Boyceville’s Hellendrung comes up empty in bid for state wrestling medal
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FOR THE THIRD TIME in as many weeks, Zach Hellendrung of Boyceville had to wrestle Cadott senior Axel Tegels. The familar foes met in the Division 3, 215-pound state quarterfinals Friday, February 23 in the Kohl Center. Above, Hellendrung is shown scoring a reversal during the match. Tegels, however, won for the second straight time, taking a 6-4 decision to advance. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
MADISON – The difference between victory and defeat can sometimes be razor thin as Boyceville’s Zach Hellendrung discovered much to his chagrin
A pair of heartbreaking Friday afternoon losses at the 81st annual WIAA Individual State Wrestling Championships held February 22-24 had the Bulldog sophomore leave the Kohl Center in Madison empty-handed for a second straight year.
A huge pin in the opening night’s preliminary round had Hellendrung, the Bulldogs’ lone 2024 state wrestling representative, and the Boyceville faithful confident he could parlay that early success into a medal or even a run at a state title.
But less than 24 hours later, a loss to a familiar foe, Cadott’s Axel Tegels, in Friday’s quarterfinals followed a few hours later by a stunning losses via a fall in the consolation round when he had been leading not only knocked Hellendrung from medal contention but out of the tournament all together.
“Unfortunately, you don’t want those types of matches happening at the state tournament,” said Boyceville head coach Jamie Olson. “If they happen during the year you can rebound and you learn from it and it’s a small setback. Here it ended his season.”
“It’s tough to swallow, I feel bad for Zach, I really do,” added Olson.
After bowing out of last year’s state tournament in the preliminary round, Zach Hellendrung was determined to extended his second consecutive trip to the Kohl Center passed the first day of competition.
He did just that, in dominating fashion!
In his Thursday evening prelims’ match, it took Hellendrung, seeded fifth in his 215-pound Division 3 state bracket, all of 41 seconds to take his opponent, senior Alexzander Larson (32-13) of Princeton/Green Lake, to mat for the quick pin.
“I guess in it may be one of the fastest pins (a Boyceville wrestler) has had at the state tournament,” said Olson. “We knew Zach had a good draw there. We were the fifth seed and Larson was the 12th seed.”
PINNED — Boyceville sophomore Zach Hellendrung is shown pinning Princeton/Green Lake senior Alexzander Larson just 41 seconds into their Division 3, 215-pound Thursday evening, February 22 preliminary match at the 2024 WIAA Individual State Wrestling Championships at the Kohl Center in Madison. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
“Zach did not have a good week (of practice),” added Olson. “He was sick and has some bad ribs and wasn’t able to practice a lot, but he came out on fire. We were like, okay he set the tempo and high goals and was going to get after it and he did”
“You worry about a sophomore, even though he was down here last year, he is still young and on a big stage. He is going to go out and get after it this year or not and he did,” continued Olson. “That set the tone for the Tegels match.”
The win advanced the Boyceville sophomore to Friday morning’s quarterfinal round where he met up with a familiar foe, Cadott senior Axel Tegels (39-10). The pair had split their bouts the previous two Saturdays with Hellendrung taking the regional championship by a score of 4-3 while Tegels, ranked fourth in the state bracket, exacted some payback with an identical 4-3 victory in last week’s sectional final.
Tegels, seeded fourth in the weight bracket, drew first blood on a takedown with 44 seconds remaining in the first period. But, Hellendrung was not going to stay down and worked free just ten seconds later to earn the escape and a point which made it 2-1.
Hellendrung chose the down position to start the second period and within a few seconds of the whistle had spun out from under Tegels and got on top for the reversal and his first lead at 3-2. Some 30 seconds later, Tegels scored the equalizer on an escape. The middle period ended in a 3-3 draw.
In the third and final period, Tegels took the down position and Hellendrung gave him the escape for a familiar 4-3 advantage. The match couldn’t end on a third straight 4-3 decision, could it? It did not. With 44 second left in the match, the Cadott senior scored his second takedown of the match to increase his advantage to 6-3. A few seconds later, a frantic Hellendrung worked the escape to move within two points but his repeated attacks were rebuffed by Tegels who held on for the 6-4 win.
“Why do we have to draw Tegels again,” Olson pondered aloud. “We wrestled him three times in three weeks and wrestled him a lot last year. Those two are good friend and it’s awe man!”
“Zach didn’t wrestle a bad match. Tegels wrestled tough and we wrestled tough, it was a good match,” said Olson. “We had chances to win that match. We were happy how Zach wrestled that match, He wrestled well.”
Just a few hours later, Hellendrung was wrestling in the consolation quarterfinals with a win needed to remain in the tournament.
Things looked promising, very promising when Hellendrung opened the one-minute first period with a takedown and two-point near fall against Wesley Egan (52-6), a Parkview/Albany senior who had received the ninth seed. Hellendrung doubled his lead to 8-0 in the second period, working a reversal just two seconds in to the period and tacked on another pair of back points. It appeared that the Bulldog was well on his way to earning his second victory of the tournament and a spot in the medal rounds, but then disaster struck.
Egan escaped and quickly took Hellendrung to his back. Despite a valiant fight to get off his back that lasted for several seconds, Hellendrung eventually succumbed and was pinned with just 13 seconds left in the period which brought an end to his second state tournament trip.
“He came out on fire and was up 8-0. I really believe Zach would have maybe teched that kid (Egan), we were that much better, but I give that kid credit he went for a near side cradle and then Zach sat on his hip to kind of stop it and Larson then just spun out front on took Zach to his back with a head lock.”
“Zach is not on his back very much,” noted Olson.” We drill some of that, we practice trying to get off our back but Zach is not there very often.”
“He panicked and fought for more than a minute, but just ran out of steam,” Olson said. “He was dominating the kid and one little slip up, but that’s why you wrestle the matches right, you just never know. You have to go six minutes.”
As things played out Egan and Tegels met in the fifth-place match Saturday afternoon with Egan taking the win with a 7-4 decision.
Returning from a football-related injury that sidelined him for nearly the first month of the season, Hellendrung finished his second year of varsity wrestling with a 25-7 mark and is 66-16 overall.
“I think we were a top four in his bracket, even a top three, and you never know, if you beat Tegels who knows where we are going to go. That’s exciting to talk about that because we have two more years left and where is this kid’s ceiling,” asked Olson.
“Last year Zach lost to a good kid in overtime, this year we come down, I think we are a top four wrestler, just didn’t make it happen. We have two more years to figure that out and I think he can be a state champion. Zach has that ability and potential,” the coach continued.
“We have to rebound and keep working hard. Zach is the guy that is in the weight room every morning, he is the guy that gets good grades, he is the guy that is leading the team, he is the guy that is picking others up in the hallway, and doing all the right things. We are lucky,” said Olson.
“This just wasn’t our weekend,” concluded Olson