By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Five Central Wisconsin Conference schools wrestled in round-robin, dual meets at Amherst High School Saturday, with Weyauwega-Fremont emerging with a 4-0 record. Manawa was next at 3-1, followed by Rosholt at 2-2, Pacelli at 1-3 and host Amherst at 0-4.
Rosholt defeated Amherst, 42-23, and Pacelli, 48-30, while losing, 54-24, to W-F and, 49-23, to Manawa.
Pacelli defeated Amherst, 36-33, and lost, 39-24, to Manawa and, 70-3, to W-F.
Amherst also lost, 72-6, to W-F and, 42-24, to Manawa.
Rosholt coach Alan Carter said the meet provided teams with an idea of the competition they'll face in the conference meet, although injuries and forfeits whittled the competition for some wrestlers.
"We only had six wrestlers," Carter said.
Among his wrestlers, Tom Van De Yacht at 119 and Willie Van De Yacht at 125 went 4-0. Tom had two pins and Willie had one, as they each had some forfeits.
Posting 3-1 records were Casey Giese at 103, Matt Rice at 130, Nathan Budsberg at 140 and Tom Stanislawski at 275. Rice won three of his matches on pins, and dropped a 6-2 decision. "He did an outstanding job," Carter said. Budsberg had two pins and a 16-0 technical fall for his three wins, and Stanislawski had two pins.
"Our team continues to make progress," Carter said. "Our success is making them more hungry, the practices are more focused."
Carter said a couple of Rosholt wrestlers suffered some injuries but he's hopeful they'll be back in the lineup soon. "Our standing in conference is a pleasant surprise," he said. "We knew Weyauwega-Fremont and Manawa would be tough. I'm looking forward to the experience we're gaining wrestling against them."
For Amherst, Jeff Peskie was 4-0 at 130 and Nolan Kayon was 3-1 at 152.
Pacelli was led by Greg Snow at 4-0 in the 152 class and Jamie Klein was 3-1 at 112.
"I don't think that I could've asked for much more out of these kids," said Pacelli coach Jay Yenter. "Due to injury and illness, we only brought 10 kids with us and five of them were freshmen. We still made some freshmen mistakes, but the effort was there. We talked all week about not being able to do anything about the guys that are missing. All we can control is how we wrestle in the matches that we have.
"Even when we were overmatched today, everybody battled. That's all that I ask for from a group this young."
Yenter said Snow rebounded well from a tough loss last week. "He was never in trouble in any of his matches," Yenter said.
"Jamie Klein had a big day for us. He has not wrestled in a match for over three weeks. I wasn't sure how he would do, but he looked fine finishing with a 3-1 record."
Yenter also said Mike Barnett pulled out a big win against Amherst. "Mike was losing the match at the time and recorded a pin. Without that win, we can't win the dual meet," Yenter said.