Sunday gets him again, but Duellman earns return to state

WIAA DIV. 3 WRESTLING

While Clear Lake’s Tyler Sunday continues to be his nemesis, Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestler Troy Duellman continued to handle everyone else at Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 Edgar sectional and successfully qualified for his second straight state tournament appearance.

Following his second-place finish at Edgar, Duellman is the sixth seed in this year’s 12-man 145-pound bracket at the state tournament, which begins tonight, Thursday, at the Kohl Center in Madison with preliminary matches.

Duellman (28-6) will face 11th-seeded Colin Fischer (29-14), a sophomore from Bonduel in his preliminary match tonight. The winner gets third-seeded Mason Hoopman in the quarterfinals on Friday. Hoopman is a 45-4 senior from Cedar Grove-Belgium. Friday’s Division action continues with the first consolation matches in the afternoon and the semifinals at 7 p.m. Saturday’s competition includes consolation semifinals and third- and fifth-place matches in the morning and afternoon, followed by the 5:30 p.m. championships.

“There’s still a lot of nerves,” Duellman said Wednesday, a couple hours before he was set to leave for Madison. “I’m just excited, a little nervous.”

Duellman’s stay in the state tournament last year was a short one as he was eliminated in the preliminaries with a 5-0 loss to Griffin Marko of St. Croix Falls, who had also beat him at the previous week’s sectional. Marko is no longer a factor as he’s now in the Division 2 bracket with Duellman’s cousin, Medford’s Gage Losiewicz.

A year ago, he went in as the 12th seed, but this year Duellman has wrestled well against the top two seeds and knows he belongs. Four of his losses have come in close matches with Sunday, the second seed who is 52-2, and a fifth loss came to top-seeded Tarrin Riley (47-4) in a 4-0 decision at the Jan. 14 Ladysmith Invitational. The sixth loss was to Marko, 3-1, in the Jan. 21 St. Croix Falls Invitational.

“It gives me confidence,” Duellman said. “It makes me feel a little bit better knowing that I’m that close. I just need to go out there and wrestle hard.”

In Saturday’s sectional, Duellman opened with a pin in 3:28 over Turtle Lake-Clayton freshman Brandon Wright (17-21). In the semifinals, Duellman met Glenwood City senior Gabe Knops (3310), who got there with a 10-0 major decision over Cumberland’s Harrison Ruppel (31-19).

“My first match was against a freshman, but he was a pretty tough kid,” Duellman said. “My second match (Knops) definitely was better than I thought he was going to be. I was actually losing in the beginning, but then I came back and won it 4-1. He was definitely pretty good.”

Duellman trailed Knops 1-0 in the third period but got a reversal and twopoint near fall to pull out a 4-1 win and clinch his state berth.

In the finals, he got another matchup with Sunday, who he had last seen two weeks earlier in the Lakeland Conference 145-pound championship. Sunday won that 6-4.

This time, Duellman was on the verge of finally beating him, but a late escape and takedown gave Sunday the 5-4 win.

“I’ve never beaten him before but I’ve had a couple of really close matches with him,” Duellman said. “I was beating him the whole match through the first, second and third periods. But he got an escape and took me down with about 30 seconds left and I ended up losing. I think he’s just a very good wrestler. I went into overtime once and he’s beaten me in the last 30 seconds twice now. I’ve been right there. I’ve been beating him the whole match until the end three times. He just always ends up scoring points somewhere right at the end and beating me.”

Duellman’s day wasn’t done after that tough loss. He was challenged to a second-place wrestleback by Stratford’s Ryan Becker (39-13). He won that 5-2 to secure his second-place standing.

“He dropped down from 152 so I knew he was really strong,” Duellman said. “I had wrestled him the week before and beat him in a really close match so I knew I could beat him if I wrestled good. But I was still nervous and had to go out there and get it done. It was another pretty close match.”

Other than some of the state’s toughest 145-pound wrestlers, Duellman’s toughest opponent this season may have been his snowmobile in what has been a pretty impressive season. A knee injury suffered while on a ride in December kept Duellman out of the Northern Badger and Cadott tournaments in the middle of the season.

“I started off the year at 152,” Duellman said. I was a little happier there eating a little bit more. But I talked to coach (Greg Sonnentag) and we decided to go down to 145. I was winning and doing pretty good. I lost to the number-one seed at Ladysmith. He beat me 4-0. That made me feel pretty good too knowing I was pretty close to the number-one guy in the state. That was right when I was coming back from when I hurt my knee. I missed a couple of tournaments. That might have hurt my seeding a little bit too, just not having more wins.”

However, now that the brackets are set, seeding no longer matters. It’s all about winning tonight to assure Duellman has a longer stay in the tournament and a shot at earning a medal.

“I do (feel stronger physically) and I feel like mentally too my confidence is up a little bit more this year than it was last year,” he said. “Having a little better seed this year could help. I feel like I kinda know what’s going on down there a little bit and how it works. And I’m fortunate to have my cousin back down there with me to warm up and stuff.

“It’s just one match at time obviously with that ultimate goal of winning as much as I can and knowing I’m right there with the second seed and what I’m capable of. But like I said, it’s one match at a time, and hopefully I win them all.”

WIAA Div. 3 state wrestling bracket

145 pounds

#8 Gavin Campnell (33-11), Sr., Markesan vs. #9 Ryan Becker (39-13), Sr., Stratford; winner faces #1 Tarrin Riley (47-4), Sr., Mineral Point #12 Syler Zdanczewicz (27-17), So., Fennimore vs. #5 Garrett Vatland (42-10), Sr., Westby; winner faces #4 Isaiah Carton (24-5), So. Shiocton

#6 Troy Duellman (28-6), Jr., Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe vs. #11 Colin Fischer (29-14), So., Bonduel; winner faces #3 Mason Hoopman (45-4), Sr., Cedar Grove-Belgium #10 Matt Wery (35-15), Sr., Kewaunee vs. #7 Joe Beavers (41-6), So., Hustisford; winner faces #2 Tyler Sunday (52-2), Jr., Clear Lake