Going for gold

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: May 7, 2016 - A1

Going for gold

Germantown’s Thielke qualifies for Summer Olympics

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

Trevor Pruett knew when he did it, he was in trouble.

“I poked the lion,” the 2011 West Bend East graduate joked.

The lion? Germantown’s Jesse Thielke, who, as of Friday, is an Olympian.

Thielke went 4-1 in the final Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament on Friday in Istanbul to qualify for this summer’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Thielke, 23, a Germantown graduate, will wrestle at 59 kilograms (130 pounds) in Greco-Roman.

The Rio Olympic Games start Aug. 5 and end Aug. 21.

Thielke joins a celebrated list of Washington County Olympians, including two medalists. That list includes Dennis Hall (Hartford, wrestling), Lynn Roethke (West Bend, judo) and Laurie Finley (nee Fellner), (West Bend, handball).

Hall was a three-time Olympian, while Roethke and Fellner were each twotime qualifiers. Roethke was a silver medalist in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Hall was a silver medalist in the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Because of the time difference, Thielke couldn’t be reached for comment.

“I am super-happy to see Jesse get his weight qualified for the Rio Olympic Games,” U.S. National Greco-Roman coach Matt Lindland said in a statement released by USA Wrestling. “He had a rough start in the Mongolia qualifier, and for him to bounce back and get it done here in Istanbul was fun to watch.”

There are plenty more smiles from the local wrestling community, starting with representatives from the West Bend Wildcats Youth Wrestling Program — a program Thielke once competed with.

“Even though Jesse was a West Bend Wildcat years ago, we are extremely excited as a club to watch him grow and achieve the highest level of wrestling,” said Nate Gish, Wildcats president.

Gish’s son, Kasey, 10, attended one of Thielke’s camps three years ago.

“It’s pretty cool,” Kasey said. “He taught us some real cool moves that he uses in Greco.”

One of those moves was a double-leg takedown. It’s a move Kasey uses frequently, which he estimated helps him win about 80 percent of his matches, including the sixth-place match at the recent state tournament.

“He’s a big role model,” Kasey said.

Pruett was especially thrilled for Thielke, his friend and former teammate with the Wildcats.

“I’m beyond excited,” Pruett said. “It’s an awesome feeling.”

Pruett, who wrestled for the Suns and later at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and a current assistant wrestling coach at UW-La Crosse, faced off against Thielke in the 2011 Travis Wichlacz Wrestling Invitational in West Bend.

Thielke went 185-1 and won four state titles at Germantown. He didn’t get tested often in high school matches and opposing coaches tried to avoid him whenever possible.

Pruett couldn’t avoid him. He didn’t want to.

“I knew he was going to come after me,” Pruett said. “So I said, ‘What the hell? Why not wrestle with him?’” Thielke didn’t expect it, but Pruett took down Thielke, something rarely done.

“I was lucky enough to score a point against him,” Pruett said.

And Pruett paid for it.

“He pinned me about 30 seconds later,” he said.

After they shook hands, Thielke leaned closer to Pruett and made a request.

“‘Please don’t put this on Facebook,’” Pruett recalled the eventual Olympian telling him.

“He’s a great guy,” he added. “He’s a guy that I have no problem rooting for.”

When Pruett learned Thielke qualified for the Olympics, he was elated.

“Jesse embodies the definition of wrestling,” Pruett said. “You can beat me one day. ... He’ll come back fighting tooth and nail. It doesn’t matter how you did before against me.”

Thielke won the U.S. Olympic Trials tournament April 9 in Iowa City, Iowa. However, his weight class hadn’t qualified for the Olympics so he had to compete in a qualifying tournament April 22-24 in Mongolia.

Thielke didn’t finish in the top three at the tournament, which would’ve qualified him for the Olympics. So, given a last chance, Thielke didn’t waste it. He didn’t flinch at the competition, either.

Thielke’s first opponent was Hungary’s Peter Modos, the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist. Thielke won by technical fall, 8-0. Then he beat Georgia’s Revaz Lashkhi, 13-6, and Sweden’s Frunze Harutyunyan.

