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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Two-for-two for Marshfield’s Mitch Hertel.
The Tigers sophomore will be making his second trip to the WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament, competing in Division 1 at 138 pounds when competition begins Thursday.
Hertel (29-7) will take on Brody Fitzpatrick (34-4), a senior from Burlington, in a 138-pound first-round match at approximately 4 p.m. Thursday at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Hertel battled a concussion midway through the season and had to fight his way back to getting on top of his game for the postseason. He placed second after winning the third-place match and then a second-place wrestleback at last Saturday’s sectional.
“In the beginning of the season I felt a lot more confident than last year, just being a sophomore and not having that weight of a freshman being on you,” Hertel said. “I went out and wrestled my best. The middle of the season came around and I got a concussion and I was out for a little bit, personally, it threw me off a little, but since then it took a lot of little steps, a lot of mental focus, and a lot of hard work to get back on track.”
Marshfield wrestling coach Don Lang said Hertel’s dedication is what has allowed him to make back-to-back trips to state in his first two varsity seasons.
“Mitch is one of those guys that works really hard, not only in practice but out of practice as well,” Lang said. “He comes in every single morning and runs two to three miles on the treadmill. He’s the guy that’s always here.
“It shows his dedication to the sport. I tell these guys throughout the course of the season, ‘How do you get to that point of being a really good wrestler, really consistent? You’ve got to make it part of your lifestyle.’ Mitch has done that and it shows.”
Hertel won his first match at the state meet last year before losing in the quarterfinals and again in the first-round of the consolation bracket. This time around, he said he feels more confident.
“This year I probably won’t have as many butterflies,” Hertel said. “I just have to go out there with a mentality to win and keep on wrestling tough like I can. I’ve just got to wrestle my best, wrestle through every position and wrestle through the whistle. I’ve got to keep the intensity up.”
Lang likes Hertel’s chances to make some noise this weekend.
“I think Mitch can hang with all of these guys and he pretty much controls his own destiny right now,” Lang said. “There are things we’ve got to work on – he’s got to score from the bottom, and some other little things. If Mitch can score from the bottom, he’s tough to beat.”