Owls stay pinned to league title hopes
Slinger perfect in Little Ten
Slinger — The Slinger Owls are one more step closer to an elusive outright Wisconsin Little Ten Conference wrestling dual meet championship.
Slinger, ranked No. 5 in the area, showed its depth and aggressiveness in defeating rival Wisconsin Lutheran, 4619, Thursday night in a conference showdown at Slinger.
The Owls ran their league dual record to 5-0 and their overall record to 12-3 by winning 10 of the 14 matches with five victories coming by pin.
There are three league duals remaining. Slinger faces Beaver Dam at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in yet another big dual in the league. Beaver Dam is 3-0 in the Wisconsin Little Ten and travels to Watertown at 7:15 p.m. Friday.
Slinger hasn’t won an outright Little Ten title — either dual or tournament — since joining the league 10 years ago. Last year, Slinger, Oconomowoc and Wisconsin Lutheran tied for the dual title with 7-1 records and Lutheran won the tournament title.
Slinger coach Chris Graziano said his team knows it is on the verge of something special but didn’t want to look too far ahead.
“We still have three tough duals to go in our league,” said Graziano. “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. (Lutheran) is a good team with a very good coach. I’m happy with how we wrestled tonight.”
Slinger was just too deep and talented for Lutheran, a team that a year ago finished second in Division 2 at the WIAA state team tournament but is now rebuilding with youth.
“We’re awfully young,” said Lutheran coach Darrell Roecker, whose team fell to 1-3 and 6-3. “I knew Slinger was going to be good just based on what they had coming back this year. We battled hard. I’m proud of the kids for that. We’ll get better as we move along.”
All of the highlyranked wrestlers on both teams picked up easy victories. Slinger junior Caleb Ziebell (126), sophomore Hudson Mountjoy (138) and senior Adam Beine (152) all won with pins.
Wisconsin Lutheran junior Lucas Roecker (132) and seniors German Fitzgerald (220) and Brian Corbins (160) also picked up victories. Fitzgerald won by a forfeit and Corbins won by a pin.
Slinger’s other pins came from sophomore Gavin Skinner (106) and junior Logan Stegemeyer (170).
Graziano is pleased with his team’s development this year. The Owls are still young with only five seniors on the roster and an incoming freshman class next year that is as talented as Slinger has ever had.
“We’re going to be a team to watch next year,” Graziano said.
This year, Slinger is already turning heads, and a Division 1 state team tournament berth isn’t out of the question this year with Kaukauna out of the Owls’ sectional.
Graziano was only worried about Lutheran, a team that has been at the top of the Wisconsin Little Ten for several years.
“This was a big one,” Graziano said. “The kids know what’s going on. We’re not taking anything for granted. I’m happy for this team. We’re still pretty young. But we worked hard in the off-season and it’s a really nice group of kids.”