After state run, CL wrestlers showered with awards

The Chisago Lakes Wildcats wrestling team held their awards dinner last Friday, March 22 and celebrated their Class AA consolation championship at the state tournament. They also celebrated the fact that they had seven individual state entrants for the second year in a row.

“We had a lot of accomplishments this year,” said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. “Each of our four seniors – Quade Zupko, Eric Brown, Dan Sargeant and Jonah Westbury – finished with a GPA of 3.4 or higher. Dylan Connell finished sixth at the state tournament and came that close to finishing higher. Quade Zupko was named the North Suburban Conference Most Valuable Wrestler. As far as our team MVP goes, we’ve never had a group of wrestlers that were all so close to getting an award like this. We had wrestlers fighting through injuries, breaking records and leading us to state.” The players chose Joe Virga as MVP. Fredrixon continued, “And winning the consolation championship at state was truly a team performance. We needed every wrestler to perform well to accomplish that feat and they all came through.”

Fun Facts
•Sophomore Dylan Connell is just the tenth wrestler in Chisago Lakes history to place at the state tournament, and the first sophomore to place since Dan Dellwo in 1993. Eight other wrestlers placed once, and Dellwo did it four times. Three Wildcats have now placed in the last four years: Connell, Clay Olson (2010) and Quade Zupko (2012).
•Before this season, the Wildcats had never had a wrestler hit the 40 win mark in one season. Three Wildcats hit that milestone this season: Connell – 45 wins, a school record; Zupko, 44 wins; and Joe Virga, 42 wins.
•Zupko set three team career records (including most wins, 189), made his fourth state tournament appearance and was named the North Suburban Conference’s most Valuable Wrestler. See story in lower left corner of the page.
•Virga is apparently recovering well from the dislocated kneecap he suffered against Perham at the state team competition just a couple of weeks ago. When his first award was announced at the dinner, rather than taking the stairs he leapt onto the stage, eliciting gasps, giggles and applause from the crowd.
•Connell and fellow sophomore Virga each reached 100 career wins this year. Connell finished with exactly 100 wins and Virga ended the season at 111 wins. Two other wrestlers came close to 100: Kyle Schoenecker finished the season at 99 and Mark Sontag ended up at 98. Both will break the 100 mark early next season.
•Freshman Kyle Schoenecker now holds the Wildcat records for wins by a seventh grader (22, tied with Dan Dellwo), wins by an eighth grader (38) and wins by a freshman (39). Schoenecker has already been to the state tournament three times with three years left to go in his high school career.
•Freshman Kyle Merry was on the state tournament roster just like his father Cris Merry, who went to the state tournament with the Wildcat team in 1983. Kyle and Cris are the only father and son duo to accomplish this feat in Wildcat history.
•Senior Dan Sargeant, who is also a Wildcat hockey player, finished with a career record of 2-3, including a pin in the state tournament. He had a big win in sections to help the team get to the state tournament and also helped the Wildcats win the state consolation championship. Sargeant was also named Academic All Conference.

STATE AWARDS
State Team Competition Chisago Lakes Team – 2013 Class AA State Wrestling Team Champions

All Tournament Team – Kyle Schoenecker (113), Joe Virga (170)

Team Roster – Aaron Sistrunk, Solomon Lunde, Kyle Schoenecker, Dylan Connell, AJ Harrington, Dustin Kluge, Nathan Graeve, Mike Bliskowski, Kyle Merry, Quade Zupko, Carson Velaski, Mark Sontag, Sean Hoyt, Joe Virga, Mike Sampson, Ashlund Wellesley, Alec Groschen, Eric Brown, Bill Mechelke, Kevin Schmidt, Dan Sargeant, Jonah Westbury

State Individual Competition Placewinner – Dylan Connell (120) – 6th Place

All State Dylan Connell

State Entrants
Kyle Schoenecker (113), 3rd appearance
Dylan Connell (120), 2nd
Quade Zupko (138), 4th
Mark Sontag (152), 1st
Joe Virga (160), 2nd
Eric Brown (195), 1st
Jonah Westbury (285), 2nd

CONFERENCE AWARDS
Conference Most Valuable Wrestler
Quade Zupko

All Conference
Quade Zupko, Carson Velaski, Kyle Schoenecker, Dylan Connell, Eric Brown, Joe Virga

All Conference Honorable Mention Mark Sontag, Sean Hoyt, Aaron Sistrunk

All Conference Academic Daniel Sargeant

SECTION AWARDS
Coach of the Year – Shawn Frederixon
Assistant Coach of the Year – Craig Zupko

TEAM RECORDS SET
Career Wins – Quade Zupko, 189
Career Pins – Quade Zupko, 88
Career Takedowns – Quade Zupko, 402
Season Wins – Dylan Connell, 45
Season Team Points – Dylan Connell, 265

TEAM AWARDS
Rookie of the Year—Solomon Lunde, Mike Sampson
Most Improved—Carson Velaski
Most Dedicated—Aaron Sistrunk
Mr. Inspirational—Jonah Westbury
Most Valuable Wrestler—Joe Virga

Captain—Quade Zupko
Turkey Toss MVP—Mark Sontag
Mann Award (made it to every practice throughout the season)—Kyle Schoenecker, Dylan Connell, Quade Zupko, Jonah Westbury, Joe Virga, Bill Mechelke

TEAM CATEGORY LEADERS
Wins – Dylan Connell – 45
Team Points – Dylan Connell – 265
Takedowns – Quade Zupko – 105
Pins – Jonah Westbury – 28
Near Falls Combined – Joe Virga – 50
Reversals – Aaron Sistrunk, Joe Virga – 20
Fastest Fall Champ – Jonah Westbury – 7 seconds