The 71st annual WIAA Individual Wrestling Championship Tournament
WIAA
opens today and runs through Saturday at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Division 1 Preliminaries get underway at 3pm this afternoon, with Division 1 quarterfinals following at 5:15pm. Division 2 and 3 preliminaries get underway at 7:15pm tonight.
There will be champions crowned in 14 weight classes in three divisions. There are 224 qualifiers for the championships in Division 1 and 168 in both Divisions 2 and 3. There are a total of 219 programs represented at this year’s individual championships, including 89 from Division 1, 66 in Division 2 and 64 in Division 3.
Mineral Point has produced the most individual championships with 50. Stoughton and Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln are next with 42, and Milwaukee South wrestlers have won 39 individual titles. Others with significant totals are Luxemburg-Casco with 34, Athens with 32 and Coleman with 29.
A total of 14 wrestlers enter the State Tournament this week undefeated. In division 1, senior Ben Thornton of La Crosse Central (46-0) at 120, senior Jared Scharenbrock of Sun Prairie (47-0) at 152, junior Jordan Gundrum of West Bend East (45-0) at 160, senior Izaak Simar of Kenosha Indian Trail (43-0) and sophomore Beau Breske (48-0) at 170, senior Wesley Schultz of Sun Prairie (43-0) at 182, senior Dallas Wanta of West Allis Hale (44-0) at 220 and senior Hunter Higginbotham of Germantown (43-0) at 285.
In Division 2, those still undefeated heading into the State Tournament are freshman Devin Bahr of West Salem/Bangor (49-0) at 132, senior Justin Dolata of Mauston (30-0) at 170 and senior Luke Destiche of Luxemburg-Casco (41-0) at 220.
The perfect records in Division 3 belong to sophomore Riley Lull of Riverdale (43-0) at 106, junior Cole Martin of Lancaster (20-0) at 132 and sophomore Henry Fielding of Shiocton (38-0) at 182.
There are an additional 49 wrestlers in the meet that have suffered just one defeat this season.