Mesenbrink repeats as state champion
KAUKAUNA - In a year littered with first-time champions, Mitchell Mesenbrink and Braeden Scoles weren’t going to be knocked off the throne.
Mesenbrink and Kewaskum’s Scoles repeated as champions at the WIAA individual state meet on Saturday, part of a day where nine Milwaukee-area wreslers walked away as champions.
Mesenbrink, an Arrowhead junior, won by fall over Cooper Willis of Union Grove in the 152-pound championship match, capping off an undefeated season.
“The thing with the target on the back is I don’t really view it like that,” Mesenbrink said. “Every time I step on the mat, I want to make sure I have fun, I’m scoring points and I don’t really ever see it as a target on my back. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best in the world or in high school, there’s always someone to beat.”
Mesenbrink hasn’t lost since state his freshman year, when he took third place.
Both he and training partner and teammate Jack Ganos won titles for Arrowhead, making it the fourth consecutive year the Warhawks have had multiple state champions.
“We were just talking and we were saying, ‘Do you think anybody went as hard as we did every single day?’” Mesenbrink said. “We went so hard it’s surprising we didn’t get hurt. The work sets us up to be able to do this.”
Scoles, a sophomore at Kewaskum, won by technical fall over Owen Heiser of Evansville for the D2 championship at 160.
Kawczynski delivers title
After third-place finishes at 195 pounds as a sophomore and at 220 last year, Oak Creek senior Ben Kawczynski arrived this year as the top-rated heavyweight and met expectations.
He beat sixth-ranked Nick Kohn of Shawano, 5-1, in the quarterfinals and pinned No. 4 Bryce Fochs of Neenah in 3:06 in the semifinals. Kawcyznski beat No. 2 Griffin Empey, a sophomore from Stoughton, in the final, sealing the win with a third period takedown.
“Riding out was key for me. As soon as I took him down I knew I could ride him out,” the UW-La Crosse recruit said. “I’ve been working on that all season.”
Kawczynski (15-0) is Oak Creek’s first state champion since 1992 and just the second overall.
Ganos wins when it matters most
If anyone can appreciate winning a state title, it’s Arrowhead senior Jack Ganos. As a freshman he finished second at 113 pounds and after a fifth-place finish at 138 in 2019, he lost, 2-0, in the 2020 145-pound final.
This year he put himself in position for the championship by pinning Reedsburg’s
Devin Judd in 33 seconds in the quarterfinals and disposing of Beaver Dam/Wayland Academy’s Gabriel Klatt in the semifinals in 77 seconds.
“I’m familiar with the situation and I just had to relax and have fun,” he said about returning to the final. “That is the biggest change I had to make over the years. I think I put too much pressure on myself.”
The 160 title match went down to the wire before the Air Force recruit scored a late takedown to secure a 3-1 win over Stoughton senior Luke Mechler, the No. 1 ranked competitor in the class.
The two wrestled at the sectional last week and Mechler scored a 5-2 decision in the first-place match.
“Compared to last week I tried to wrestle more,” Ganos said. “I had to wrestle through the different positions where last week I gave up early. This week I tried to wrestle 100% in position and wrestle how I practice.”
Breakthrough for Brookfield East senior
Oak Creek wasn’t the only school that produced a state champion for the second time. Brookfield East’s Connor Thorpe won the 145-pound championship to give the Spartans their second first-place finisher in school history and first since 1996.
Afterward he was understandably pumped, not only for himself but also for Ganos whom he trains with at the Askren Wrestling Academy. Their stories are similar.
While Ganos had two second-place finishes on his résumé, Thorpe was a third-place finisher as a freshman (126 pounds), sophomore (132) and junior (138).
“It was exciting for me to see Jack win as it was for me to win,” he said “We’ve been in this together.”
Considering how hard
it was
for
Thorpe to get over the hump over the years, his tournament run this year was rather uneventful. After beating fourthranked Brett Bock of Wisconsin Rapids, 5-2, in the quarterfinals, he scored a major decision against Mukwonago’s Zach Elizewski in the semifinals and defeated No. 2 Drake Hayward, 7-2, in the final.
He controlled the title match throughout.
“In the beginning we got some scrambles. I know I’m really good from there and he was pretty good from there, too, but I like to test my waters,” Thorpe said. “I tested the waters and it paid off. I knew he had some funky stuff. I had to keep a good stance, but I smelled blood and I took it.”
Bast makes big jump
A year ago, West Bend West’s Ben Bast couldn’t make it past the first match of sectionals. Today he is the second state champion in school history – freshman Connor Mirasola (170) later became the third – and its first since 1993.
Bast didn’t just win state, he finished undefeated and was in command of his final with Hortonville’s Wyatt Skebba from start to finish.
Bast credited non-stop work during the offseason for his improvement, and as a sophomore he’s not done.
“Great things are to come,” he said. “I’m looking forward to (the junior nationals) in Fargo this summer, looking for some big tournaments and then looking forward to next year.”
Mirasola caps big day for West
West Bend West freshman Connor Mirasola lost twice to Brody Hemauer of DeForest over the summer. When he saw that he was matched up with Hemauer once again for the 170-pound championship, Mirasola was chomping at the bit.
Mirasola capped off an unbeaten season with one of the more dramatic victories of the day in Kaukauna, a 5-3 sudden victory thanks to an overtime takedown.
“I don’t really remember the sequence, but I guess I took him down and it felt good to get him back,” Mirasola said. “It’s a good place to get some revenge.”
West, which entered the weekend with just one individual state title alltime, won two between Mirasola and Bast.
With Mirasola’s twin brother, Cole, taking fifth at 182, and joining Connor and Bast as returners next year, the Spartans are looking rather formidable.
“We’re always pushing each other,” Connor said of Cole. “It felt good for us to both be here and be successful. Our workouts can get a little intense sometimes, but it’s fun.”
Slinger gets on the board
Given the amount of quality wrestlers to have come through Slinger in recent years, it was surprising that the Owls had not ever had a state champion.
Junior Noah Tonsor changed that Saturday, winning by 11-5 decision over Elkhorn’s Joey Showalter for the 113pound title.
“It’s really cool,” Tonsor said. “I know we’ve had a lot of guys, at least four or five, be runner-up. We’ve never had a champion, so to finally beat that streak, I’m just lucky.”
Tonsor’s rise to the top required anything but luck, however. After losing in the first round at state last year and not wrestling on the Owls lineup when they made it to team state as a freshman, Tonsor went 21-0 this season. He reached the final with a late takedown in the semis and then was in full control the entirety of the championship bout against Showalter.
“I was up 7-1 at the end of the second, so that gave me a little room so that I didn’t have to work my tail off,” Tonsor said.
Goebel goes out on top
Mukwonago senior Tyler Goebel lost in the state final two years ago and then slid to fifth place in 2020. So when he was one point away from winning the gold with 20 seconds to work with this time around, he wasn’t going to be denied.
Goebel escaped from Waunakee’s Sam Lorenz to take a 3-2 lead and added a takedown, all in the final seconds, to secure a 5-2 decision and the 138-pound title.
The end-of-match situation played perfectly into what Goebel had been working on in recent weeks.
“Last week, I got rode out and then at practice we were discussing better ways to get out from the bottom and I did it with about 10 seconds,” Goebel said. “I needed to get out because I wanted no overtime.”