The Friday night tournament in Port Washington is back. The Duffy returns and like always it brings a very competitive field and a Friday night finals that will be filled with head to head ranked matches. Port Washington and Coach Angelo Larosa have done an excellent job to continue to grow the prestige of this tough Friday night tournament. They don’t just sit and let the tournament be stagnant, they continue to bring in new talented teams. You can watch the tournament finals LIVE on the WIwrestle Rokfin page. Keep an eye on socials for an update to when finals will start this evening.
This year 20 teams will square off Friday night. There are few new teams to highlight that are attending the Duffy this year. Let me be the first to say these additions are significant and really add a lot to the quality of this tournament. First is #3 in D3 Aquinas who journeys across the state and Mukwonago who has been a powerhouse program of recent years and always has a formidable squad. Also joining the tournament this year is Homestead. A rising team who made it to D1 team state last season. Also joining is East Troy; they are led by a trio of very talented wrestlers who are each ranked highly in D2. Finally joining is Monona Grove/McFarland who brings 3 more ranked wrestlers.
Other notable teams in the field again this year are returning D2 (now D1) Team State Champions Luxemburg Casco. They won the tournament last year with 200 points but did graduate a lot of seniors from a season ago. Lodi returns and is having a good week so far after knocking of last weeks #3 ranked team in D2 in a dual meet earlier this week. Burlington returns and they have had a solid season thus far. They had several wrestlers make the Husky Invite finals at the start of the season. Expect a few high individual performances from them. Finally we have to mention maybe some would consider a sleeper team, but Oshkosh West returns. They were the team runner ups at The Duffy a season ago. I won’t pick them to win it Friday night, but they will certainly have several contending for a title in deep brackets.
From an individual standpoint there are 46 state ranked wrestlers across all three division. From that 46 ranked wrestlers almost half (21) are ranked in the top 5! 13 of 14 weight classes have at least 2 ranked wrestlers, meaning most of the finals will likely see ranked head to head matchups. 113 is the stand alone weight with only 1 ranked wrestler, #5 in D1 Bryson Busler from Watertown.
Based on the number the two deepest weight classes with the most ranked wrestlers are first at 120 pounds with 7 state ranked wrestlers. It’s headlined by a freshman, #2 in D3 from Aquinas Martez Sheard. However, my sources are telling me Sheard may be out, which means this weight class would be really up for grabs between the remaining 6 wrestlers. The 6 remaining are all ranked between 5 and 10 so it will be a battle! The second deepest weight class will be 138 with 6 state ranked wrestlers. At the top will be #2 Geroge Jones and dropping down from 144 where he is ranked 3rd Edwyn Schroeder. I believe both will make finals and having seen both these guys wrestle several times, the final should be a very exciting bout.
Other notables are at 190 pounds where the top 2 wrestlers in D1 are entered. #1 Owen Sjoberg from Watertown and #2 Guy Frayley from Homestead. Frayley is red hot after winning Cheesehead last weekend as the 10 seed. This could very well be a precursor to the State Finals later this year.
Then in back to back matches (likely) in the 215 pound finals we will see two #1 ranked wrestlers square off. #1 in D1 Garret Kawczynski from hometown Port Washington and #1 in D3 from Aquinas Tyson Martin. These two were both in the Bi State bracket but #1 Blake Thiry defeated Martin in the semis and Kawczynski in the finals. Meaning they have not wrestled each other this year and it will be a good one! Two of the best P4P 215 pounders in the state going at it!
Finally keep an eye on the 132 pound finals. There are only 2 ranked wrestlers in this bracket, but they are both ranked 2nd in the state. In D2 from East Troy it is Brady Collins and in D3 from Aquinas it is Roger Flege. Both state medalists, both ranked 2nd in state, both juniors and both wrestle a style that puts points on the board. This will be a fun one!
The Duffy finals will be live to watch on the WIwrestle Rokfin. Check out our social media (WIwrestle) to get an update of when the finals will be starting. A great Friday night tournament with a lot of talent, and high level matches that will be taking place, you will NOT want to miss these finals!
106 #8 #8 #3 #9
113 #5
120 #2 #9 #5 #7 #8 #6 #10
126 #4 #3
132 #2 #2
138 #2 #5 #3 #9 #12 #11 #11
144 #10 #4 #2
150 #5 #4 #6
157 #9 #11
165 #9 #5 #12
175 #7 #4
190 #2 #7 #1
215: #1 #11 #10 #1
285 #7 #9 #6
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