MONROE — The Cheesemakers won their home invitational Jan. 25, outscoring second-place Whitewater 191-173.5. And while winning the team title in the 11-school meet was a positive in and of itself, Monroe coach Tom Witt was more impressed with some of his team’s individual performances.

“It was a great day by everybody,” Witt said. “Ten guys scored points for us; 10 guys placed and we had six champs — that’s pretty good.”

The Cheesemakers had six individual champions out of the 14 weight classes. The last champion of the day was senior heavyweight Bodie Minder, who made a statement throughout the day. Minder, ranked No. 6 in Division 2 in the most recent Wisconsin Wrestling Online poll, knocked off fourth-ranked Troy Leibfried (29-4) by a 7-6 decision in the semifinals and then edged top-ranked Leif Bredeson of Darlington-Black Hawk in the title match in controversial style.

“That’s huge for (Bodie), because he’ll see both of those kids at regionals,” Witt said. 

In the championship, Minder (23-2) picked up a first period takedown to go up 2-0. The scoring move brought cheers from the upper deck bleachers, and a look of dismay on the face of Bredeson.

“That was pretty much the whole match,” Minder said of the importance of the takedown. “If I didn’t have those first two, I would have probably gone for it all and made a mistake and it probably would have cost me. Getting those first two points gave me a bit of a cushion to think about my next move instead of just acting.”

Bredeson (20-3) went up 4-3 and held that lead until late in the third period when Minder got to his feet for an escape to tie the score. Bredeson appeared to take down Minder again in the final 10 seconds, only for Minder to again get back to his feet with just eight seconds left in the match. Minder was awarded a point for the escape, but Bredeson was not awarded points for the takedown.

“The ref might have made a mistake on one of the calls there,” Witt said. “But he (Minder) found a way to win, and that’s a good day.”

Minder, a senior, said his two big wins has given him more confidence moving forward, especially with the postseason just around the corner. 

“I’m in a good spot right now, and this is a blessing to get me prepared for regionals, because both of them are going to be at regionals,” Minder said. “They are both ranked in the state — higher than me, too. 

It makes me feel pretty good about how I’m doing this season, and shows me that I have a lot of work to compete with them. Those matches could go either way.”

Other Cheesemakers joining Minder as individual champions were Alex Witt (30-4) at 182, Patrick Rielly (21-6) at 160, Brady Schuh (14-4) at 126, Garrett Voegeli (24-7) at 113 and Jack Dubach (27-5) at 106.

“Six champions out of 14, that’s a really good day,” Tom Witt said. “There’s some really good kids wrestling here.”

Dubach pinned all three wrestlers he faced on the day, while Voegeli scored a pin in the semifinals and picked up a 10-2 major decision in the championship.

“Jack had a great day and dominated, but he’s not facing some really tough competition right now, which could hurt him coming up here come conference time. He’s just not been pushed at all. His toughest competition since Bi-State (in December) has been Garrett Voegeli in practice,” Tom Witt said. “And Garrett, when I saw the records of the kids, I knew he’d have a good day today.”

Schuh won his quarterfinal match by technical fall, then pinned Whitewater’s Cody Gamble in the semifinals. He scored an injury win after just 27 seconds of action in the championship.

“Brady was the one-seed coming in. In the semifinal match, he was pretty careless with some of the things he did and he’s lucky he didn’t get pinned,” Witt said. “I wish he could have wrestled the finals match.”

Rielly dominated his weight class, winning all three matches via first-period pin. Alex Witt pinned his first opponent, then won a 15-0 tech-fall match against Parkview’s Luke Schwengels, who was ranked in Division 3 in December. In the championship match against Cuba City-Southwestern’s Brad Goffinet, Witt won 6-5.

“I’d put Patrick’s weight class the same as Jack’s and Garrett — he was the one seed and based on records I figured he’d dominate; and he did,” Tom Witt said. “Alex dominated that semifinal match, and in the finals, that’s the kid he lost to at Sugar River. Hopefully that helps comes regionals. I thought that finals match was poorly officiated; four of those five points came from the ref. To me, that match should have been 6-2 or so.”

Dakota Wickstrum (12-20) finished fourth at 145 pounds; Kyle Haldiman (12-19) was fifth at 120; and Deion Hargrove (11-10) was fifth at 195. Not wrestling was 220’s Kelsey Hernandez, who is battling pneumonia.

“Hopefully (Hernandez) can recover soon,” Tom Witt said. “He was the No. 1 seed before I pulled him.”

Cayden Milz (13-1) won the 170-pound weight class for the WarBirds. He was the only Darlington-Black Hawk wrestler to win a title.

Bailey Schilling (17-3) was third at 220, while Carson Lobdell (18-7) was third at 182. Brady Horne (19-5) also took third place at 160, and one class below him at 152, Owen Huschitt (16-8) also took third. Cashton Hauser (7-11) was fourth at 126.

“We had some guys that performed well, and other guys haven’t performed well,” said Darlington-Black Hawk coach Dennis Wirth. “It’s up and down for us, like it is at most tournaments. There’s some tough competition here; some pretty good wrestlers.”

Belmont-Platteville finished third as a team (167), with Oregon fourth (165.5) and Darlington-Black Hawk fifth (140.5).

Monroe 39, Oregon 34

OREGON — The night before the Monroe Invitational, the Cheesemakers edged the Panthers in a tight Badger South dual.

Monroe got pins from Schuh, Dubach and Voegeli. Dubach and Voegeli closed out the match.

Haldiman, Hargrove and Alex Witt each won via major decision, while Patrick Rielly won by a close 3-2 decision. Minder received six points for a forfeit.