Deeper Warriors wrestlers ready for tourneys

Muskego - All season, Muskego wrestling co-coach Sean Fortmann has said the Warriors need to develop more depth if they are to reach their full potential as a team.

They appear to be fulfilling his wishes, and at just the right time, as the tournament season begins this week.

They routed Oak Creek, 55-21, on Jan. 26 to finish 6-1 in Southeast Conference dual meets, with their only loss coming to Kenosha Tremper by a 39-33 count in early December.

They also finished third in the Pewaukee Invitational on Saturday with 191 points despite being without unbeaten Jordan Gruettner, who was attending an all-state football banquet.

"We wrestled well this week and are starting to get contributions from all of the wrestlers in our lineup," Fortmann said. "We are going to need to continue to wrestle like that if we want to win the conference tournament."

The SEC tournament will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 4 at Racine Park. If duals are an accurate indicator, the Warriors will likely battle Tremper for the crown.

"It should be a good tournament," Fortmann said.

Even without Gruettner, Muskego captured four first places at Pewaukee on Saturday. The winners were Austin Quartullo at 113 pounds, Justin Scherkenbach at 126, Connor Price at 132 and Roland Dunlap at 195.

Quartullo (32-2) downed Kevin DuVall of Sussex Hamilton, 5-2, in his championship match, while Scherkenbach (33-1) pinned Phil Flegner of Hamilton in 4 minutes, 40 seconds.

Price (27-7) dropped Trevor Greene of Pewaukee, 8-0, in his title match, and Dunlap (33-1) scored a 22-7 technical fall over Brad Miller of Pewaukee.

Taking second were Chris Jankowski at 182 (16-17) and Jamie Edelbeck at heavyweight (15-6). Eric Luedtke was third at 152 and Cameron Rygiewicz fourth at 120.

Ryan Honerlaw took fifth at 160 and sixths were earned by Jeff Whitehouse (106), Tyler Dotzler (138) and Ryan Borton (145).

Winners in the dual against Oak Creek on Jan. 26 were Edelbeck (pin in 1:08), Whitehouse (pin in 1:32), Quartullo (pin in 1:32), Scherkenbach (17-2), Price (12-0), Borton (pin in 3:15), Luedtke (pin in 4:13), Honerlaw (14-2), Dunlap (pin in 1:14) and Gruettner (pin in 52 seconds).