This story is sponsored by Dental Clinic of Marshfield
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Last year, Justin Sternweis walked away from the WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament without a medal. He made it his mission to make sure that doesn’t happen again in his senior season.
Sternweis will get his shot beginning Thursday at the 2012 edition of the state tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Sternweis, who is 41-1 with 22 pins, will take on Adair Ebright (40-7) of Baraboo in a 182-pound first-round match on Thursday afternoon.
His teammate, freshman Mitch Hertel (33-10) will hit the mat first, battling Alex Kueck (34-5) of Neenah in a 132-pound first-round match.
Sternweis lost a consolation bracket match by one point to end his season last year at the state meet and he has been fired up since.
“That definitely got me going,” Sternweis said. “One of my goals this year was to place at state and placing means a medal.
“There are a lot of good kids are on my side of the bracket, it’s going to be a fight to the finals and a fight to advance, but if you’re going to be the best you have to prove it.”
Sternweis said since his only loss of the season at the Bi-State Tournament in La Crosse at the end of December he has been able to relax and wrestle his game.
“At first I tried sticking with some not-so-dangerous shots at the beginning of the season, but once I lost, I had to pick it up,” Sternweis said. “It was kind of more mental than anything. Once I had the loss, it took the undefeated pressure off and I was able to just wrestle.”
Marshfield coach Don Lang pointed to Sternweis’ will to succeed as one of his biggest plusses.
“He got that taste of the state tournament last year and that definitely motivated him to do some things in the offseason to get him prepared,” Lang said. “Coming into this season he was very hungry and that is one of his assets. He doesn’t get nervous, he doesn’t get worked up, he gets really fired up for his matches and goes out there and takes care of business.”
In his first year on the varsity, Hertel had an up-and-down postseason. The freshman won a title at the Wisconsin Valley Conference Meet, then had to win a fourth-place wrestleback just to qualify for sectionals. At the sectional last week at Eau Claire North, Hertel swept his three matches to earn another individual championship.
Hertel said he has been able to stay confident throughout the run to state.
“I have been keeping my head in the match, keeping my composure and staying smart through the tough matches and winning all the close matches that I can,” Hertel said. “I come in the morning and run two miles. The conditioning gives me confidence that I am in better shape than anyone. Up in the wrestling room I really work on keep on going at them, staying smart and using the moves I do the best.”
Hertel needs to stay aggressive, Lang said, in order to succeed, especially at the state tournament.
“He has to stay aggressive and not pause,” Lang said. “It’s one move after another and if that doesn’t work you move on to the next. We’ve been working with him on that for about a month now because we noticed that in some of the matches he’s lost – his matches are always so close – he’ll take a shot and pauses, or he snaps a guy to the mat and pauses. So we’ve been really working on some techniques to keep away from those pauses and keep the match active.
“On Saturday at the sectional he stayed after guys and that’s what we expect him to do at the state tournament.”
Check back with MarshfieldAreaSports.com for coverage from the WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament in Madison from the first matches on Thursday through the championship matches Saturday evening.