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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MADISON – In the 74 previous years of the WIAA state individual wrestling tournament, only 14 athletes had ever won four titles.
Eleven on them were on hand Saturday night during the championship matches at the 2018 WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament at the Kohl Center to be honored and help hand out awards to this year’s winners.
Going forward, Stratford’s Jeremy Schoenherr will now be on that list.
The Stratford senior won a major decision over Jake Baldwin of Coleman, 13-5, to win the Division 3 138-pound state title and take his fourth-straight championship.
Schoenherr, who won the 113-pound title as a freshman and the 126-pound crown as a sophomore, repeated at 138 pounds to become the 15th wrestler in state history to accomplish the feat.
“It’s so surreal to think back when I won my freshman year that I’d be standing here talking about winning four times,” Schoenherr said. “Whether I would have won or not, I would have known I would have left it all out there. To be able to look back and know that I gave it everything I had the last four years is going to be great to look back on.”
Schoenherr led 4-2 late in the first period before Baldwin earned a takedown just before the buzzer to tie the match. Schoenherr came out with determination to start the second, earning a three-point nearfall 20 seconds in, and after an escape by Baldwin, he scored the match’s final six points to win going away.
Schoenherr finishes the season 36-0 and went a perfect 53-0 during the past two seasons.
About 10 seconds after Schoenherr won his fourth state title, Ellsworth’s Sam Stuhl became the 16th person to do it, winning the Division 2 138-pound final. Schoenherr was happy to share the spotlight with Stuhl, a teammate of his during the summer on a Wisconsin youth team.
“Sam deserves it more than anyone else does,” said Schoenherr, a University of Wisconsin recruit. “He puts in the work to get there and to see him win it right beside me was awesome. We’ve wrestled during the summer on the state team doing freestyle and Greco. He’s a good friend of mine, we know each other well, and to do it together was pretty sweet.”
Stratford coach Joe Schwabe said Schoenherr’s work ethic is the reason he accomplished what he did.
“I know nobody that works harder than him, in any sport, at any level,” Schwabe said. “We’ll go to school at 6 in the morning, we’ll show up for football practice for our morning lift, and he’s halfway done already. That’s what work is, that’s how you get to the D-1 level.”
Stratford’s A.J. Schoenfuss had a chance to add his name to the list of four-time state champions as well. After winning the 106-pound title as a freshman and taking the 120-pound championship the past two seasons, Schoenfuss matched up with Bonduel’s Jordan Boldt in the 126-pound title match.
In an epic battle that saw both wrestlers on their knees exhausted at every stoppage late in the match, Boldt prevailed in an ultimate tiebreaker, 4-3.
Boldt, who also beat Schoenfuss in the sectional championship match last week, earned a reversal 33 seconds into the third period to take a 2-1 lead before Schoenfuss (45-5) got an escape in the final seconds to force overtime.
After a scoreless first OT period, each escaped the other’s hold in the subsequent two overtime periods to set up the ultimate tiebreaker round. Schoenfuss started in the down position and nearly escaped at the end of the 30-second period, but Boldt held on for the win.
“It’s been a goal, all my career, to win that fourth title and it sucks to come out there and have such a close match and come a little short of a lifetime goal I’ve had,” Schoenfuss said. “I’ll get past it, I’ll move on. One more week of wrestling (at the team state tournament), then it’s on to track and I’ll try to do the best I can there too.
“We pretty much knew each other and our styles are similar. It just didn’t work out right.”
Schwabe knew Schoenfuss left it all on the line.
“For an individual, he’s what a coach would like,” Schwabe said. “He works with the younger kids, he’s polite, he’s diversified, a three-sport athlete, and to accomplish what he’s accomplished is pretty impressive.”
Stratford’s other two championship qualifiers also fell in defeat.
Junior Manny Drexler lost in the finals for the second-straight season as he was pinned by undefeated Ryan Anderson (46-0) of Clear Lake in 1:19 at 106 pounds.
Drexler (42-4) made a move for a takedown midway through the first period, but Anderson dodged it and instead took hold of Drexler, pushed him to the mat, and pinned him with 41 seconds to go in the period.
Sophomore Trevor Dennee, making his first state meet appearance, also ran up against an undefeated opponent in Ryan Neu of Dodgeville in the 170-pound Division 3 final.
Dennee (40-6) couldn’t get much going on the offensive end, falling behind 4-1 after one period. He held off Neu (44-0) in the second period, but a reversal early in the third by Neu put the match out of reach.
Stratford will compete at the 2018 WIAA State Team Wrestling Tournament at the UW Fieldhouse in Madison on March 3 as it shoots for its second-straight Division 3 team title.
2018 WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament
Feb. 22-24, at Kohl Center, Madison
Saturday’s local results
Consolation semifinals
Division 1
170: Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann (41-4), jr., Marshfield, def. Jacob Sklenar (49-5), sr., Pewaukee, 9-2.
182: Nate Crayton (46-6), sr., Burlington, def. Sam Mitchell (45-4), jr., Marshfield, 4-3.
Division 3
120: Max Schwabe (41-10), so., Stratford, def. Jack Severin (45-5), fr., Kewaunee, 6-4.
145: Jake Drexler (45-3), sr., Stratford, pinned Gavin Burch (40-8), sr., Ithaca/Weston, 1:52.
195: Aiden Hoffman (31-6), sr., Stratford, def. Levi Galoff (32-14), fr., Brillion, 9-3.
220: Dylan Schoenherr (48-4), jr., Stratford, def. Jack Horihan (33-6), sr., La Crosse Aquinas, 7-1.
Third-place matches
Division 1
170: Hayden Krein (43-7), sr., Sparta, pinned Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann (41-5), jr., Marshfield, 2:06.
Division 3
120: Max Schwabe (42-10), so., Stratford, def. Javyn Freeman (42-5), jr., Phillips, 12-7.
145: Jake Drexler (46-3), sr., Stratford, pinned Weston Wichman (8-2), sr., Johnson Creek, 0:34.
195: Jacob Geise (44-7), jr., Bonduel, def. Aiden Hoffman (31-7), sr., Stratford, injury default, 2:02.
220: Dylan Schoenherr (49-4), jr., Stratford, pinned Justin Chadwick (52-7), sr., Marshall, 0:51.
Fifth-place match
Division 1
182: Sam Mitchell (46-4), jr., Marshfield, won major dec. over Brooks Empley (31-22), fr., Stoughton, 16-3.
Championship matches
Division 2
220: Hunter Luepke (49-0), sr., Spencer/Columbus, def. Jack Dietzen (42-2), sr., Omro, 9-3.
285: Logan Zschernitz (43-2), jr., Spencer/Columbus, pinned Dan Ausioos (36-4), sr., Oconto Falls, 1:03.
Division 3
106: Ryan Anderson (46-0), sr., Clear Lake, pinned Manny Drexler (42-4), jr., Stratford, 1:19.
126: Jordan Boldt (44-4), sr., Bonduel, def. A.J. Schoenfuss (45-5), sr., Stratford, 4-3, UTB.
138: Jeremy Schoenherr (36-0), sr., Stratford, won major dec. over Jake Baldwin (45-6), jr., Coleman, 13-5.
170: Ryan Neu (44-0), jr., Dodgeland, def. Trevor Dennee (40-6), so., Stratford, 6-2.