Now that NCAAs is over, and the 12 weight thread has died down, it's time to look forward to next season. (with a little looking back as well)
First, what a great group of seniors we are losing. I'm far too lazy to look back, but have we had this large a group of kids who placed at state? Either way, thank you to the seniors who have made North Shore wrestling so fun to watch over the past few years. My apologies to state qualifiers that I miss. I go off memory, and it's not good..
106- Zack Szohr (placewinner as a Jr)
113- Arturo Duran (placewinner)
120- Cooper Fergus (2-2 at state)
132- Josh Hickey (placewinner)
132- Manny Rosado (placewinner)
152- Tommy Makela
160- Ryder Sigler
170- Tyler Denmark
195- Cullen Bauer-Trottier
Teams (in order of returning conference tournament points)
Port Washington (156 returning)
Port loses the two state qualifiers, but that's it. While it's hard to replace those guys, they have the depth (and it seems like they have a kid coming up that contributes) to regain their top spot in the conference for next year. Oliver Rosado is starting to come around, and Preston Makoutz needs to break out (see what I did there?). They'll also get Cody Green back from injury. There is no rockstar in this group, but they are a solid group of kids who all contribute.
Cedarburg (118 returning)
Cedarburg will have three possible state qualifiers in Boerner, Grudzinski and Ryan. As always, I have no idea what is coming up the pipeline, but they are building numbers again and that depth will keep them in the top three for next season.
Germantown (116.5)
I thought GT lost a lot more than they did. I thought they were senior from top to bottom. Kevin Tamboli, Mason Wheeler and Domonique Bennett were all one match away from qualifying for state last year. Waymon McNeal was in a brutal sectional bracket, so they could possibly qualify four kids for the state tournament. Losing 8 seniors hurts, but they have quite a few JV kids to fill the holes.
Nicolet (73.5)
Nicolet has to be excited for Parker Keckeisen's 5th place finish at state at 160. That's quite an accomplishment for a freshman. I think there's an Ott coming up, and they have a large middle school team, so they will likely hold their position in the top half of the conference for next season. Ryan Kuesel will grow into a bigger 106 and be a force to reckon with, and Nicolet returns the first four weights for next season. They are maybe a year away, but there's a nice group of young kids right around the corner.
Grafton (62)
Jonathan Duran is the best of the returning kids from Grafton. Nick Rapp took third in conference in a weight class with two state qualifiers, and will only get stronger going into his junior year. Like many of us on the bottom half of the conference, it's the kids coming up that we need to fill holes. If Grafton has a ton of those, they'll be closer to the middle again like in 2015.
Homestead (48)
Cooper "the baby faced assassin" Hunt is the best of Homestead's group. After placing 5th at conference he put together three great weeks of wrestling and won an exciting wrestle-back to make it to the state tournament. His two matches up at the Kohl Center should give him some incentive for next season. They may be a few recruiting classes away from building their strong numbers.
Whitefish Bay (30)
We lose the winningest wrestler in school history in Cooper Fergus. He's not replaceable. I hope we can build off of our 3rd place finish at regionals and start to put some bodies back in the lineup so we can be competitive again. We get a really nice freshman, but he's only one kid. He's going to need to be the Pied Piper and find some friends, because we had one freshman on the team this year. We will get back 2 kids from injury who would have given us a few more points.
Milwaukee Lutheran (24)
Lutheran graduates two really good kids in Kroupa and Witty. 10 of their points came at 285 without a win. I think Coach Meulendyke will make them better, but he needs some kids to work with. It's a tough sell there, and I hope he can get some bodies in that room.
Nice job.
G-Town to make another run at Conference again this year. They are building a nice program there with their newly found aggressive style and commitment!
The oldest Ott boy is only in 6th grade. But wait until that class gets to Nicolet. They have a lot of good kids in that class.
It's official. Conference realignment takes Germantown and Milwaukee Lutheran out of the old North Shore.
Conference C:
Cedarburg (1,160),
Grafton (747),
Hartford (1,410),
Homestead (1,282),
Nicolet (1,036),
Port Washington (862),
Slinger (968),
West Bend East (1,163),
West Bend West (1,139),
Whitefish Bay (995).
I liked the old alignment better.
I liked our old conference alignment better as well.
Going to Grafton and Port was a drive, but not a ridiculous one. Hartford is a 50 minute drive with no traffic. We'll be leaving for weigh ins during peak time on the freeway. I know that teams in the northern part of the state have no sympathy for that, but we'll go past four or five high schools on the way there.
Should be an interesting new conference though. Do we run a 12 man bracket at the conference tournament with 10 teams?
You make a good point about the conference bracket seeing that the number of Teams increase. Yeah...it will probably be a 12 man bracket with the 10 Teams with the top guys getting a first round bye. I just enjoyed the rivalries and tradition. Seems like these new conferences at all levels now (NCAA) are looking forward and not backwards.
What is a 'twelve man' bracket? Is that a sixteen bracket with 12 wrestlers on it and there are four byes?
Trackwrestling has a 12 man bracket. I'm not sure exactly how seeds wrestle each other but I assume the top 4 get byes