Coin flip keys Random Lake mat win over CG-Belgium

Every little detail matters in tight wrestling matches, and that includes ones over which teams have no control.

Defending Big East Conference title holder Cedar Grove-Belgium High School experienced that the hard way at home last Thursday in a 39-30 loss to Random Lake in a battle for the top seed heading into the league tournament.

“Coin flip. That’s why they won,” coach Trevor Peterson said. “They’re not the better team. The coin flip won that dual, 100%.”

The Rockets lost the pre-match coin flip that determines who sends out wrestlers first at either even or odd weights, allowing the opponent to match up accordingly.

“They put their guys right where they got to put them because of the coin flip. That’s your nine-point difference right there,” Peterson said.

With three matches to go, the Rockets were down, 33-21. The Rams’ Elijah Fassbender’s pin over Vadim Misiura at 285 pounds sealed Random Lake’s win.

The Rams had four pins to the Rockets’ three. Each team forfeited one match.

Rockets Seth Kessen at 126 pounds, Owen Race at 138 and Owen Morgan at 190 each earned pins.

Morgan was tied at 2 with Simon Schwabe after the first period. He chose to ride in the second and pinned Schwabe in 4 minutes, 14 seconds.

“He took me down early but I wasn’t worried because I can ride well,” Morgan said.

Joe Schoeder at 215 pounds beat Michael Upson, 6-1, in a rematch.

“Last time I wrestled him was a couple of weeks ago at Fond du Lac, and I just barely beat him last second, 5-4. So it was nice to come back and kind of widen that gap a little bit. Hopefully at conference I can get the pin,” Schoeder said.

“Joseph had another nice match. We lost a couple of close ones,” Peterson said.

“The guys who didn’t get pinned did their job. It’s just a couple of guys fell short.”

The Rockets host a quadrangular on Thursday, Jan. 25, and compete in a Wisconsin Dells invite on Saturday, Jan. 27, before the Big East Conference tournament on Friday, Feb. 2, at Lakeland University. They come in as the No. 2 seed.

“Now that they’ve got that No. 1 seed, we’ve got to come and wrestle no matter what,” Schoeder said.

“Get revenge now. We still can win but it will be a much harder task now,” Morgan said.

Ozaukee faces tough competition

Ozaukee beat Reedsville, 43-16, and lost to Oostburg, 41-30, in a home triangular last Thursday.

Against Reedsville, Tayten Platner earned an 11-3 major decision over Tristen Verbeten at 144 pounds and Michael Higginbotham beat Lucas Lodel, 12-7, at 138 pounds. The Warriors won six matches via forfeit.

Against Oostburg, Skyler Mills returned from injury and pinned Brayden Grunewald in 31 seconds at 215 pounds. Logan McLarty at 120 beat Blake Lentz, 7-3. Aiden Acevedo at 132 beat Trevor Mentch, 5-3, in a sudden victory. Charlie Steinert returned from injury at 138 pinned Levi DeZoute in 36 seconds and Higginbotham pinned Eli Follen at 144 in 3:03.

At the Herb Tyler Invitational at Sheboygan North on Saturday, the Warriors scored 56.5 points and finished 23rd of 33 teams.

Jovan Lopez (35-4) was fifth at 285 pounds. He pinned three opponents and lost one match via injury default. He won the fifth-place match by pinning Brock Socha (21-10) of Seymour in 1:34. Mills (5-3) at 215 pounds was sixth. He pinned two foes, got pinned once and lost the fifth-place match to Sam Weber (20-11) of Kaukauna, 2-1. Steinert went 3-2 at 132 pounds.

“It was good to get Charlie and Skyler back on the mat in a tournament setting. Both did pretty well for their first bigger days back,” coach Cole Large said.

The Warriors compete in an Oakfield invite on Saturday, Jan. 27.