MINERAL POINT – Senior Paul King earned his first-ever state berth by winning the title at 120-pounds and junior Kolbe Ubersox earned his third career state trip by finishing in second-place at 132-pounds to highlight a busy day on the mats for the Darlington/Black Hawk wrestling team at the 2018 WIAA Division 3 Individual Sectional Meet held at Mineral Point High School on Saturday, Feb. 17.
    King (33-7) pinned his way to the championship match at 120 after recording falls over North Crawford/Seneca’s Trae Steele in 0:42 in the quarterfinals and New Lisbon’s Kalen Baumgart in 3:04 in the semifinals.
    In the finals, the Darlington senior defeated SWAL-rival Alex Birchman of Fennimore by a 9-5 decision to lock up the sectional title and his first career state berth.
    “Paul did an awesome job. He beat (Birchman), who had beat him 10-0 earlier in the year, in the finals, so it was definitely a well-deserved title for him,” said Darlington/Black Hawk co-head coach Cole Wunnicke.
    Ubersox (39-3, ranked #2 in D3) had to wrestleback through the consolation matches to finish second at 132. The Darlington junior opened his day with a 0:46 pin of Hillsboro’s Chris Heidtman in a quarterfinal match, and then got sidetracked when he was pinned by Fennimore’s Trevor Wanek– a 2017 state champion at 126-pounds– in overtime in 6:52 during their semifinal match after leading 6-3 late in the third period.
    Ubersox rallied with 16-0 technical fall decision over NC/S’ Orion Starkey, and he followed with pins of Aquinas’ Albert Flottmeyer (1:20) in the third-place match to lock up a state berth and Mineral Point’s Caden Carey (0:58) to wrestle all the way back to second-place.
    Ubersox placed fifth at state in the 132 class as a sophomore and did not place at 120 as a freshman.
    “I know he wants more, so we still have some work to do. He expects more out of himself than everybody else does,” noted Wunnicke.
    The WIAA State Wrestling Meet will be held at the Kohl Center in Madison on Feb. 22-24. The D2/3 competition is set to start at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23. Preliminary winners advance to the quarterfinal round on Friday morning, starting at 11:15 a.m. The state meet continues through Saturday evening.
    Ubersox will face Johnson Creek junior Tucker Roehl (17-7) in a preliminary round match at 132-pounds on Thursday night with the winner advancing to face Cochrane-Fountain City senior Tate Murty (39-2, #1) in a quarterfinal match on Friday.
    King receives an opening round bye as a sectional champion. He will face the winner of the preliminary match between Weyauwega-Fremont junior Cian Fischer (42-3, #4) and Princeton junior Luke Pulvermacher (37-8, #10) in a 120-pound quarterfinal match on Friday morning.
    The WarBirds had nine wrestlers competing at Saturday’s sectional, but the season came to an end for their other seven qualifiers despite a few close calls.
    Senior Brody Milz (34-8, #9) at 220 and sophomore Leif Bredeson (19-17) at 285 each narrowly missed out on a state berth after placing fourth in their respective weight classes.
    After getting pinned in his opening match against Riverdale’s Garrett Wilmot at 220, B. Milz got a chance to wrestleback and took advantage of the opportunity by pinning Brookwood’s Dylan DeWitt in 1:04 to advance to a third-place match for the second year in a row.
    However, his state bid came up short once again when he was pinned by Marshall’s Justin Chadwick in 1:12 to finish fourth. Chadwick later pinned Wilmot to take second-place, and both advanced to state.
    Bredeson opened with a 49 seconds pin over New Lisbon’s Joshua Woogen, and then dropped back into the consolation round after getting pinning by sectional champion Tyler Hale of Lancaster in 1:16 in the semifinals.
    The WarBirds’ heavyweight pinned NC/S’ Cameron Johnson is just 15 seconds to advance to the third-place match, but his run to state was halted when he was pinned by River Ridge/Cassville’s Ben Wheeler to finish fourth.
    Hale finished first and Wheeler took third to earn state berths.
    Senior Grady Rielly (26-14) at 160, and sophomores Cayden Milz (20-16) at 145 and Carson Lobdell (21-19) at 170 each had a chance at a wrestleback opportunity, but fell in their consolation semifinal matches.
    Senior Tyler Mosley (17-10) was seeking a return trip to state in a loaded 182-pound weight class, but after falling by an 11-2 major decision to Royall’s Noah Friedl in their quarterfinal match he did not get a chance to wrestleback after Friedl lost a tough 4-2 decision to Lancaster’s Troy Klein in the semifinals.
    Klein and Friedl each advanced to state by placing second and third behind Iowa-Grant/Highland’s Brady Peat.
    Finally, junior Alexis Cruz (4-7) was also defeated in his quarterfinal match at 138 and did not get a chance at a wrestleback.
    “It’s kind of disappointing that those seniors couldn’t have made it out of here. We wanted all of them to make it to state,” Wunnicke commented. “We have some stuff to build on for next year, but we’re also losing a lot of good kids. We’re going to miss the seniors and their leadership next year. They were a big part of this team and our success.”
