Badger Conference Preview

[ElectricGuy]

2016 Badger Conference Tournament Preview

As I mentioned in the conference preview, can this conference be any tougher and deeper?  This year we have had Stoughton, Milton, Sauk all bouncing around in team state rankings between #2 to #8.  If it wasn't for Milton and Stoughton being in the same regional, you could expect all three of these teams at Madison come March.   You also have a deep Mt Horeb D2 team to add to the mix along with a Deforest team with a lot of talent throughout.  

On the individual side, the conference will have 39 ranked wrestlers competing Saturday at Deforest.   That alone is very impressive, but when you look a little deeper, the quality of those 39 is unmatched by any other conference.  The Badger conference tournament will have 5 #1 ranked wrestlers competing Saturday along with an additional 10 wrestlers ranked in the top #5.  

First, a look at the team race this past year:

Sauk Prairie
They have been battle-tested throughout the year, but probably no bigger test than traveling west and taking on the challenge of probably the toughest team dual tournament in the country in "The Clash" in MN.  Sauk ended up going 3-3 as a team, but loosing Fosjer to injury early on in that tournament hurt their efforts.

Adding to their resume this year was an early season win 31-20 over Badger south rival Milton.  They also had a tournament win at the Sun Prairie "Bob Downing Scramble" lapping the next closest team by 150 points.   Then taking a close second to Hudson at the Marty Loy.  Then wrapping up their tournament run with winning their home Sauk Invite.    Sauk did finish up their Badger North dual run undefeated with no real test along the way.  They placed third at the Zelinski duals losing to Mukwonago and to Badger south rival Stoughton.  With Sauk having 8 ranked wrestlers leading the way this weekend they could be the favorite if everyone returns healthy.

Milton
Milton probably lost more than any other Badger conference team with the graduation of its senior class, but gained some much needed experience with the cross town transfer of Vince Degennaro and the return of Evan Whitehead to their lineup.  Milton had a nice dual win over #4 ranked Mukwonago.  With adding those two to an already deep Milton lineup, it had the Badger south champs again setting sights on a conference championship and a trip to Madison, but Milton has been decimated by injuries throughout the year. A recent loss to Stoughton in the last conference dual of the season broke an impressive run of conference championships by the Red Hawks.   Coming in with 5 ranked wrestlers, Milton has the possibility of placing up to 7 in the conference finals, they have to be considered as one of the possible tournament champions.  

Stoughton
Stoughton is looking to repeat as Badger tournament champions in 2016.  They come in this year with 7 ranked wrestlers, 2 #1's and the remaining ranked wrestlers are in the top 6.   Stoughton's dual team had a nice run again this year with wins over 10 ranked dual teams Milton, Elkhorn, Sauk, River Falls, Lomira, Lodi, Evansville, Spring Valley, Mineral Point, and Fennimore this year.  Also, winning the Badger State and Mid States tournaments and then finishing #6 at Cheesehead above two nationally ranked teams.  Stoughton did suffer two dual losses this year one to last years state champs #2 Kaukauna and another to Zelinski dual tournament winner #4 Mukwonago.  

It will be a close three way race for the Badger tournament championship with all three teams having the horses to pull out a win.  As in most years, it's going to come down to depth, with the Badger placing out to 8th place it's going to be the team that can pace enough wrestlers in the 5th through 8th places that might just pull off this conference tournament win.

Individuals:

106lb
For a weight that is missing some numbers this year, this group will have some solid state contributors led by Milton's junior Daulton Shea #3,  sophomore Zeke Smith #11 and freshman Hunter Lewis #10 all battling it out for the top three spots. Ty Miller from Waunakee leads the next level, but the remaining spots are wide open with a few teams not fielding 106lbs this year.

113lb
This weight features state champ and #1 ranked Brandon Klein leading the way.  This is going to be a highly competitive weight through 6th place with ranked wrestlers Dylan Herbrand #12, Daulton Franks HM and Pablo Ramirez #10 and a talented unranked group of Nolan Kraus, and Milton's 106lb Andrew Wells. Klein should be the odds on favorite, but after that, it's a toss-up.

120lb
This weight features Stoughton's #4 ranked Kaleb Louis and Reedsburg's #9 Mason McMillen adding to those two top ten ranked wrestlers would be Milton Tyler Kersten, Portage's Dylan Gohke and Fort's Brendon Klien.  The potential matchup between Louis and McMillen would be their first meeting.

126lb
Stoughton's #6 ranked Tristan Jenny leads the way here being the only ranked wrestler at this weight.  Rounding out the top tier would be Forts talented Draven Sigmond, Mnt. Horeb's Tyger Frame, and Milton's Austin Harms.

