Repeat: Schlough becomes only second Bulldog wrestler to win pair of state championships

MADISON — Even when he isn’t feeling his best, the Bulldogs’ Brock Schlough is hard to beat.

Schlough, a defending state champion, had to not only battle his opponent in last Friday night’s state wrestling semifinals but an upset stomach.

Fortunately, the Boyceville sophomore was able to mitigate the effects of the latter so he could take care of business against the former.

Schlough’s scrambling skills were put to the test against fifth-ranked senior David Marquardt (37-6) of Stratford as he dodged several takedown attempts before securing a 10-7 decision on a late takedown.

That put Schlough on a collision course with fellow defending state champion Bradon Roen, a Riverdale senior, in the Division 3, 160-pound state title match.

Schlough proved to be equal to the challenge, scoring a 5-2 decision over Roen to earn his second consecutive individual state title  during last Saturday’s championship round at the 2017 WIAA State Individual Wrestling tournament held in Madison’s Kohl Center.

With the win and title, Schlough, who compiled a 43-1 record en route to the crown, became just the second Boyceville wrestler to win a pair of state championships. He joins Chris Wisemiller, who won back-to-back heavyweight crowns in 1982 and 1983. Schlough won the Division 3, 138-pound championship last year.

“It’s awesome! It’s just as good as the first one,” Schlough said just a few minutes after winning his second title.

The sophomore acknowledged that he had been putting some extra pressure on himself to repeat.

“I was putting a lot of pressure on myself in the beginning but then I thought that I can’t put pressure on myself, I have to control my emotions,” admitted Schlough, who was the first of three Boyceville wrestlers to win individual titles.

He added, “As the tournament went on the pressure came off more and more and I started to feel better.”

There was plenty of reason for Schlough to feel that pressure as the 160-pound weight class was arguably the strongest in the Division 3 ranks.

His coach Jamie Olson said that the 160-pound field featured two state runners-up and two defending state champs – Schlough and Roen.

“That weight class was loaded,” Olson stated. “I talked to some coaches throughout the tournament and they said whoever wins that is a man, he’s the man, he’s a stud!”

“And he (Brock) came out on top, I guess that makes him the man,” said Olson emphatically.

“It wasn’t one of those weight classes that was kind of weak, it was on the other end. It was really loaded.”

“He is just a sophomore and moved up three weights and still won a state championship which says a lot about who he is and the type of wrestler he is.”

Schlough, who spent much of the season ranked number one until Roen dropped down a weight for the tournament which pushed the Boyceville sophomore to second,  kicked off his second state tournament Friday afternoon.

He jumped out to a 4-0, first-period lead in his quarterfinal battle against senior Isaac Roffers (41-6) of Reedsville.

Schlough extended that to six points with a reversal in the opening six seconds of the middle period and rode out Roffers the remainder of the frame.

In the third, Roffers finally broke through Schlough’s defense to score a takedown but the Boyceville sophomore responded quickly with his second reversal to put his advantage back to six points at 8-2. Roffers worked free with just 17 ticks left in the match to make it 8-3 but would get no closer.

Later that evening, Schlough was the first to hit the mats for the Bulldogs and advanced to the finals with a hard-fought, 10-7 triumph over Stratford senior David Marquardt.

Marquardt drew first blood with a takedown at 1:02 of the first period. Schlough quickly went on top to stay with a five-point move – a reversal followed closely by a three-point near fall. The Stratford wrestler escaped in the closing seconds of the opening period to cut his deficit to 5-3.

Taking the down position to start the second, Schlough worked an escape and then a takedown to stretch his lead to 8-3. Again Marquardt would come up with points late in the period as he scored a reversal with 12 seconds on the clock to make the score 8-5 after four minutes of wrestling.

Marquardt scored his third consecutive point on an escape just second into the third period to make it an 8-6 match.

The score narrowed to just a single point when Schlough was hit with his second stalling call which gave the Stratford senior a point.

It remained a one-point affair until the final seconds when Schlough was able to get a takedown at the final horn for the 10-7 victory.

In the championship match the following night, Schlough was the first to score when he took Roen to the mat with just 20 seconds having expired off the clock. Roen successfully worked an escape about a minute later to trail 2-1.

Schlough took the point back with his own escape in the second for a 3-1 lead.

It stayed that way until late in the third and final stanza when the Riverdale senior broke free from Schlough to make it a one-point match at 3-2 with 18 seconds left.

But with just two ticks on the clock, Schlough came up with his second takedown to secure the gold medal with a 5-2 win.

All though it wasn’t easy at times, Schlough felt that he would earn a second championship.

“I knew that nobody could beat me going in,” concluded a confident Schlough.