Strong veterans boost Muskego grapplers

Muskego - Defending WIAA Division 1 state champions Jordan Gruettner and Roland Dunlap, along with fellow state qualifiers Austin Quartullo and Justin Scherkenbach, provide a solid corps of veterans for this season's Muskego wrestling team.

The challenge for co-coaches Sean Fortmann and Ted Price is to develop the rest of the lineup around the Warriors standouts.

Muskego opened the season by downing Racine Horlick, 50-30, in a Southeast Conference dual on Dec. 1, then splitting four duals in the Oconomowoc Invitational on Saturday. The Warriors beat Janesville Craig, 47-33, and Baraboo, 45-33, and fell to Oconomowoc, 38-35, and champion Wilmot, 42-35.

"We learned that we are going to struggle as a dual-meet team," Fortmann said. "We have a lot of young and inexperienced wrestlers in our lineup. They are going to have to learn on the fly here if we are going to have success as a team. Obviously, we have some excellent wrestlers in our lineup but you don't win dual meets with four or five guys."

All four state qualifiers won their matches in the Southeast dual against Horlick last week: senior Gruettner at the newly-created 220-pound spot (forfeit), senior Dunlap at 195 (forfeit), sophomore Quartullo at 113 (pin in 31 seconds) and senior Scherkenbach at 132 (pin in 2 minutes, 28 seconds).

The other Muskego winners were senior Eric Luedtke at 152 (pin in 4:41), senior Zach Zingale at 160 (pin in 49 seconds), senior Chris Jankowski at 182 (pin in 1:04), senior Jamie Edelbeck at heavyweight (forfeit) and sophomore Connor Price at 138 (9-8 decision).

Other wrestlers were senior Joe Sidello (145), junior Zach Wargolet (170), freshman Derek Dotzler (106), freshman Cameron Rygiewicz (120) and freshmen Riley Wikel (126).

"The good thing is that it's the beginning of the season and our team has a positive attitude and wants to get better," Fortmann said. "We realize that the season is a marathon and that we are slowly going to get better as this season progresses."

Muskego next travels to Bay Port for an invitational on Saturday, then has another SEC dual on Dec. 15 at Racine Park.