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On to Madison for Ogi, Smith and Turowski
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By Judy Harlow
MILWAUKEE- It was the end of the line for six Kewaskum High School wrestlers, but for three others, Mason Smith at 140 pounds, Eric Ogi at 145 and Jake
Turowski at 189, hopes are still alive for standing atop the victory stand this coming Saturday night in the WIAA Division two State Wrestling Tournament.
The veteran trio survived some good competition at the sectional hosted by Milwaukee Lutheran High School.
As a team, Kewaskum finished sixth overall, scoring 43.5 points, half of a point behind Chilton. Fellow Eastern Wisconsin Conference member Sheboygan Fall claimed the title with an even 100 points. Pewaukee was a distance second at 73. 5, followed by Ripon, 52 and Lomira, 45.5.
Only Ogi was a champion, earning himself a third straight state tournament berth. He looked impressive in going 3-0 on the day.
In his first match, Ogi won by tech fall, 16-0, over Steve Mills of St. Lawrence Seminary.
Match two never went into the third period. Ogi simply overpowered Cole Zimmerman of Union Grove, pinning him in 3:26, and that meant the Indian senior would face a similar opponent in the finals, Pewaukee’s Tim Zeimet, who he beat Feb. 10 in the regional finals.
Zeimet lasted 5:21 before getting pinned by Ogi in the finals that day, but this time, the KHS senior took care of business in just 3:58.
With the three additional wins, Ogi will take a 34-2 record to the Kohl Center Friday afternoon when Division Two quarterfinals will take place.
“Eric has been very focused the last couple of weeks, taking one match at a time,” coach Dennis Aupperle said, confident his top wrestler, recently named the MVP in the Eastern Wisconsin Conference, can make the finals at 145 this year.
The great story from Saturday’s competition was the emergence of Smith as the number two finisher at 140.
Aupperle said last weekend Smith had a goal of reaching 25 wins, and he did that an then some.
In his opener, Smith shut out Kevin Zavadil of Martin Luther High School by a score of 10-zip, and then in the semifinals, he was in command for a 7-1 decision over Jon Hasch of Horicon.
Valder’s Austin McCulley was decisive in the finals, winning by a major decision over Smith, 12-3 but because Hasch reached the finals of the wrestleback bracket, Smith was automatically the second-place finisher.
“Mason had a great day. He has really been doing a great job the last month or so,” Aupperle said. “I knew coming into the year he had the potential to get to state and accomplish some of his goals, one being 25 wins for the season, and he now is 26-11.”
Prep wrestling fans in the area were wondering whether Turowski would end up having to face Campbellsport’s Billy Mayer for the fourth time this year?
The answer was no. Mayer, being the regional champion, was in one bracket, while Turowski was in the other. Still, Turowski gained a second trip to state — he went his freshman year — the hard way, losing his first match and then winning two in a row to finish third at 189.
Turowski’s loss came against Chad Beck of Ripon, and it wasn’t really close. Beck won 9-2.
Turowski was a lot more focused in his next match when he pinned Keith McLeod of Racine St. Catherine in a brief 1:58, then in the next match, and he followed that up with a 6-3 victory over Charles Mauer of Chilton.
Beck went all the way to the finals before running into Mayer (32-4), who proved he was the best wrestler at 189 pounds behind a 14-6 major decision.
Since Beck had already beaten Turowski, he got the second place, and Turowski, now 29-7, was happy with his third, which got the job done.
“Jacob really had to work to get himself through. He kept his head up and did a great job,” Aupperle said.
Results involving other KHS wrestlers are as follows:
* At 103, Andrew Haugen (22-10) was pinned by Shae Slaasted and was eliminated from the competition.
* At 112, Calob Olla lost to Jordan Williams of Sheboygan Falls 16-9. In the first wrestleback, he nipped Matt Rex of Horicon 4-3, then got pinned by T.J. Stolp-Apel of Grafton in 1:28. He ended the year at 21-14.
* At 119, Stephen “Bud” Kattar lost to technical fall, 17-0, to Travis Scharschmidt of Lomira in the first round, and was eliminated after losing a 7-4 decision to Josh Hammen os Sheboygan Falls. His final record was.
* At 125, Nathan Seitz lost by technical fall 17-2 to Max Kirlay of New Berlin West and was eliminated from the competition. He ended the year at 15-17, which is an improvement of 10 wins over his record as a freshman.
* At 152, Cody Seibel lost to David Soda of Ripon 6-3, then later bounced back with a 12-1 major decision over Jared Hutterer of Valders before losing to Own Field of Kiel, 11-8.
By going 2-1, Seibel wound up 23-11 for the year.
* At 160, Mike Pfotenhauer beat Nate Cartegena 10-4, and in the first wrestleback was pinned in 1:54 by Zach Groeschel of Clinton, ending his year at 9-9.
About Olla and Seibel, Aupperle said, “They were both one win away from qualifying as freshmen. They really had great freshmen years,” adding, “They have tremendous starts and hopefully will keep improving off these excellent years.”
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