Daniel Schoettler photo
Chesney Bartoszek became Wrightstown’s first ever girls medalist at the state meet in Madison last weekend. She took sixth in the 132 lbs bracket of the tournament.
By Daniel Schoettler
Reporter
MADISON – Chesney Bartoszek made history for the Wrightstown wrestling program at the individual state meet at the Kohl Center. Bartoszek became the first ever girls medalist for the program with a sixth place finish in the 132 lbs bracket at last week’s meet.
“It really means so much,” Bartoszek said. “I am just beyond happy since I’ve been wrestling at Wrightstown as a little girl. I’ve been wanting to be the first girl to make it to state and be a medalist, and to finally reach that is truly rewarding. With that I truly hope the other Wrightstown girls see that and strive for the same achievements as I’ve been working for so they get up on that board alongside me and Brooke.”
Bartoszek started the state meet with a pin in 1:42 against Ashland’s Matilda Burns before taking a 9-0 major decision loss to Menasha’s Lillie Banks. Bartoszek bounced back with a pin in 2:02 against Sparta’s Veda Lepley and a 12-7 win by decision against New Berlin West/Eisenhower’s Amelai Poplawski before taking a 7-4 loss by decision against Freedom’s Stella Pettitt in her final match.
“I think overall it was a really fun experience, even though I may have fallen short of my goals I truly am just really appreciative of the opportunity to be there and wrestle my hardest,” Bartoszek said of her experience at state.
Head coach Matt Verbeten was proud of Bartoszek’s effort after she fought her way back after losing in the quarterfinals to the No.1 seed in her bracket.
“She just did an outstanding job,” he added. “She ran out of gas against the Freedom girl, which was a good quality opponent. Chesney is just go-go-go and she is going to keep attacking, and that got her that time as Freedom was able to attack on that. She wrestled the way she wanted to, and she has nothing she should be ashamed of. She should be proud of how she wrestled.”
Verbeten also added that he was proud of Wrightstown’s four representatives at state.
“You bring four kids down and get three kids to medal, you have to be proud of that,” Verbeten said. “Everybody won at least two matches, and we had a third, fifth and a sixth. That is pretty darn good. I am proud of how our kids battled as they kept coming back, scoring points, and they did stuff the Wrightstown way.”
Louis Hock took third for the boys in the 144 lbs bracket as he starte with a pin against Campbellsport’s Gavin Pickering (1:43) before getting a 15-0 tech fall win over Whitewater’s Connor Friend. After a 19-4 tech fall loss to Dodgeville’s Hakkon Peterson, Hock won his third place match against Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Ben Miller by a 5-0 decision.
“It was a great experience as it was my first time going down there,” Hock said. “I battled it all out there. Overall, it was a good year.”
Hock’s loss came up against a nationally ranked wrestler in Peterson.
“He was a very tough kid and I had never wrestled anyone like him,” the senior added. “He was very technical and fast, and he was on a different level. I gave it a good scrap.”
Verbeten added that Hock wrestled as good as anyone in the tournament.
“The (Peterson) kid’s dad said that Louis wrestled him as good as anyone has wrestled him this year,” Verbeten said. “Louis just kept coming back and wrestling. He has wrestled better as the year has gone on.”
Easton Felchin took fifth in the 113 lbs bracket as he started his state tournament with a 17-2 tech fall win over Campbellsport’s Jacob Allickson before taking a 8-6 loss by decision against St. Croix Falls’ Kaiden Hahn. He ended his state tournament on a three match win streak as he had a pin against Mosinee’s Kory Resheske (2:00), a tech fall win over Delavan-Darien’s Kevin Vaughn (21-4), and a 10-9 win by decision against Coleman’s Bently Nowak.
“I thought it was pretty good and I thought I wrestled good,” Felchin added. “I had a tough loss in the quarterfinals, but it was definitely a fun experience and I enjoyed it a lot. Even though I lost my quarterfinal match, that match I just wrestled good. It was a good kid and a No. 2 seed. The outcome isn’t what I wanted, but it was good and I wasn’t mad at myself for anything.”
Felchin had goals set before the season and says that he had three of them, but he only got two of them accomplished.
“Chasing that third goal for next year. Those goals might go up and make it a little bit more difficult,” the sophomore added. “Maybe work harder to get those goals.”
Brooke Hansen went 2-2 in the 152 lbs bracket as she took a 4-3 loss by decision against Belmont/Platteville’s Jaycie Davis in her first match before getting pins against Waterloo’s Michaela Lewellin (2:55) and Madison La Follette’s Likia Hodges (3:57). In the consolation semifinals, Hansen suffered a loss by fall in 2:26 against Slinger’s Brianna Gehring.
“I think I did pretty well,” Hansen added. “It was a great experience, and getting to experience it with another female teammate and getting to experience it on the other side was an amazing experience. My favorite match was probably going up against Michaela Lewellin. I have beat her in the past, but it took a long time to pin her and the pin earlier was pretty great. Losing in the blood rounds is definitely going to give me motivation to train harder to get to be a medalist next year. Being the only one that didn’t medal was a little hard.”
Verbeten said that this year’s group was one of the hardest working groups he has had.
“They worked hard when they really needed to and they had fun when we wanted to,” he added. “We worked hard when we needed to. It is a great bunch of kids. I think some of the young ones are learning a lot from watching some of these kids. Some of them made some big strides this year. Next year, I think we will be looking for even more with a big eighth grade group coming in and every one of the girls being back.”