Stuart, Bialzik take early exits from state wrestling meet
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MADISON – Boyceville’s Nate Stuart and Ira Bialzik combined for a dozen scores in last Thursday evenings’ Division 3 preliminary round at the 2020 WIAA Individual State Wrestling Championships.
Unfortunately, all were one-point escapes.
Neither Stuart nor Bialzik were able to generate much of an offensive attack during their respective state matches and were, for the second consecutive year, eliminated from further competition with losses in the prelims of the 77th annual state high school wrestling tournament held in Madison’s Kohl Center Thursday, February 27 through Saturday, February 29.
Junior Nate Stuart was the first of the Bulldogs’ preliminary round competitors to take to the state mats Thursday, February 27.
Stuart, a third-place sectional finisher and ranked number eight in the most recent poll heading into the state tournament, was paired against fellow junior and number seventh seeded Cael Large (32-5) of Ozaukee, a sectional runner-up, in a 126-pound preliminary round match.
As one might expect, the battle was evenly matched and close throughout.
Large scored early, taking Stuart to the mat just 14 seconds into the opening period for a 2-0 advantage. But less than ten ticks later, Stuart escaped Large’s grasp to halve his deficit at 2-1.
The score would stay that way until early in the middle period where Stuart, who chose the down position to start the second two-minute frame, worked free for a second escape point to knot the bout at two all.
Large decided to start the third and final period with both wrestlers in the neutral or standing position. Neither wrestler could find an opening while dancing around the ring until Large shot for Stuarts legs and secure then for a takedown and 4-2 lead with just 58 second remaining in the match.
It took Stuart all of seven seconds to gain his third escape but that was as close as he would get as the Ozaukee grappler held him off for the 4-3 victory.
“Stuart’s was a disappointing loss,” admitted Boyceville head coach Jamie Olson following the match. “I would like to have that one back.”
“We weren’t able to generate offense and that was kind of it,” continued Olson. “Nate kind of hung out with him but didn’t get his offense going.”
“Those one-point matches are sometimes hard to take but we didn’t make things happen like we needed to,” Olson added, “But Nate has had a great year.”
Stuart capped his third season of varsity wrestling with a 30-15 record after going 36-13 one season ago.
Unlike his teammate’s low-scoring affair, Boyceville sophomore Ira Bialzik’s match was filled with points. Unfortunately, much of it was by his opponent.
Heading into his 138-pound match with Aidan Nutter, a senior from Fennimore, Bialzik knew he had his work cut out for himself.
Nutter (36-9), who placed third in last year’s state tournament at 132 pounds and had been ranked number one in this year’s Division 3, 138-pound weight class until he was upset 5-1 in a semifinal match at the Westby Sectional meet by sophomore Aiden Brosinski of DeSoto, was rated number three while Bialzik had improved to #12 with his third-place showing in Edgar the previous Saturday.
Nutter went on the offensive against Bialzik almost from the opening whistle, scoring the first of his 11 takedowns just 15 seconds into the first period.
Nutter would register five of those two-point maneuvers in the first two minutes alone, taking Bialzik, almost at will, to the mat and then letting him up to build a 10-4 lead after the first period.
It is a pattern that Nutter continued throughout the remainder of the match, leading 16-7 after two periods en route to a 24-9 win that included a 2-point near fall and another takedown with just two seconds left in the match for the technical fall.
“We knew Ira had a really tough opponent and knew that it was going to be kind of a tough match for us to score points in,” admitted Coach Olson.
Bialzik concluded his sophomore campaign with a 25-19 and is 54-33 overall in his first two seasons.
“We knew we had to come up with something big to beat that kid. Nutter’s good. He is a seasoned wrestler that was down here last year. Fennimore’s got tough kids, Olson continued.
“It was a tough draw but Ira left everything out there and I am proud of him for that. For him to get down here this year was a huge accomplishment,” Olson commented. “I was happy how that match turned out, we got tech falled but we wrestled hard and sometimes you are outmatched and we were outmatched there a little bit.”
But Olson knows both wrestlers are capable of much more but it will take commitment and hard work to get past the preliminary round.
“We have to work hard in the off-season, you have to do all the little things that these kids down here winning are doing and that is wrestling in the off-season,” said Olson. “You train hard and then come down with confidence and win matches.”
“Those guys (Stuart and Bialzik) can take the next step, they are very capable but now they have had two years down here now of experience, now we have to make something happen,” concluded Olson. “We have to win some matches down here next year and hopefully this will burn a little fire in their bellies by losing these tough matches and come back stronger next year.”