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Four Regional Champions
Jake Stewart, Eric Schilling, Marc Liechty, Mark Heyn

Picture gallery below article.

The Lake Mills Leader, Thursday February 19, 2004

8 Wrestlers Headed to Sectionals

Both wrestling teams left Saturday's WIAA Division 2 region at Lakeside with smiles on their face but it came with a little disappoinment as well.

Each squad advanced four wresliers to the sectional meet next Saturday in Richland Center, but as always the case, there were a few others the coaches thought could have been moving on.

Lakeside earned four region champions and finished with 195 team points, which was good enough for third place. Lake Mills/JohnsonCreek earned one regional title and three second place finishers while recording 162 team points to take fourth place.

"Four regional champs is great. Last year we only had one so that is step up for our team” said Lakeside coach Jason Nickels. "We talked about focus the last two weeks and you could tell which guys were ready to go on. We were hoping to get a couple more guys to sectionals."

Whitewater won the regional title with 219 points and advanced to the team sectional event.

Lakeside's Jake Stewart, Eric Schilling, Mark Liechty and Mark Heyn all earned gold medals, while Dominic Caminata was the lone L-Cats to win the gold.

Stewart's day at 103 pounds included a bye and a pin of Columbus' Matt Reuter to advance to the finals and then he pinned LM/JC's Steve Hart in 3:27 in the championship match.

" It feels good to be regional champ. I wrestled okay. I was a little disappointed with my match against Reuter," said Stewart. "1 couldn't get anything in on him. He just turned me away."

"Jake is deserving of that," said Nickels. "He has been sick and hurt and had to knock the cobwebs out in the first match and he came out and wrestled like he knew how."

Schilling earned a first round bye and then pinned St. John's Military Academy's Art Argyris in 3:17 to earn a spot in the title match. He needed some extra time, but Schilling won the regional title at 130 pounds with a 6-4 decision over Luther Prep's Phil Scharrer.

"Eric is finally gaining some confidence," said Nickels. "He is a great wrestler. He just needs to believe in himself."

Schilling went up 4-0 after the first period, before Scharrer recorded a take down in the second period and a reversal in the third period to tie match at four. Then with 30 seconds left in the overtime. Schilling took down Scharrer for the win.

"I'm just glad I get to move sectionals. This is what I have working for," said Schilling. "I think I wrestled aggressive but smart."

Liechty advanced to the finals at 189 pounds with a bye and then a 8-2 win over Luther Prep's Ray Peplinski. In the finals, Liechty scored five points in the final period to beat Whitewater's Ryan Kelley.

"I expected Liechty to advance," said Nickels. "The last month of wrestling for Marc has been great. He has been much smarter and much more aggressive."

After a scoreless first period, Keliey escaped in the second period to start the scoring. Liechty fought back with a take down, before Kelley was given a point for stalling by Liechty. In the final period Liechty started in the down position and escaped in less than 20 seconds and quickly took Kelley to the mat. The Whitewater wrestler escaped but Liechty took him down and kept him there for the final 30 seconds to secure the win.

"I think I did pretty good from the neutral position which has been my weak point," said Liechty. "I'm happy because last week I lost to Mitch Tiedeman and this week I took first and he took third."

Heyn had the easy road to the title match of the 215 pound weight class. He was given the No. 1 seed and earned two byes and an automatic slot in the title match. For the second straight week Heyn faced off against Columbus' Ben Reuter in a title bout and Heyn continued his perfect season with another gold medal.

"Heyn's tenacity won it for him. He didn't quit and that is so important | in our sport," said Nickels.

Heyn fell behind 2-0 after the first period. He recorded a reversal in the second period to tie the match, but Reuter quickly reversed the match again to take a 4-2 lead into the final period. Then things looked a little darker for Lakeside when Reuter, who started down, reversed the match in the third period, but with 50 seconds left Heyn i spun Reuter and picked up two reversal points. With his back still against Reuter, Heyn held Renter's back to the mat for the final 50 seconds to earn a three-point near fall and a 7-4 win.

"I don't think I wrestled my best. I would have preferred to have another match," said Heyn.

WARRIOR RESULTS 103- Stewart 3.0, first place, 112- Borck 2-1, 125-Draeger 2-2, 130-E. Schilling 3-0, first place, 135- A.Schilling 2-2, 140- Wilson 1-2, 145- Norstrem 2-2, 152-Hartwig 2-1, 160- Koller 2-2, 171- Rhodes 1-2, 189-Liechty 3-0, first place, 215- Heyn 3-0. first place. 275-Zimmerman 2-1

Page 2, Sec. 2 — WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES — Monday, February 16, 2004
Lakeside Lutheran regional
Ten area wrestlers advance to Richland Center Sectional

By Kevin Wilson of the Daily Times staff LAKE MILLS — Lakeside Lutheran co-wrestling coach Jason Nickels wanted to see how his Warriors matched up with Whitewater and Columbus at their host regional on Saturday. The Warriors didn't quite match up with either team, as Whitewater edged Capitol Conference champion Columbus 249-222 to win the regional title. But Lakeside did prove to be the best of four area teams at the meet. Lakeside Lutheran crowned four individual champions and finished third at its host regional meet with 195.5 points.