Against Harutyunyan, Thielke trailed 4-2 before pinning him.

In the semifinal, Thielke defeated Moldova’s Donior Islamov, the 2012 World University Games gold medalist and 2014 bronze medalist, in a tech fall, 17-8, to clinch his spot at Rio.

Pruett wasn’t at all shocked that Thielke bounced back the way that he did.

“He just makes it look natural,” Pruett said. “He looks like water, flows so effortlessly. He knows what he’s doing.”

Thielke lost the goldmedal match to six-time world champion and reigning Olympic gold medalist Hamid Soryan of Iran, 8-0.

The first thought that ran through Pruett’s mind upon hearing Thielke’s achievement?

“I wrestled that guy in high school and youth,” Pruett said. “I was elated and proud. He’s one of the guys that I call my extended family through the sport.”

A battle for par

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: May 5, 2016

A battle for par

West’s Rohlinger is low medalist

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

TOWN OF HARTFORD — At first, West Bend West’s Max Rohlinger hit into the wind. Then he hit downwind. Going from one direction to the other frustrated the junior.

He either overestimated the wind or underestimated it.

Then, after sticking his second shot on the par-4 294-yard No. 8 about 12 feet from the pin, Rohlinger gently rolled a right-to-left breaking putt for a birdie.

From there, he found a groove.

Rohlinger shot an even-par 36 to take low-medalist honors in Wednesday’s Wisconsin Little Ten Conference mini-meet at Washington County Golf Course.

“I was happy with how I played,” Rohlinger said.

Beaver Dam took first with 162 and Oconomowoc was second with 166. West finished third with 168, followed by Hartford Union (170), West Bend East (174), Slinger (175) and Watertown (184).

“The conditions were a little windy, so you figured scores would be up a little bit,” West coach John Minz said. “The first two guys did their job. They came in with great scores.

“Our next three guys have to see where they can find a stroke here and there.”

Kevin Albrecht shot a 41 for West from the No. 2-spot.

For West, the day was a hit in its quest for a second straight WLT championship.

Going into Wednesday’s meet, the Golden Beavers led the Spartans by one point (10-11) in the standings. After Wednesday’s round, the Golden Beavers hold a three-point edge on the Spartans (11-14) with two nine-hole matches to go.

The May 18 conference championship meet at Horicon Hills is worth double points and the team with the fewest points at the end of the tournament wins the conference championship.

West isn’t ready to relinquish the title.

“We’re at the point where we’ve got to try to put up some numbers in order to see if we can’t get the conference championship again,” Minz said.

Washington County Golf Course is one of the toughest courses WLT teams play on throughout the season. Factor in the wind, and the course’s difficulty only goes up.

However, several scores showed otherwise. There were five sub-40 rounds and 15 birdies by the players — eight on the par-5 494-yard No. 3. Rohlinger had three birdies in his round, all on a five-hole stretch, starting with the par-4 No. 8. He also birdied No. 3.

But the eighth hole set a different tone for his round after he started with a bogey on the par-5 No. 5 and double bogey on the par-3 sixth hole.

“It gave me a lot of confidence with my putting,” Rohlinger said.

This season, Rohlinger believed his ball-striking off the tee and in the fairway has been good. It’s been his game within 100 yards of the pin that has struggled. Specifically, Rohlinger hasn’t felt comfortable with the speed of his putts.

On a pivotal hole in his round however, he got it perfect.

“It was a tough putt,” Rohlinger said.

He thought he left a couple other birdie opportunities out on the course, pointing to his play on No. 9 and No. 1. Still, the 36 tied a seasonlow, something he hadn’t done since the season’s first WLT meet April 12 at New Berlin Hills Golf Course.

Rohlinger’s 36 also broke a tie with him and East’s Devon Hanson in the race for WLT Player of the Year. Hanson, last season’s Player of the Year, shot a 37 on Wednesday.

Hartford was led by Ryan Ruona with a 40 and Slinger was led by Nick Gliniekio with a 42.

To get the putting down Wednesday was big for Rohlinger because he knows it’s the weakest part of his game. He believes it’s getting better.

