Victory School of Wrestling took the Kohl Center by storm with 11 individual champions and 25 placewinners. The WIAA Individual State Wrestling Tournament was held February 25-27 in the Kohl Center on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over 59,000 people watched the three day event.
The highlight of the tournament was Corey Hodowanic’s thrilling double overtime win over two-time returning state champion Justin Mudlaff. Corey secured a takedown with two seconds on the clock in regulation to force overtime. After a scoreless one minute sudden victory period, Corey rode Mudlaff for 30 seconds and escaped from bottom in the second 30 second period. Both wrestlers were completely exhausted, but Corey found the strength to sprint around the mat into the arms of his coaches following his championship.
Brayden Wienke and Joe Raygor both repeated as undefeated state champions at 152 and 171 pounds, respectively. Brayden won a close 3-2 bout with Chad Heise whereas Joe defeated Josh Eastlick in an exciting 3-1 overtime match. Both completed their junior and senior seasons without a loss. Brayden concludes his career with an astonishing 180-8 record. Joe’s career record is 168-9. Both are their school’s only two-time state champions.
Chad Bartschenfeld added his first state title after finishing 3rd a year ago. The junior caps off a 44-2 season. His teammate, Blake Lundgren, just fell short of his goal and finished in 3rd place.
Other athletes who have participated in opportunities at Victory who won state championships were: Bubb Gudis, Dustin McKinney, Isaiah Erickson, Roy Munroe, Kyle Crain, Matt Wyss and Nikola Bogojevic.
Senior Garrett Bonte finished as runner-up for the second consecutive season.
Video interviews are available on www.youtube.com/users/victorywrestling.
