SOUTH WAYNE – Belmont/Platteville senior Isaac Wiegel wrestled his way to a third career Black Hawk Wrestling Invitational title, while Darlington/Black Hawk junior Kolbe Ubersox repeated as champion in the 138-pound weight class to help the host WarBirds finish in second-place in the team standings at the annual season-opening tournament held at Black Hawk High School on Saturday, Dec. 2.
    The WarBirds crowned two champions and had four runner-up finished while placing 15 of their 22 wrestlers among the top seven finishers their respective weight classes to take second at the 14-team event with 197 team points. Lancaster took home the team title with 223 points.
    “I wish we would have won our own tournament, but Lancaster has a pretty solid team throughout their line-up. Our guys wrestled well. They did everything we asked of them,” said Darlington/Black Hawk head coach Cole Wunnicke. “I knew it would be tough getting our energy up after Friday’s (dual meet) victory over Mineral Point. The guys gave it their all.”
    The Braves placed eight of their nine wrestlers among the top eight to finish seventh with 95 points.
    “I feel that for our first competition we wrestled okay. We had moments when I thought we were wrestling really well, and we had moments where we did not look as good.  We did have eight of our nine wrestlers who went on to place, however, I would have liked to see a few of our wrestlers place a little higher,” said Belmont/Platteville head coach Andrew Campbell.
    Wiegel, who won the 106 title as a freshman and the 113 title as a junior, bumped up to the 126-pound class this season and won his third crown with a 10-3 decision over WarBirds’ senior Paul King in the championship match.
    K. Ubersox used a pair of first-period pins and a technical fall decision in the semifinal round to make the finals at 138 for the second year in a row, and then secured his second consecutive title in the class with a 14-3 major decision over Richland Center’s Warrick Wolf.    
    Senior Brody Milz joined Ubersox atop the awards stand after going 4-0 on the day with two pins to win the 220-pound class. In the finals, B. Milz was paired against WarBird teammate senior Connor McGowan, but won the title by way of injury default. McGowan went 3-1 with two pins on his way to a second-place finish.
    Senior Grady Rielly at 145 and sophomore Cayden Milz at 152 each went 3-1 on the day to join King and McGowan as second-place finishers for the WarBirds.
    Senior Lance Ubersox placed third at 170 after going a 3-1 with three pins, while sophomore Cody Blosch was fourth at 132 with a 2-2 mark, and sophomore Eric Hocking placed fifth at 120.
    Sixth for the WarBirds went to freshman Aiden McGuire at 106, senior Tyler Mosley at 160 and sophomore Leif Bredeson at 285. Sevenths were secured by junior Hunter Bredeson at 160, sophomore Carson Lobdell at 182 and sophomore Bailey Schilling at 195.
    “Once we get used to our success on Friday nights, I’ll think we’ll be able to carry it over into our tournaments on Saturday. If we can do that, then I think we are in for a great season,” commented Wunnicke. 
    Sophomore Tristen Gilbertson finished third at 106 for the Braves. Freshman Riley Christensen at 182 and sophomore Will Schaefer at 195 added fifth-place finishes, while senior Joshua Taber placed sixth at 170, and sophomore Christopher Spoor at 220, freshman Michael Douglas at 285 and junior Trevor Heim at 145 all placed eighth for the Braves.
    “I was pleased with our resilience and our fight during the day. We suffered some bad losses at bad times in the tournament. However, every time we lost we were able to learn from our mistakes, regroup and come back stronger in our next match. If we can continue to learn from and reduce the number of mistakes we make, we will be just fine,” added Campbell.
    Next up for Belmont/Platteville is a tournament at Sun Prairie on Saturday, Dec. 9, starting at 9 a.m.

BLACK HAWK INVITATIONAL
Team Standings: Lancaster 223, Darlington/Black Hawk 197, Dodgeville 139.5, Pecatonica/Argyle 126, Richland Center 126, Mount Horeb 119, Belmont/Platteville 95, Cuba City/Southwestern/Benton 92, Brodhead/Juda 89.5, Sugar River 84, Parkview 66, River Ridge/Cassville 49, Madison Memorial 29, Durand/Pec Ill. 26.

Darlington/Black Hawk Individual Results: 106-pounds- 6- Aiden McGuire, 2-2; 120- 5- Eric Hocking, 0-4; 126- 2- Paul King, 3-1; 132- 4- Cody Blosch, 2-2; 138- 1- Kolbe Ubersox, 4-0; 145- 2- Grady Reilly, 3-1; 152- 2- Cayden Milz, 3-1; Dylan Zasada, 1-2; 160- 6- Tyler Mosley, 3-2; 7- Hunter Bredeson, 3-2; Curtis Blosch, 1-2; Jared Vosberg, 1-2;  170- 3- Lance Ubersox, 3-1; Thomas Wessel, 1-2; 182- 7- Carson Lobdell, 3-2; 195- 7- Bailey Schilling, 3-2; Karl Seffrood, 1-2; 220- 1- Brody Milz, 4-0; 2- Connor McGowan, 3-1; Matt King, 0-2; 285- 6- Leif Bredeson, 3-2; Mario Trujillo, 1-2.
 
Belmont/Platteville Individual Results: 106-pounds- 3- Tristian Gilbertson, 3-1; 126- 1- Isaac Wiegel, 4-0; 138- Brady Johnson, 0-2; 145- 8- Trevor Heim, 0-3; 170- 6- Joshua Taber, 3-2; 182- 5- Riley Christensen, 4-1; 195- 5- William Schaefer, 4-1; 220- 8- Christopher Spoor, 2-2; 285- 8- Michael Douglas, 2-3.