Unfortunately for the Spartans, they’ve struggled of late on the greens.

After taking first twice and second twice in the first four WLT meets of the season, the Spartans have taken fifth and third since.

“The best we can do is try to manage the bad days, make them average days instead of bad days,” Minz said. “We’ve been rotating guys.

“We’ve got to regroup and get our games back in order. We’ve been a little sloppy around the greens.”

Majeski keeps momentum on race track

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: May 3, 2016

Majeski keeps momentum on race track

Ty Majeski figured out the best way to not lose momentum: don’t stop what you’re doing.

The 21-year-old Seymour native won Sunday’s ARCA Midwest Tour Joe Shear Classic at Madison International Speedway in Oregon only continuing what he did in 2015.

Since the start of the 2015 season, including Sunday, Majeski has won 25 features in his last 67 starts or an average of one victory every 2.68 races.

“We had a really good car throughout practice and qualifying,” Majeski said. “We set fast time and got inverted to start 12th.

“My lane on the outside went in the beginning of the race. I was able to get up to sixth or seventh. Then the bottom line went and I was able to pick up a couple more spots. Ten laps in I was already in fourth.”

Majeski took the lead on lap 32 and remained there the rest of the way. Johnny Sauter, who won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in February at Daytona and won last year’s Joe Shear Classic, finished second. Dennis Prunty, a three-time track champion at Slinger Super Speedway, was third.

West Bend’s Duke Long was 21st.

“Madison has not been good to me,” said Prunty, who led the first 31 laps of the 100-lap feature. “I’ve not finished that well there ever so a third place, our best finish, I feel real good about it.”

The race honored the late 1974 Slinger super late model and four-time Slinger Nationals champion Joe Shear. He won the Slinger Nationals in 1987, 1990, 1991 and 1993. It was the first time Majeski won the Joe Shear Classic.

“It’s really cool,” Majeski said. “He’s a legend around here. One of the best ever short-track racers in history and certainly in the Midwest.

“We’ve struggled in this race this last couple of years, so it was really cool to flex our muscle a little bit and improve on where we’ve been running.” Sauter started the feature from last place — 24th. He was in fifth by lap 41 and second on lap 69. “He’s where he is for a reason,” Majeski said of Sauter. “He is obviously a great race car driver. When he shows up to the track in a super late model, he’s obviously always going to be one to beat, always has been and always will be.”

Majeski is making that case for himself as arguably the hottest short-track driver in the state.

That argument can go beyond the state lines. Of Majeski’s six victories, four were out of state — three at Speedweeks in Florida and the Rattler 250 in Alabama.

Last season, he won the Governor’s Cup in Florida. He also broke the track record at the famed Snowball Derby at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida near Daytona Beach. He finished third in the feature.

Majeski started competing in a super late model in 2012. In 2013, he won his first career super late model race May 18, 2013, at La Crosse.

Then he won three races on Oktoberfest weekend, also at La Crosse.

His run picked up speed in 2014 when he won five features in 35 starts and won the ARCA Midwest Tour championship as a rookie.

Then he took off in 2015 and has been the driver to beat for the last 15 months.

“It’s kind of funny, the season never really ended for us,” Majeski said. “We raced once a month during the ‘offseason.’ The season never really ended. I feel like it wasn’t such a bad thing. “We had such good momentum going all throughout the year and it never kind of ended. To me, it doesn’t feel like a new season. It feels like 2015 never ended.”

Majeski didn’t think about slowing down for two reasons. One, he didn’t want to ruin a good thing, and, two, he knew the proverbial target gets bigger with each victory so he has to stay sharp.

“We can’t ever think we’re the best,” Majeski said. “We have to keep getting better.”

'I always say, ’Once you think you’re on top, that’s when you get passed,’' he added.

He plans to compete in this summer’s 37th Slinger Nationals on July 19. He finished fourth last year.

