MCDONALD'S SWNEWS4U.COM GAME OF THE WEEK (Dec. 31–Jan. 7)
WRESTLING: Lancaster Invitational

LANCASTER – With four individual champions, two thirds and two fourths, the Lancaster varsity wrestling team finished first at their own invitational last Saturday, scoring 220 points.

In the team race, coach Brad Sturmer’s squad was really only pushed by Iowa-Grant/Highland, who finished 11 points behind the Flying Arrows in second place.

Coming off a Bi-State appearance where the Arrows finished fifth among division 3 teams, coach Sturmer was much happier with Saturday’s performance.

“We weren’t real happy coming out of Bi-State just as a team. We didn’t think we performed at the level that we’re capable of,” Sturmer said.

“We had a really good week of practice coming into the invite, and the guys really pushed hard. We went into the invite with what we call a ‘predator’ mind set. We may not have wrestled at our maximum or at our peak that day, but we were better,” Sturmer added.

Winning individual titles for the Arrows on Saturday were: 120-pound junior Remi Bontreger (22-1), 132-pound junior Carter Lull (13-4), 195-pound senior Dustin Wolf (20-4), and 220-pound senior Caden Straka (19-3).

Bontreger continues a sensational junior season, and on Saturday won a 9-8 decision in his championship match over Juan Alonso (15-3) of Waterloo.

Lull won by pin in his championship match over Boscobel’s Blake Sander (7-6), and earned the respect of his coach for his improvement and hard work through the week leading up to the invite.

“He was one that had a very nice bounce back from Bi-State,” Sturmer said of Lull. “He’s a state-qualifier wrestler and is very capable of competing at a very high level, so it was a nice weekend for him.”

Perhaps the story of the day, and quite honestly, the entire year, is the emergence of Wolf, who wrestled behind Troy Klein last season to win a J.V. state title and later in the year advance to the WIAA state meet.

Going into his championship match on Saturday, Wolf matched up against Zach Howe of MFL Mar Mac, who came in with an uneaten record of 24-0.

With only 30 seconds to go in the first period, Wolf threw Howe in a lateral drop, and before the first period came to an end, recorded a pin in 1:46.

“This year Dustin has placed sixth at Bi-State and to win this tournament by capping  it off with a pin against a kid that was 24-0, he’s just letting people know that he’s for real,” said Sturmer.

“He’s a really high-quality wrestler, and it’s good to see him performing at that level. Sometimes people take Dustin lightly, and they shouldn’t, because he can wrestle at a high level,” he added.

Dealing a sore knee, Straka toughed out the day, and in his championship match, defeated Donald Laufenberg (19-8) of Iowa-Grant/Highland by a score of 15-9.

Third-place finishes on Saturday where won by 113-pound freshman Abe Boebel (9-8) and 145-pound senior Logan Schneider (16-4), while fourth-place finishes were won by 138-pound senior Matthew Crosby (10-8) and 152-pound junior Isaac Oyen (12-11).

Thursday night the Flying Arrows will travel to Belmont to take on Belmont/Platteville in an SWC dual meet, then on Saturday will compete at the Westby Invite.

Lancaster Invitational
(from Saturday, Jan. 4)
Team scores - 1. Lancaster 220; 2. Iowa-Grant/Highland 209; 3. Monticello 172; 4. Sparta 160; 5. MFL Mar Mac 133.5; 6. Darlington/Black Hawk 130; 7. Cuba City/Benton/Southwestern 94; T8. Brodhead 91, Dubuque Senior 91; 10. Waterloo 79; 11. Boscobel 30; 12. River Ridge/Cassville 27.
(Lancaster participants)
106 - Joe Esser (12-12) placed 5th and scored 14.0 team points.
113 - Abrham Boebel (9-8) placed 3rd and scored 7.0 team points.
120 - Remington Bontreger (22-1) placed 1st and scored 28.0 team points.
126 - Michael Ihm (6-15) place is unknown and scored 7.0 team points.
132 - Carter Lull (13-4) placed 1st and scored 30.0 team points.
138 - Matthew Crosby (10-8) placed 4th and scored 14.0 team points.
138 - Dustin Tydrich VR (6-2) place is unknown.
138 - Jeremiah Ihm VR (2-3) place is unknown.
145 - Logan Schneider (16-4) placed 3rd and scored 19.0 team points.
152 - Isaac Oyen (12-11) placed 4th and scored 13.0 team points.
160 - Ryan McCartney (13-8) placed 5th and scored 9.0 team points.
170 - Jeremiah Dressler (13-8) placed 6th and scored 9.0 team points.
195 - Dustin Wolf (20-4) placed 1st and scored 30.0 team points.
195 - Brent Wagner VR (5-2) placed 6th.
220 - Caden Straka (19-3) placed 1st and scored 27.0 team points.
285 - Myles Bender (15-8) placed 6th and scored 13.0 team points.