Perfect! Boyceville sends all six wrestlers to state

Hellmann, Palmer, and Johnson claim Sectional Championship 

OSSEO — As the adage goes, ‘practice makes perfect’.

Boyceville translated a good week of practices into an outstanding effort and results – one could say perfect – at the 2014 WIAA Division 3 Individual Wrestling Sectional hosted by Independence at Osseo-Fairchild High School last Saturday, February 22.

All six of the Bulldogs’ sectional participants earned berths at their respective weight classes to this weekend’s WIAA State Wrestling Championships at the Kohl Center in Madison.

“That has never happened as long as I’ve been here (at Boyceville),” said Bulldogs’ head coach Jamie Olson. “We have had seven go, I think out of ten one year, but have never been 100 percent.”

“I am excited. We went 17-4 today,” added Olson. “When you can do that at an individual sectional that’s impressive. The kids showed up and wrestled well.”

A feat that Olson attributed to a good week or two of practices and some timely assistance from a proven commodity – Chippewa Falls native and Division 1 collegiate All-American Craig Henning.

“They had a great week of practice,” Olson continued. “So I had a good feeling coming in.”

And having the experience and knowledge of a national runner-up in your practice room certainly helped the Bulldogs’ cause.

“Craig has actually been here in our practice room for the past three weeks and he has made a big difference. Craig is a good friend of mine.”

It also paid dividends for senior Bryor Hellmann, who picked up his first sectional championship, winning it all at 160 pounds, and a second straight appearance in the state tournament.

“Bryor Hellmann wrestled the tournament of his life,” said Olson. “He wrestled so well today. He wrestled with Craig Henning all week. Craig came in and wrestled with Bryor all week and it made a huge difference in his confidence.”

Freshmen wunderkinds James Palmer and Micah Johnson also staked claims to their first sectional titles in just their first year of varsity wrestling. Palmer needed just two minutes to claim the championship at 113 with a technical fall after he received wins via forfeit and injury default in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. Johnson breezed to the final with a tech fall and pin. There he broke a scoreless tie in the third period with an escape and takedown to post a 3-1 win for the sectional gold.

“Really happy for James Palmer,” said Olson “Too bad he only had that one match because James was fired up today but that’s the way it works but we’ll take it.”

“Micah (Johnson), what a tremendous freshman,” added Olson. “He and James are just tremendous freshman and the seniors did their part today.”

Boyceville’s three sectional winners will be in good company when they travel to Madison this week as  the Bulldogs’ three other sectional participants also punched their state tickets. Junior Austin Wolfe finished second at 106 pounds and seniors Jon Harnisch (152) and Wyatt Hansen (145) both took third in their respective weight classes to earn a spot in the state championships. Wolfe, like Hellmann, will be competing in his second consecutive state tournament.

The effort was also reflected in the final team standings as Boyceville finished as the runner-up with 81.5 points. Spring Valley/Elmwood, who won the team sectional title Tuesday night in Boyceville, finished atop the 24-team list with 98 points and five sectional champs.

Bryor Hellmann, 40-6, capped Boyceville’s sectional tournament in fine fashion as he defeated a familiar foe for a second straight week to earn the 160-pound section gold medal. For the second time in as many weeks, Hellmann defeated Spring Valley/Elmwood’s Trent Miller by two points in the championship match. A week ago in the regional finals, Hellmann beat Miller 11-9. In last Saturday’s sectional title match, Hellmann again delivered victory with a 5-3 decision.

To get to that match, the Boyceville senior opened the day with a 15-0 shut out win via technical fall at 4:43 over LaCrosse Aquinas’ Charlie Fuschsel and a hard earned 8-2 win against Rowdy Kochevar of Flambeau in the semifinals.

The sectional title will give Hellmann, ranked tenth in the final D3 polls at 160 pounds, a bye into Friday afternoon’s state quarterfinals.

James Palmer and Micah Johnson will also enjoy a respite from Thursday night’s preliminary rounds as sectional champs.

In a highly unusual twist of circumstances, Palmer barely needed to break a sweat to secure his 113-pound sectional title. He received a forfeit in the quarterfinal match when his opponent, Dawson Barber of Ladysmith, was unable to wrestle. Then in the semifinals, Palmer received another win (by default) without having to wrestle when Zach Elmer was unable to compete due to an injury sustained in his quartfinal’s win.

Palmer would finally get to strap on his head gear for the championship. But the title match was short-lived as Palmer dominated Cumberland’s Drew Rihn en route to a 16-0 technical fall in the first period. Palmer, ranked fifth in the state, improved to an impressive 43-2 as he heads into his first state meet.

Impressive would also aptly describe fellow Boyceville freshman Micah Johnson. The first-year grappler has quickly earned a name for himself in a weight class that is often dominated by upper classmen. But it has been Johnson that has been this area’s D3, 138-pound dominator.