    At Elroy, on Tuesday, Feb. 13, the SWAL champion and #2-ranked Fennimore Golden Eagles blocked Darlington/Black Hawk’s path to team state for the third year in a row after defeating the WarBirds by a score of 43-25 in a sectional final dual meet match to advance to the WIAA Team State Tournament for the fourth consecutive season.
    “We were hoping the finals would have gone different. We knew where we had to win and where we had to compete to keep it close, but it didn’t work out the way we hoped,” said Coach Cole Wunnicke.
    Fennimore won eight of the 14 matches with six pins, a major decision and a decision to get by the WarBirds for the second time this season and the sixth time in the last three years. The Eagles used pins at 106-, 113-, 126-, 138-, 160- and 170-pounds to top the co-op.
    Tyler Mosley posted a 4-0 decision over Aaron Ragels at 182, Brody Milz added a 7-2 decision over Brayden Leffler at 220 and Leif Bredeson pinned Dylan Kehoe in 1:51 at 285 to give the WarBirds a 12-9 lead five matches into the final.
    However, the Eagles answered with back-to-back pins at 106 and 113 to take the lead for good, and then won four of the final seven matches– three by pin and one by major decision– to put the match away.
    “We were only about two matches away from being right in the mix with Fennimore,” stated Wunnicke.
    Paul King posted a 12-4 major decision over T.J. Kennedy at 120, while Kolbe Ubersox pinned Kohl Wardell in 1:17 at 132 and Hunter Bredeson earned a 9-3 win over Nick Blaschke at 152 for the WarBirds’ other wins.
    Darlington/Black Hawk advanced to the finals by defeating Aquinas, 57-15, in the semifinal round after winning 11 of the 14 matches in the dual. Fennimore rolled over Brookwood, 67-6, in the other semifinal match.
    Mosley won by major decision at 182, B. Milz won by pin at 285, King won by pin at 120, Ubersox won by technical fall at 132 and H. Bredeson won by pin at 152 against Aquinas as each went 2-0 on the mats at the sectional.
    Cayden Milz registered a fall at 145, while Karl Seffrood posted an 8-6 decision at 195 and Cody Blosch added a 6-5 decision at 126 against the Blugolds.
    Grady Rielly at 160, Aiden McGuire at 106 and Eric Hocking at 113 earned forfeit wins for the WarBirds in the opener.
    “There are a few guys who are upset right now, but when they look back on what they’ve done this season they’ll be pretty proud of themselves,” Wunnicke remarked.

WIAA DIVISION 3 TEAM SECTIONAL MEET
Championship Match
Fennimore 43, Darlington/Black Hawk 25
Match Results: 170-pounds- Klass dec. Carson Lobdell, D/BH, 7-1; 182- Tyler Mosley, D/BH, dec. Ragels, 4-0; 195- Allen pinned Bailey Schilling, D/BH, 0:38; 220- Brody Milz, D/BH, dec. Leffler, 7-2; 285- Jacob Tuescher, D/BH, pinned Kehoe, 1:51; 106- Lee pinned Aiden McGuire, D/BH, 0:42; 113- Blair pinned Eric Hocking, D/BH, 2:22; 120- Paul King, D/BH, major dec. Kenney, 12-4; 126- Nutter pinned Cody Blosch, D/BH, 2:24; 132- Kolbe Ubersox, D/BH, pinned Wardell, 1:17; 138- Wanek pinned Alexis Cruz, D/BH, 3:48; 145- Blair major dec. Cayden Milz, D/BH, 12-0; 152- Hunter Bredeson, D/BH, dec. Blaschke, 9-3; 160- Fitzgerald pinned Grady Rielly, D/BH, 1:41.

Semifinal Match
Darlington/Black Hawk 57, Aquinas 15
Match Results: 160-pounds- Grady Rielly, D/BH, won by forfeit; 170- Topolski dec. Carson Lobdell, D/BH, 3-2; 182- Tyler Mosley, D/BH, major dec. Riley, 13-2; 195- Karl Seffrood, D/BH, dec. DeGroot, 8-6; 220- Horihan pinned Bailey Schilling, D/BH, 3:37; 285- Brody Milz, D/BH, pinned Langeberg, 1:34; 106- Aiden McGuire, D/BH, won by forfeit; 113- Eric Hocking, D/BH, won by forfeit; 120- Paul King, D/BH, pinned Zhovtis, 3:09; 126- Cody Blosch, D/BH, dec. Haag, 6-5; 132- Kolbe Ubersox, D/BH, tech. fall Flottmeyer, 17-2; 138- Z. DeGroot pinned Alexis Cruz, D/BH, 3:54; 145- Cayden Milz, D/BH, pinned Nott, 0:23; 152- Hunter Bredeson, D/BH, pinned Beck, 0:58.
At Royall HS, on Tuesday, Feb. 13