Azarian, D'Alie, Otto advance to semifinals

By Journal Times staff

Three Racine County high school wrestlers are two steps away from striking gold at the WIAA state individual wrestling meet.

Waterford seniors Anthony D'Alie and Anthony Azarian, both undefeated this season, and Case senior Jon Otto each won two matches Thursday at the first day of the Division 1 state meet at the Kohl Center in Madison.

All three head to the semifinals in their weight classes and are guaranteed no worse than a fourth-place finish.

The 135-pound D'Alie (36-0) won both his matches in technical falls. He beat Lucas Piper of Wauwatosa East 18-1 (4:23) and Dustin Hoffman of Oak Creek 16-1 (4:37).

"He's a machine right now," Waterford coach Henry Agallar said.

D'Alie won his matches despite not practicing all week to rest a sprained right ankle.

"He felt a little sore, but he's blocking it out," Agallar said. "He was walking on crutches until Wednesday."

At 140 pounds, Azarian (32-0) was just as sharp as D'Alie. He beat Victor Ortiz of Milwaukee Hamilton 15-5, then pinned Rob Graef of Ashwaubenon in only 39 seconds.

"I barely had time to turn my head and he had his guy down and out," Agallar said. "As I have said before, they are the two best in the state if they wrestle the way I know they can."

Wolverines senior Brandon Henderson (32-6) is still alive at 215 pounds, despite losing his only match of the day. Two other Waterford wrestlers, Eric Czaja (152 pounds) and Erv Kehoss (275), lost their first matches and were eliminated from the tournament.

Kehoss (19-11) lost his match to Otto 9-4. Otto (33-3) started slow in his first-round bout against Kehoss, but got back to basics and won.

"He was working on some things that weren't quite getting, but he stuck wih basics and took him down," Eagles coach Mark Petersen said. "He did what had to do to win."

In the second bout, against Jeremy Reider of Appleton North, Otto was the aggressor from the beginning and pinned Reider in 5:21 to reach the semifinals and guarantee himself a state medal.

"He came out real strong in the second match," Petersen said. "He worked inside and was a lot more aggressive."

Tonight, Otto faces Jordan Hein of Wausau West, who came into the meet with the best record (45-1) in the weight class. Otto and Petersen got a look at Hein and have formulated a game plan.

"We saw enough and got enough information so Jon knows what to do against him," Petersen said. "It's going to be a good match."

Junior Jeremy DeMint (189), who was wrestling up a weight class from most of the regular season, was a little tentative and was pinned by senior Brian Tillotson of Tomah in 3:25.

Junior Nick Estep (215), who entered with a 15-16 record, fought well against senior Seth Johnson of Stoughton, but lost a 10-5 decision.

"About halfway through the second period, he stepped up and looked better," Petersen said. "Jeremy stepped up as much as he could. They went out and gave it their best shot."

Meanwhile, it was a difficult night for Horlick.

Lane Olson and Xavier Marquez both lost in the first round and Steve Sanchez lost in the second round. Olson is through for the season because his opponent went on to lose, but Sanchez and Marquez both will wrestle consolation matches today.

"You always hope for a little more, but up here, everybodty is good,'' Horlick coach Jerry Kupper said. "I'm proud of the kids.'' Sanchez (28-10) opened with an 8-4 victory over Aaron Seigl of Sauk Prairie at 130 pounds. He then lost to Wausau East's Elijah Thao 4-0 in a second-round match.

"Both had similar styles of wrestling,'' Kupper said. "Elijah took him down twice and that was it.'' Marquez (31-5) lost to Eddie Hanson of Sparta 7-3 at 189 pounds. With the match tied 2-2 going into the third period, Hanson went on to take down Marquez and put him on his back.

Olson (30-2), who had won 10 straight matches, lost to Joe Budi of Kaukauna 5-2.

"The kid took him out of his style,'' Kupper said of Budi. "The kid did a good job of blocking off Lane and doing what he had to do to win.'' Park 275-pounder Ryan Brown was pinned by Jake Fritz of Wisconsin Lutheran in 5:21 and was eliminated from the tournament.