Pete Peterson is a coach who believes in challenging his team.
The G-E-T/Melrose-Mindoro co-op wrestling program has a history of reacting well to this philosophy, and this season has been no different.
The Titans, who are ranked ninth in Division 2 by Wisconsin Grappler, will be battle tested by the time the WIAA postseason rolls around, and Peterson has to be happy with what he’s seen in the past two weeks of competition.
G-E-T/Mel.-Min. — not unexpectedly — swept through four dual meets in dominant fashion in its own gymnasium on Thursday and followed that up with a team victory and a couple of individual champions at the Raider Challenge in Arcadia on Saturday.
The Titans rolled up 511 points in Arcadia to finish well ahead of second-place Menomonie (394) at the invitational and won 25 out of 30 matches wrestled during Coulee Conference dual wins over Arcadia, Westby, Viroqua and Black River Falls two nights before.
G-E-T/Mel.-Min. began the season with a nice mixture of returning and new talent, and that combination has turned into a formidable challenge for every opponent in its path.
“We like to find tough duals because that’s a lot of fun,” Peterson said after his Titans beat Baldwin-Woodville, then tied both Prairie du Chien and Aquinas on Jan. 17. “We go to The Clash (National Duals), we wrestle teams like we did here.
“We always focus on the end of the year, so we’ll go back and look at these matches and figure out how to try and get better. We hop to see Prairie again later this year, hopefully in a team sectional.”
The Titans are ranked ninth in Division 2 by Wisconsin Grappler. PdC is ranked eighth in Division 2 and the Blugolds third in Division 3 to put those tied duals in perspective, and the Titans wrestled four seniors in their lineup against Prairie du Chien.
G-E-T/Mel.-Min. is led by junior Colton Koss (28-2), who is already a two-time state qualifier and placed third at 106 as a sophomore. He just qualified for the 120-pound final at the Raider Challenge in Arcadia on Saturday and lost a 1-0 decision to top-ranked Lane Andersen (21-1) of Amery. Koss is ranked second at 120.
Senior Gunnar Johnson (33-5) was also a state qualifier a year ago, and he is also coming off a runner-up finish at the Raider Challenge. Johnson was denied the title by Menomonie’s Luke Pember (15-1), who is ranked eighth in Division 1, in a 10-6 decision. He wrestled at 157 as a junior and remains there.
Junior Koda Purney (30-6) won at 113 and sophomore Aaron Dunigan (33-6) at 215 for the Titans on Saturday. Junior Jayce Stetzer (29-7) at 144, senior Landon Windsor (20-14) at 165, sophomore Braden Peterson (25-11) at 175 and senior Cale Pickering (21-14) at 190 all added runner-up individual finishes at Arcadia.
The Titans gave themselves a boost going into the new calendar year with a fantastic second day at The Clash National Duals the first week of January. The bracketed tournament, which is held at the La Crosse Center, hosts teams from many states and provides another level of competition.
G-E-T/Mel.-Min. lost its three dual meets the first day but came back to win three without a loss the second day to win its eighth-place bracket.
“We had three hard losses there, but we lost two of those duals by four points to ranked teams,” Peterson said. “We were also missing Koss from the lineup, so I think we could have won those.
“To come back with three solid wins against good teams was a building block for the kids.”
The next big challenge comes Feb. 4 in a nonconference dual meet at Holmen, which is ranked third in Division 1. The Titans and Vikings have enjoyed a very competitive rivalry in recent seasons, and G-E-T/Mel.-Min. won 34-28 last year and 34-33 in 2023.