Four Warriors advanced to the Richland Center sectional this coming Saturday. "We had our chances to catch Columbus," Nickels said. "We were within 10 points after one round. It was close with (co-coach Jerry Ewings) updating me with the scores. "We had some things fall through, unfortunately, but I was absolutely pleased with the team's effort. We still have a lot of young guys ... 25 of 35 guys are freshmen and sophomores."

Johnson Creek senior Dominic Caminata won his weight class at 171 pounds to lead Lake Mills-Johnson Creek to a fourth place finish at the regional with 162 points. Four L-Cats advanced to sectional competition. Luther Prep junior Jon Scharrer won the 119 title to lead the Phoenix to a fifth place finish at the regional with 147 points. Three Phoenix wrestlers advanced to sectional competition. Jefferson finished last at the seven-team regional and did not advance a wrestler out of the regional. Heyn remains unbeaten

With only three wrestlers in the 215 class. Lakeside Lutheran senior Mark Heyn (31-0) needed just one victory to remain unbeaten and capture his regional title. In a rematch of last week's Capitol Conference tournament final, Heyn beat Columbus senior Ben Reuter once again on a 7- 6 decision. Heyn trailed 6-2 with a minute left, but caught Reuter with a Peterson roll from the bottom to score a takedown and three near fall points. He held his position for 45 seconds to score the one-point victory. "It was a good tough match," Nickels said. "Ben had a good game plan coming in. He used his weight and strength, since Mark's wrestling 30 pounds up against every guy. But Mark caught him with a Peterson roll from the bottom. He had it locked up. He got the hips in, got underneath him and sat out the rest of the period, just sat there for 45 seconds and held him. He waited patiently. He's an extremely smart wrestler. "He tried the same move earlier but got stuffed with it the first four times, but he's a great athlete. He's just tenacious with his move. It doesn't matter how many times he's gotten stopped. He imposes his will."

At 189, senior Marc Liechty (31-5) won a regional title with a bye and two decisions. He beat Luther Prep senior Ray Peplinski 8-2 in the semi- finals, then beat Whitewater's Ryan Kelley 7-3 in the title match. Liechty was prepared to face Columbus senior Mitch Tiedemann in the finals. Tiedemann came into the regional as the top seed after edging Liechty 8-6 at the Capitol tournament last weekend. But Kelley upset Tiedemann 4-3 in the semifinals. "Marc's thinking, "This kid beat Tiedemann and I lost to Tiedemann,'" Nickels said. "But that stuff doesn't bother him. He went out there and wrestled his stuff. He's very calculated. He's always thinking." After a scoreless first period, Liechty spun around twice after Kelley shot to score takedowns that decided the match. "He did a great job controlling the guy when he was on top," Nickels said. "The guy could not get out. He used some great breakdowns to control the man. Kelley was probably tired from wrestling Tiedemann in the semifinals. I felt good for Marc. He deserves it. He's worked plenty hard for this."

At 103, freshman Jake Stewart (19- 8) won his first regional title. After a first round bye, he beat Columbus freshman Matt Reuter 4-2 in the semi- finals, then pinned Lake Mills fresh man Steve Hart in 3 minutes, 27 seconds. "It's his first match back in two weeks from shoulder injury, and Jake did not wrestle his best all in the semi- final," Nickels said. After knocking the cobwebs out, he did well in the finals. That's what we've been waiting for. He's a very good wrestler. Out of our four guys, he's got the toughest road next week, but he's got the best attitude."

At 130, junior Eric Schilling (30-8) won his first regional title. After a ftrst round bye, he pinned St. John's Art Argyris in 3:17, then beat top-seeded Luther Prep senior Phil Scharrer 6-4 in overtime. Schilling had never beaten Scharrer (20-4), but came out on top in the best head-to-head matchup of area wrestlers on the day. Scharrer typically scores a first period takedown and wrestles with the lead, but Schilling forced him to wrestle from behind in this one. Twice, he put Scharrer in bad position on the edge of the mat. The first was ruled out of bounds. The second resulted in a takedown and two-point near fall at the first period buzzer to give Schilling a 4-0 lead. In the second period, Scharrer got his trademark single leg takedown to make it 4-2, then rode Schilling out. In the third period, Scharrer showed some fortitude, tying the match on a reversal with 1:06 left and riding Schilling out again to force overtime. In overtime. Schilling won a thrilling scramble and was awarded the winning takedown. "They're pretty good friends," Nickels said. "They had wrestled before in the past, and Scharrer handled him only because Eric didn't think he was good enough. That's really what the match came down to. He just needs the confidence. I think this was a big boost for him. Last week, Scharrer lost out on a possible conference title and wound up third on tiebreaking criteria at the Parkland tournament. Now, this ... "I felt bad for Phil," Luther Prep wrestling coach Tom Lindloff said. "We looked at a video of it afterwards. In a finals match like this, I think the official has to be sure the guy gets it. I don't think either wrestler had the takedown there. They should have gone back to center mat." "Phil was pretty upset of the outcome of the match," Nickels said. "Eric did not wrestle best match, but he's better conditioned. I knew if Eric could take it six minutes, the longer the match went, the better our chances were, because Eric works so hard in the practice room. I was looking forward to that match going long."

Sophomore Ryan Draeger reached the finals at 125 but lost 9-0. He was defeated 6-0 in the wrestleback. "If he isn't coming off an injury, Ryan easily wins that wrestleback," Nickels said.