The third ranked and once beaten Johnson did nothing to dispel that moniker at the sectional meet last Saturday. Johnson ran his season mark to 42-1 with three straight wins for the title. He began the day with a 16-0 victory by technical fall (5:24) over Aquinas’ Ethan Reid. Johnson followed that performance by sticking his semifinal opponent, George Wolfe of Phillips, in 2:18.

Johnson would have to work the full six minutes to obtain his first sectional crown. But despite entering the final period in a scoreless deadlock with Blair-Taylor senior Matt Massman, Johnson appeared calm and collected. He took the down position to start the final two minute session and quickly worked an escape for a 1-0 advantage. Johnson grew the lead to 3-0 with a takedown a short time later. But Massman worked free of Johnson’s control to score a point. Massman nearly scored a match-tying takedown in the closing seconds but Johnson was able to hold on to one of Massman’s arms and thereby hold off the takedown for the 3-1 win.

There were some exciting and apprehensive moments for Boyceville’s remaining sectional competitors.

Especially senior Wyatt Hansen.

He lost by fall to Cumberland’s Trystin Adams in the 145-pound quarterfinal round. Hansen’s final shot at a state berth was now out of his hands as he would have to rely on Adams to win his next round match-up.

“We lost that tough one at 145 right away as Wyatt got pinned,” said Olson. “It’s like, ‘darn it’ now he’s got to hope that kid wins and the kid did thankfully and then Wyatt (Hansen) did his job.”

After receiving a reprieve with Adams’ 17-10 semifinals win, Hansen made the most of his “second chance”. He scored a pin in his first consolation match stopping the match at 3:57 with a fall on Flambeau’s Jarod Bainter. Hansen would better that effort in his third-place bout against Isaac Weik of Chequamegon winning by fall in 2:39 to lock up a state berth. He would not receive a wrestleback opportunity as Adams fell to SVE’s Zach Newton, 7-1, in the finals.

Just a weight class up, Jon Harnisch made certain that he too would be Mad City-bound in his final attempt. The senior won a pair of close decision to make the 152-pound championship and guaranteed a spot in the state tournament. Harnisch, 31-17, scored a 4-2 win against Ladysmith’s Matt Ollinger in the quarterfinal round. He followed that effort with a 5-1 semifinal’s victory over Scott Ring of LaCrosse Aquinas. The sectional title would be a rematch of the regional championship as Harnisch squared off against Jed Schlegel of Spring Valley/Elmwood for a second straight Saturday. Schlegel, who had earned a 6-2 win over Harnisch the previous week, would again prevail in the pair’s tilt, taking a 7-2 decision.

Harnisch would have to defend his second-place in a wrestleback against Unity’s Tevin Anderson. The Eagle wrestler swooped in and took a 6-2 win and the silver. Harnisch finished with the bronze but held on to a state berth.

Jonny (Harnisch) ran into two really, really good kids in that Schelgel (SVE) and that Anderson from Unity,” said his coach. “But he wrestled tough to get into that final.”

Heartbreak had company last Saturday as Austin Wolfe’s accession to the 106-pound title was sidetracked by an unexpected semifinals loss. The junior was a favorite to claim his first sectional crown and second state berth but after winning on a quick 48 second pin over Cumberland’s Jim Springsteen in the quarterfinal, he fell 8-4 to Aquinas’ Nick Burns, who went on to take the lightweight championship.

If Wolfe was to get back to Madison he would have to do it through the consolation side of the bracket. That is just what he did. Wolfe pinned Phillips’ Jasper Bushman in 27 seconds to gain a spot in the third-place match where he shut out Cameron’s Michael Maresca 11-0 to secure the state berth. Wolfe then earned a wrestleback and completed his comeback with a second straight shut out, 6-0 over Mondovi’s Austin Fedie for the silver. Wolfe had pinned Fedie the previous weekend for the regional championship.

“Wolfe lost a heart-breaker, like to have that one back,” Olson said. “He was close to being a champion.”

All six of Boyceville’s remaining wrestlers will have a chance to become champions – state champions this weekend.

That journey will begin this Thursday evening for Wolfe, Hansen, and Harnisch when they compete in the Division 3 preliminary round that begins at 7:15 p.m. in the Kohl Center. If the trio wins, they will join Palmer, Johnson, and Hellmann in the quarterfinals which are slated to get underway around 11:15 a.m. Friday.

“I am excited for next week,” said Olson. “If we have another good week of practice, we can let it all hang out this weekend in Madison and have a lot of fun with it.”

“We want to win matches so we are looking to get guys on the podium. Some of these guys have set high goals. It takes a little luck, it takes a bit of a break here and there, and it can happen. We need to stay healthy this week. A lot of things need to fall into place but it can happen for some of these guys.

“We want to bring back some medals, get on that podium.”