132lb
Going into this weight, I'm assuming Sauk's Fosjer#3 is not going to participate in the conference tournament.  That left Milton's #10 Tristan Woods leading the way in this weight class along with Sauk's #12 Aaron Hankins. In addition, you have an unranked trio that could do some damage with Stoughton's freshman Cade Spilde  who is having a fantastic year along with Monroe's very talented Cole Murry and add into that Forts Rudy Travino.  Oregon's Sam Pieper should also be in the mix.  

138lb
Expect at this weight to see another great battle between ranked wrestlers Stoughton's #5 Garrett Model and Milton's #11 Vince Degennaro.  This matchup has the potential of being just the second of many more matchups between these two, with this duo being in the same individual and team sectionals.  Adding to the depth of this weight would be Austin Rauls from Deforest, but after that, it should be pretty wide open amongst the conference.

145lb
There shouldn't be any surprise here when the dust settles to see #1 ranked, State champ, 3x State place winner Collin Kraus standing on top of the podium, Though a talented ranked trio of Milton's Nick Richards, Sauk's Bryant Schaaf, and Mnt. Horeb's Austin Stram will be looking on taking down Goliath before a 4th conference title is won by Kraus.  Also, don't count out Waunakee's recent drop to this weight Nate Lorenz and Monona Grove / McFarland's Bryan Reynosa to make some noise.

152lb
I call this my spotlight weight of the tournament.   This is the deepest weight of the tournament. If you look just at the top of it, you have 5 ranked wrestlers and 3 of them are ranked in the top 4 in the state.  Starting with Sauk's #1 Eddie Smith followed by D2 #2 Mount Horeb's Brad Jones, and then wrapped up with Stoughton's sophomore #4 ranked Tyler Dow.  Those three alone make for a must see bracket, but then add in there Deforest's #9 Will Gahnz and Milton's ranked Evan Whitehead, this bracket sets up to be my "spotlight" must see bracket of the tournament!

160lb
This weight is led by last year's state runner-up Jackson Hemauer and should be the odds on favorite here.  Challenging that will be familiar Badger North competitor from Baraboo #9 Zach Raymond.  Adding to the depth at this weight look for Reedsburg's Trey Haugen, Milton's Taylor Prochazka, MGM's Liam Keeley, and Monroe's Dempzy Foley.

170lb
Milton's #7 Billy Pitzner will be leading the way in this bracket and joining him will be #9 Alex Schodin – Deforest and ranked Austin Kind from Fort Atkinson.   Adding some depth to this bracket, look for Stoughton's talented Freshman Drew Pasold and Baraboo's Hermes Duran.

182lb
We may have the chance to watch round three of this great battle between Sauk's #4 Austin Powell and #1 D2 ranked Matt Blome from Mount Horeb.  Powell winning the first matchup this season 4-3, with Blome winning the next matchup 1-0.  In addition, we add in Deforest's ranked Kevin Rauls, Waunakee's freshman Reed Ryan, and Milton's young talented sophomore Jerry Lipke.  

195lb
This weight should be a great barn burner, you have Reedsburg's Daulton Hahn coming ranked #3 in the state, along with Waunakee's #4 Trevor Statz, Deforest's #12 ranked Nathan Kemp, and Monroe's D2 #10 Ranked Hayden Arneson.  Kemp recently knocked off Statz in their dual, so this figures to be a wide open bracket for the top 4 sports.  Also, look for Milton's Kyle Zucaro and Stoughton's Jacob Groleau to be in the placements.

220lb
Rounding out Badger conference weights with ranked wrestlers is the 220lb bracket.  Here we have 3 ranked wrestlers starting with Monroe's D2 #5 Traiten Gorr, #12 Waunakee's Mason Ripp, and Sauk's Logan Moore.  Traiten should be the Odds on favorite here.  Look for Reedsburg's Dylan Lemoine, Fort's Cole Beavers, and Stoughton's Aodan Marshall all to be in the placement rounds.

HWT
This is probably the most wide open of the Badger Conference brackets.  There is no ranked wrestlers in this bracket.   I see Sauk's Konnor McNeal, Milton's Tom Rakestraw, Stoughton's Erik Haried, and Monroe's Kyle Walter all battling for the top for placements and any of the four having the ability to take it all.

[ElectricGuy]

"Sauk Rapids"

Freudian skip?   

Great write up.

I think it was   Thanks for the catch and the note!  Good luck to Slinger this weekend!

[boowrestle]

Electricguy you are pretty spot on like always ,but I will not be surprised to see Powell/sauk at 170lbs and Statz/Waunakee at 182lbs

[imnofish]

ElectricGuy, your writing is pretty impressive, as is your analysis.  Do you aspire to be Wisconsin's version of Mike Chapman (renowned wrestling author and one of my childhood weightlifting partners)?  (Google him) 

[ElectricGuy]

Thanks Boo and thanks Coach -  I will look him up.

It's easy to do what you enjoy and I love talking wrestling!

[Mack]

This is really great.  Thanks, Electric Guy.  Wrestling fans are eager for more information, and it is generally in short supply. 

Good luck, kids!