LA CROSSE — Moments after the Holmen High School boys wrestling team conquered its quarterfinal opponent at the WIAA team state tournament in the La Crosse Center, the band helped escort out a large contingent of fans from their spots at the corner of the venue.
It isn’t often that a wrestling team is accompanied by its school band, but wrestling is king in Holmen, and the Vikings gave those who ventured to the event something to see while handing Muskego a 53-12 defeat.
That puts second-seeded Holmen (15-0) in the Division 1 semifinals Saturday morning against sixth-seeded Bay Port (19-5). Semifinals will begin at 10 a.m. with the final following at 3 p.m.
The Vikings lost just three matches and won the final six in a solid performance against the seventh-seeded Warriors (16-6).
“That’s not the way I mapped it out, but our kids did a great job of fighting even when things didn’t go their way sometimes,” Holmen coach Justin Lancaster said.
Muskego won the first two matches, and Joel Zelinski’s 13-12 upset of Holmen sophomore Nathan Henderson (41-4) at 138 pounds gave it a 7-0 lead.
Senior Noah Henderson (37-11) righted the ship with an 11-7 decision over junior Brady Austin (38-15) at 144, and Holmen was off and running. The Vikings only needed to hold their own in the upper weights and did more than that win with six victories from 150 through 285 to determine the outcome before unleashing the state-qualifying run of Brady Needham at 106, Brendan Henderson at 113, Rex Lancaster at 120 and Brock Needham at 126.
With the start at 132, Lancaster knew his team had the firepower if needed in later matches after Henderson, Lancaster and Needham all placed second at the individual state tournament a week ago.
“Our last three were all state finalists,” Lancaster said. “That’s a great way for us to end.”
Lancaster made a lineup adjustment by inserting sophomore Sawyer Stetter in at 150, and that decision ended with a Stetter pin of senior Ethan Engel in 2 minutes, 8 seconds. Sophomore Nolan Knapmiller (28-12) followed with a major decision over senior Blake Hofmeister (32-18) at 165 to push Holmen’s lead to 17-7, and the wins piled up from there.
“He’s a really tough competitor,” Lancaster said of Stetter. “We bumped everyone else up from there to try to match what (the Warriors) had.”
The victory means Holmen will face the Pirates with a spot in the finals on the line.
Bay Port beat Slinger 41-36 to advance and will hit the Vikings with a lineup that had three qualifiers for last week’s individual state tournament.
Alois Schlumpf won the 132-pound championship at the Kohl Center, and Tucker Athey placed second at 175 for the Pirates.
