HOLMEN — In the big picture, Thursday night was about improving for both the Aquinas and Holmen high school boys wrestling teams.
But the smaller picture contained an MVC championship, and even though the Blugolds and Vikings are trying to position themselves to win WIAA championships the first weekend in March, that’s a nice feather for the winner’s cap.
Holmen — ranked second in Division 1 by Wisconsin Grappler — was the aggressor with that title on the line and emerged victorious at nine of 14 weights to beat Aquinas — ranked first in Division 3 — 37-28 in front of a large and loud crowd at the Bernie L. Ferry Fieldhouse.
“When you can get kids to compete fearlessly, who knows what can happen,” Holmen coach Justin Lancaster said of the aggressive approach to just about every match. “They did a great job, and we preach it all year, but when you see it, it’s a lot of fun.
“This is a fun little rivalry with a great crowd base, and that adds a a little incentive for everyone.”
Holmen beat Aquinas for a second straight year to complete its conference season with an unblemished record.
The Vikings only recorded one pin — sophomore Brendan Henderson (39-2) finished Aquinas sophomore Ayden Lorenz (11-12) in 20 seconds at 113 pounds — but six other wrestlers recorded bonus points as they started to pull away.
Sophomore Rex Lancaster (36-3) won by technical fall over Mason Klar (17-16) by a 23-5 score in 3:40 at 120, and junior Colin Griffin (23-14, 190), senior Connor Degner (17-16, 215), freshman Brady Needham (29-14, 106), sophomore Nathan Henderson (27-2, 138) and senior AJ Alesch (37-7, 157) all won my major decision.
The Blugolds were within 8-6 after senior Tyson Martin accepted a forfeit at 285, but Holmen won the next three matches and secured bonus points in all of them.
Needham pieced together an impressive 16-4 major over Aquinas freshman Peter White in a battle between ranked performers.
Sophomore Martez Sheard won by pin over Holmen sophomore Olie Strasser at 126 to stop that stretch, but Brock Needham (39-4) scored an impressive 10-4 victory over Aquinas sophomore Lincoln Stanek at 132 to get things rolling again.
An 11-1 major for Alesch over Aquinas junior Grady Nicklay at 157 secured the win for the Vikings with two matches left to wrestle.
Amid all of that, Nathan Henderson’s 14-0 victory over Aquinas sophomore Tyler Paulson at 138 may have been the most impressive performance of the night.
Henderson is ranked fourth in Division 1 and Paulson fourth in Division 3 and was able to score consistently while shutting out Paulson, who was put on his back for points in the second period as Henderson tried to get the pin.
The Vikings will wrestle a quadrangular at Chatfield on Saturday and a dual at G-E-T/Melrose-Mindoro on Tuesday. The Titans, who are ranked sixth in Division 2, beat fourth-ranked West Salem/Bangor 42-31 on Thursday.
“I think it gets and keeps our momentum going,” Alesch said of beating the Blugolds.” We’re feeling good and have confidence with the postseason coming up.
“This is good competition and will show us some things we still have to work on. Everybody fought hard, and everybody did what they were supposed to do for us to win.”
The Blugolds, who have already beaten the second- and third-ranked Division 3 teams in dual meets, won’t compete again until a Division 3 sectional at Brookwood on Feb. 14.
“Minus one match that maybe got away from us a little bit, we had guys show grit, toughness and heart,” Aquinas coach Deke Stanek said. “Even the matches we lost tonight, I thought the effort was good. They have a lot of good kids. Ultimately, whether e win or lose this dual, we have bigger goals in front of us.
“We want to get to team state and wrestling good teams like Holmen helps us do that. We want good competition, and Holmen provides that for us.”
