Pair of Tigers are state champs
77TH ANNUAL WIAA INDIVIDUAL WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
Trevor Dennee wins his second consecutive title
By Casey Krautkramer
Stratford senior wrestler Trevor Dennee pointed two fingers in the air to signify to his family members in the Kohl Center crowd that he’d just won back-to-back WIAA individual state championships on Saturday night.
Trevor Dennee won a 9-4 decision against senior Shamus Mclain of Coleman in the 195-pound Division 3 finals match. Trevor, the son of Scott and Jennifer Dennee, finished this season with a 49-1 match record. He also captured the 170-pound state title last season, and he garnered a state runners-up finish at 170 in 2018.
“It feels good to win another state championship; it’s pretty exciting,” Trevor said.
He plans to decide after this weekend’s state team wrestling tournament at the UW Fieldhouse whether he wants to wrestle in college next winter. He’s received interest from Division 2 wrestling colleges Mankato State and UW-Parkside, along with interest from many Division 3 colleges.
For the time being, Trevor and his No. 3 seed Stratford, 27-0, wrestling team is focused on beating No. 2 seed Fennimore, 13-0, in a Division 3 state team semifinal match at 10 a.m. this Saturday, March 7. No. 1 seed Coleman, 14-0, wrestles No. 4 seed Random Lake, 13-1, in the other state semifinal at 10 a.m. The winners of the two state semifi nal matches would compete in the state finals at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Trevor Dennee likes his team’s chances of beating Fennimore, whom Stratford has wrestled against in the past four state championship finals, with both teams winning two gold balls apiece against each other.
“I think we match up well with Fennimore; all of the guys just need to wrestle their best to give us a good chance at winning,” he said.
Cliff Ange of Athens officiated the WIAA individual state wrestling championships this year, and he held up Stratford sophomore Gavin Drexler’s arm after he won his first state championship.
Gavin pinned Rosholt junior Bo Niewiadomski in the 126-pound Division 3 state finals match to complete an undefeated season with a 50-0 match record. Gavin was also unbeaten in matches last season until he competed at the sectional competition in Shawano, where he lost a few matches and failed to qualify for the individual state tournament.
He worked hard in the offseason to made sure he didn’t experience the same bad feeling in his stomach that he endured after his freshman wrestling season was suddenly cut short last year.
“It felt special to get redemption and it make winning a state championship this year feel even more special,” Gavin said. “It was a one of a kind feeling to win my first state title, and hopefully my team can do the same this weekend.”
Gavin pinned senior Julian Spriggle of Cochrane-Fountain City in 59 seconds during the state quarterfinals match on Friday morning. He then won an 11-3 major decision against junior Javis Pinter of Kenosha Christian 77TH ANNUAL WIAA INDIVIDUAL WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
Life in the state semifinals match on Friday night to advance to the state finals on Saturday night.
His parents, Dan and Cara Drexler, and his older brother, Manny, watched him wrestle in the state championship match on Saturday night.
It was a busy Saturday for the Drexler family. The couple’s oldest son, Jake, who is a sophomore wrestler for UW-Eau Claire, qualified for the college wrestling national championships on March 13-14 at the U.S. Celluar Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jake beat another Stratford graduate, senior Sam Wenzel of UW-La Crosse, in the 149-pound third-place match at the NCAA Upper Midwest Regional in Minneapolis, Minn., to qualify for nationals.
Dan and Cara’s youngest child, eighth grader Gracie, competed in a big gymnastics competition as a member of her gymnastics traveling team based in Minneapolis.
Schwabe state runners-up
Stratford senior Max Schwabe fell just short of winning back-to-back WIAA Division 3 individual state wrestling championships on Saturday.
Schwabe, 47-3, lost an 8-6 decision to senior Alex Birchman of Fennimore in the 132-pound state finals match. Last season, he won a state title in the same weight class, after taking third place at 120 pounds at the state tournament in 2018.
He won a 9-1 major decision against sophomore Joseph Penchi of La Crosse Aquinas in the state quarterfi nals match on Friday morning. He then won a 3-0 decision in overtime against junior Zach Foley of Cochrane-Fountain City to advance into the state finals on Saturday night.
Devin Dennee, 49-3, and twin brother of Trevor Dennee, garnered a thirdplace finish in the 160-pound match at state. He won an 8-1 decision against senior Nick Blaschke of Fennimore in the third-place match on Saturday afternoon.
He began the state tournament by pinning junior Sawyer DeRuyter of Cedar Grove-Belgium in the quarterfi- nals match on Friday morning. Devin then lost an 8-5 decision to junior Nolan Springer of Mineral Point in the state semifinals match on Friday night, which moved him into the consolation bracket.
Devin pinned senior Tyler Lovejoy of Laconia in the consolation wrestleback on Saturday morning to advance into the third-place match on Saturday afternoon.
Stratford juniors Karter Stuttgen, 25-8, and Jacob Heiden, 41-11, both took sixth place in their state weight classes.
Stuttgen won a 3-0 decision against sophomore Chance Gruber of Coleman in the 113-pound preliminary match on Thursday night. Stuttgen was pinned in 2:28 by sophomore Troy Dolphin of Kenosha Christian Life in the quarterfi nals match on Friday morning.
He won an 11-5 decision against freshman Dominic Leintz in the consolation semifinals match on Friday afternoon, before he forfeited both the sixth-place match to junior Cole Stark of Markeson on Saturday morning and the fifthplace match to junior Grant Geiger of Brillion on Saturday afternoon.
Heiden won an 8-7 decision against junior Grant Englebert of Southern Door in the 152-pound preliminary match on Thursday night. He then won an 11-0 major decision against senior Logan Schneider in the quarterfinals match on Friday morning. Heiden fell to junior Austin Vandenbush of Random Lake in the semifinals match on Friday night.
He pinned junior Korben Brown of Parkview in a consolation wrestleback on Saturday morning, before getting pinned by junior Mason Haas of Amherst in the fifth-place match on Saturday afternoon.
Tiger’s sophomore Elijah Lucio failed to place in his first appearance at the individual state wrestling tournament. He lost a 6-3 decision to senior Dylan Baird of Auburndale in the 138-pound state quarterfinals match on Friday morning. He then lost a 5-2 decision to junior Max Sokolski of Bonduel in the consolation semifinals match on Friday afternoon.