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Locals crack top-5 at Spring Fling

Richfield’s Josh Bilicki finished third in the Spec Miata division Saturday at the Spring Fling at the Farm, held at Blackhawk Farms Raceway, a 1.95-mile road course in Rockton, Illinois, while Hubertus’ Greg Gauper was fifth in the HProduction division Sunday. Also on Saturday, Erin’s Dave Yahn was 18th in Spec Race Ford and Gauper was 13th in HProduction.

On Sunday, Hubertus’ Mike Reupert finished sixth in Prototype 2.

Reupert was 15th on Saturday after qualifying third. He qualified fourth Sunday. Bilicki finished 29th and Yahn was 18th in their respective divisions.

❑

Oshkosh SpeedZone asking for fans help

Oshkosh SpeedZone posted a notice on its website Saturday called “Save The Race Track.”

It is a petition in hopes of delaying the Winnebago County Parks Department’s desire to close the track after this season and demolish it in favor of a concert hall for Lifest, a Christian rock festival held annually in Oshkosh.

“Larry (Stratton) and Jeff (Lemiesz) have tried to work with the county parks director, but have come to a dead end,” the website says. “The cost of operations and the $7,000 increase in rent the county is insisting on would not make business sense to continue. The county parks director, Rob Way, feels that racing is dying and feels that it has to change direction for the future of the Sunnyview Expo Center and Winnebago County.” According to the website, the goal is to get 5,000 signatures “before anything goes to the county board.”

As of Monday, there were nearly 2,000 online signatures.

The track’s season started Friday with Steve Schneider (IMCA modified), Travis Van Straten (IMCA stock cars), Tom Schneider (IMCA sport modified), Steve Gawaresky (street stock), Larry Richards (grand national) and Chris Maas (dirt devil) getting the 'A' main feature victories.

COLUMN: 8-year plan needs a long look

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: April 30, 2016

8-year plan needs a long look

Are you tired of conference realignment? If you are, you’re not the only one, which is why it is time to look at the eight-year realignment idea.

What is the eight-year realignment idea?

It is an idea that was presented by Deb Hauser of the WIAA’s executive staff Sept. 9, 2014, at an area meeting at Oconomowoc High School.

The idea came up as schools from throughout the state continued to request conference realignment. At that 2014 meeting, she estimated about one-third of the more than 500 schools within the WIAA membership requested conference realignment. Locally, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, West Bend East and West Bend West fit that statistic.

On April 19, the WIAA’s Board of Control voted to approve the conference realignment affecting most of southeastern Wisconsin, including East, West, Hartford Union, Slinger and Germantown.

Barring any more challenges, it will go into effect in fall 2017, making it the second mass conference realignment plan to go into place in three years.

The reasons for realignment request are varied, but they all seem to circle around three factors: enrollment or demographics and competitiveness.

There are cries for a concrete process, rather than a school representative standing up at a meeting and requesting realignment.

“Many schools that appealed, they said the process is flawed,” Hartford Union Athletic Director Scott Helms told the Daily News on April 19. “They’d like to see some changes.”

The eight-year realignment plan is the solution.

Hauser said the reason for eight years is it gives communities a chance to cycle through any dips in population and/or enrollment. Plus, it’s a larger sample size to evaluate trends in competitiveness and the ability to field teams.

But the most important aspect here is it sets in stone a procedure. And from what I’ve heard and read, that’s what athletic directors and administrators want.

That way we know every eight years, we’ll have realignment, rather than it be a yearly conflict between school administrators.

The one thing that continues to stick out at me is how the WIAA membership overwhelmingly denied the opportunity to align themselves at the 2014 WIAA annual meeting. Then, those same schools complain about the WIAA not doing what’s best for the members.

Something else to keep in mind that I think nobody is considering.

If you saw what some area student-athletes said about conference realignment and enrollment multipliers or whatever you want to call them, they don’t care who they play.

Living Word Lutheran’s Jacob Bolwerk said, “You just go out and play.”

If we don’t explore the eight-year realignment idea, maybe we should start getting the student-athletes involved in this.

What do they think?

Either way, it’s time to take a serious look at the eight-year realignment idea because, frankly, if we don’t, this will be an ongoing cycle year in and year out.