Joles defends state title, wins second gold at 182 pounds

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MADISON — Was there really, ever any doubt!

Trett Joles came to Madison with a singular goal – to win his second state wrestling championship.

In the process, Joles not only won his second straight Division 3, 182-pound state title but proved that he has few equals on the wrestling mat.

For the second consecutive season, no one in the State of Wisconsin was able to come close to beating the Boyceville junior as he so aptly demonstrated in his run to the gold medal at the 77th Annual WIAA Individual State Wrestling Championship which were held last Thursday through Saturday, February 27-29, in the UW-Madison Kohl Center.

“I came here to win and that is what I did,” said Joles shortly after winning another individual state championship Saturday evening. “I got another state championship under my belt, so it feels pretty good.”

But Joles didn’t simply win, he dominated, posting a major decision in addition to a pair of pins over the number two and three ranked, senior wrestlers in his weight class en route to the crown.

After an 18-7 drubbing of Cedar Grove-Belgium’s Aaron Duenk in the Friday afternoon’s quarterfinal, Joles dismantled John Bieber of Coleman in that evening’s featured semifinal round.

A battle between the top-ranked Joles, who is also the country’s number one rated wrestler at 182 pounds according to Flo Wrestling, and the second ranked Bieber was no contest from the get go. Joles built an 11-1 lead before scoring the pin fall at 3:36.

That propelled Joles into the 2020 state championship at 182 pounds opposite a familiar foe – Blair-Taylor senior Logan Shramek. The pair had tangled in the weight class’s championship match at this year’s Northern Badger Wrestling Classic back on December 28 with Joles prevailing on a second-period pin fall at 3:26.

Although Shramek proved to be a worthy adversary for a period and a half, the result ended the same as their previous meeting with Joles sticking the third-ranked grappler near the end of the second period to claim the state championship.

“I tell you, I give that Blair-Taylor kid a lot of credit,” said Boyceville head coach Jamie Olson. “We wrestled him in the Northern Badger and dominated him. This kid (Shramek) came to wrestle tonight, it was a battle.”

It was, for all of about three and a half minutes before Joles overwhelmed Shramek with a rush. After Joles took the lead on a pair of takedowns – one midway through the first and the other early in the second, Shramek pulled to within a point at 4-3, with a trio of escapes.

And when Shramek threatened to take the lead on a near takedown midway through the second, Joles decided he had had enough. Attacking Shramek head on, Joles drove him to the mat and scored the pin at 3:51 of the title match.

“Trett is dangerous in all positions and that inside trip is pretty deadly,” said Olson of Joles’ title-winning move. “He wrestled tough. To pin a kid of that caliber, that is wrestling really, really well right now, as Shramek was impressive. Trett is, pound-for-pound, as good as anyone in the state. He really is, he is a special kid – a two-time state champ.”

Prior to the championship match, Olson had noted that Trett had wrestled Shramek before and won but Trett wouldn’t take it for granted.

“The Blair-Taylor kid is big and strong, he’s good and tough and there is a reason he is in the state finals,” noted Olson. “We have to go out and wrestle him tough.”

Not one to take any opponent lightly, Joles was focused on the task and delivered.

“We have wrestled him (Shramek) a couple times before and Trett came prepared,” continued Olson. “He stayed low and fought Trett’s double off. He is a big, strong kid. It was a good win.”

“This is what Trett lives for,” said Olson of the championship match. “He likes the big stage and he performs well on the big stage and always has.”

When asked what he was thinking as he stepped on the mat for his second state title bout, Joles replied by saying the same thing he always thinks about before a match.

“The same thought that I have all the time,” stated Joles. “Just control my breathing, come out on top, come out aggressive, and come out with the first shot.”

He did just that and the rest took care of itself.

Joles’ title defense began with a Friday noon quarterfinal’s match against Aaron Duenk of Cedar Grove-Belgium.

A trio of first-period takedowns thrust Joles in front 6-2 after just one-period.

It was a pattern for success that he would repeat in the second. Joles added another three takedowns in the subsequent two minutes of wrestling including a pair in the first 16 seconds. He closed out the middle period with another takedown to post a 12-4 lead as the match headed into the final period.

Joles appeared a bit fatigued in the third frame, surrendering a quick escape to Duenk, who had started the period on the mat. Joles countered with a takedown to extend his lead to 14-5.

The Cedar Grove-Belgium senior then scored his only offensive points of the contest on a reversal. But Joles soon escaped and, after being awarded a penalty point when Duenk was warned twice in a 30-second span for stalling with under a minute left on the match clock, tacked one final takedown to claim an 18-7 win.

“Trett was a little tired,” said Olson of the quarterfinal match. “He thought he warmed up too much, too long. He was a little bit fatigue and we corrected that for the semifinal match and kind of had him simmer for a little longer and that paid off. It felt a lot better, a lot stronger. Trett really doesn’t need a lot of coaching from me but sometimes he can over train, sometimes he can overthink some stuff and right now he is in a great place.”

That victory vaulted the Boyceville junior into the evening’s semifinal in a spotlight match between the top-ranked Joles and number two John Bieber, a Coleman senior with 42 wins in 43 matches.

The showdown between the weight class’s top two ranked wrestlers, however, never matched the anticipation and hype.

Joles was simply too much for Bieber to handle.

From the opening whistle, Joles overwhelmed the Coleman grappler with a bull-rush of takedowns for an 8-3 lead after which he added a three-point near fall at the end of the first period to increase his margin to 11-3.

Joles did not relent!

After Bieber had earned an escape to start the second period, Joles hit him with another takedown. That turned a pair of back points and when he turned Bieber to his back once more, the match ended. Joles’ pin fall at 3:36 provided the emphatic statement that he would not be held out of the championship match and the opportunity to defend the Division 3, 182-pound state title he had won last February.

“He set the tone right away and the pace right away and hit him (Bieber) with that blast double and then cut him and took him down again,” Olson explained. “I think we had a few takedowns in that first period with some back points and I think he kind of broke the kid. He (Bieber) just looked at his coach like, ‘I don’t know what to do, I’m in trouble here!’

“He was in deep water at that time,” confirmed Olson. “Trett just kind of finished it off then and he looked really good, he was impressive.”

With another year and a second state title in the books, Joles has already turned his sights on next season and the essential preparation which will include the national tournament in Virginia Beach, Virginia in a few weeks.

Joles capped this season with a 46-1 record and is an incredible 142-3 in three years of varsity wrestling that has including two state titles and a third-place.

“I am just happy I won another state championship,” stated Joles. “I have to go for three-time (state champ). I’ve got to win it next year, I have to win another state championship and I am going to work hard to do it.”

Was there really, ever any doubt!