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Heyn Wins Title at Capitol Conference

CAMBRIDGE — Three area wrestlers earned weight class titles to lead Lake Mills-Johnson Creek and Lakeside Lutheran's wrestling teams at the Capitol Conference tournament on Saturday. Lake Mills senior Chris Hart won a conference title at 135 pounds and Johnson Creek senior Dominic Caminata won his third conference title by winning the 171 title to lead the L- Cats to a sixth place finish overall with 117 points. Lakeside Lutheran senior Mark Heyn remained undefeated at 28-0 by winning the 215 weight class. His title led the Warriors to a fourth place finish with 174 points. Columbus edged Wisconsin Heights 234-232 to win the tournament and the overall season title. Cambridge finished third at the tournament and third overall with 178.5 points at the tournament. Hart (20-8), who has won 20 or more matches the last three seasons, bumped up from 130 after a teammate failed to make weight at 135. He came in as the third seed but dominated his class with three pins. He pinned Waterloo's Pierce Klas in 29 seconds, pinned Wisconsin Heights' Alex Marx at 5:02 of the semifinals, then pinned Waterloo's Willie Powell with a three-quarters nelson at 1:59 of the title match. "He didn't practice all week," Lake Mills-Johnson Creek wrestling coach Mark Ward said. "We thought he dislocated his toe, but it was just a severe sprain. He looked good. He pinned all three kids with three-quarters nelsons. But if you catch them just right and get the shoulder under their ribs, they've got to fold. He predicted he would pin him with a three-quarters, but he didn't tell me because I would have said something different. But he was focused."

Caminata (13-2) also came in as a third seed and walked out a champi- on. He pinned Marshall's Andy Sill- man in 48 seconds, pinned Lakeside senior John Rhodes at 3:36 and beat Columbus senior Cheyenne Larson 4- 1 in the title match. Larson had beaten Caminata in the dual 5-4, but Caminata wasn't in shape yet after coming off a knee injury from football. In the rematch, he scored a quick second period escape and countered an ankle pick for a takedown for a 3-1 lead after two periods. In the third period, he added an escape to win it. "Larson's got this goofy counter ... we have to figure out what to do when he does it, reaches back behind the head. If Dom wasn't strong, he'd have gotten pinned with it. We'll be figuring it out for regionals. And this time, we'll get the No. 1 seed." At 119, Johnson Creek junior Ben Larson (20-7) went 1-1 and finished third. "Ben wasn't focused," Ward said. "He lost to a Heights kid 6-2 in the semis. He got the first takedown but couldn't do anything after that." At 125, Dustin Wegner (12-10) also finished third for the L-Cats. "He wrestled well," Ward said. "He should have beat the Heights kid in semis. That was a close match. We did about exactly like we figured we would, except I figured Ben would be in the finals. I thought we'd have had a few more third places, too."

Lakeside Lutheran rode Heyn's title and second place finishes from Eric Schilling (130), Justin Roller (160) and Marc Liechty (189) to a strong showing at me toumament. Heyn received a first round bye, then pinned Waterloo's Aaron Brunker in the semifinals. In the title match, he beat Columbus' Ben Reuter 17-12

"Mark had a tougher time with Reuter than we expected," Lakesidq Lutheran co-wrestling coach Jason' Nickels said. "There was a lot of rolling around. Mark didn't seem to have his head quite in it, but he came around, figured out what he was doing and took control of the second half of the match. I would expect him to go through regionals undefeated."

Schilling lost to two-time champion Mike Borchardt of Cambridge 9-8 in the title match at 130. "Eric wrestled really well again," Nickels said. "He faced Borchardt just earlier that week in a dual and had a real tough time, but he came in with the right attitude. He knew he could take him down and kept working for takedowns. One time he got stuffed trying to get the takedown at the end of the second and that was the difference. It was an excellent match - well wrestled on both sides. That's something we'll see again next year. They're both juniors."

Liechty lost to two-time champion Mitch Tiedemann of Columbus 8-6. "Those two had a dual close match, but Marc got stuck underneath on a reversal. In this match it came down to the very end. Trailing 8-6, Marc shot in, and it was a judgment call by the ref whether it was a takedown or not, but he had Tiedemann sitting on his butt and was working his way up at the buzzer. "He became much more aggressive as the match went on and gained lot of confidence from it. I expect it to be another regional championship match. Marc knows what he can do to him now."

Koller knocked off Marshall's Justin Powell in the semifinals, then lost to Columbus senior Chad Met.zger in the finals at 160. "Justin's not an excited guy, but he wrestled very smart," Nickels said. "Powell beat him on a decision, but he didn't back down. Powell came out aggressive, but even when Koller was ahead he got a late takedown and just kept coming after him. "Metzger beat him by two earlier. We were hoping that match would be closer. Metzger came out like a ball of fire. He's a great wrestler and a good kid. Koller didn't wrestle his best match, and Metzger had a much easier route to the finals. All of our seniors are excellent wrestlers and tough guys."

Lakeside Lutheran hosts a WIAA Division 2 regional tournament on , Saturday. "This gives our fans one more time to see our guys at home," Nickels said. "I expect a good turnout. I'm excited to see how we stack up against Whitewater and Columbus in the regionals."