was coming back for redemption. I took him down and just stuck him right away basically.
“My last match. He tries to throw a lot so I was watching that for sure. Once I got on top of him, I knew I could take him.”
Angell drew the 11th seed in his 12-man bracket, so he’ll face sixth-seeded Michael Upson of Random Lake, a 36-14 senior, in his preliminary match Thursday. The winner meets third-seeded 48-5 senior Joe Schroeder of Cedar Grove-Belgium in Friday’s quarterfinals.
“I have to wrestle my match and not let him control it,” Angell said. “I’m definitely pretty nervous though.”
Angell said he’s learned quite a bit in his first varsity season, especially being in a weight class that typically features older wrestlers who are stronger than what he’d been facing.
“I hold my own,” he said. “My top and bottom for sure (are my strengths).”
Blair-Taylor senior Jackson Shramek (39-3) is the top seed in the bracket, Cadott’s Axel Tegels (38-7) is fourth and Bode Brokopp (32-11) of Iowa-Grant/ Highland is the second seed. Hellendrung is fifth and would face Tegels, the Edgar sectional champion, if he wins his preliminary match. Tegels beat Hellendrung in Saturday’s final 4-3.
Clear Lake’s Tyler Sunday and Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe’s Troy Duellman embrace after Sunday earn another in a long line of close wins over Duellman during Saturday’s 157-pound sectional championship match. CASEY KRAUTKRAMER/THE RECORD-REVIEW
