By Joe Shinners West Allis - The long and painful wait for the West Allis Central Bulldogs wrestling team is finally over. The Bulldogs made sure of that with a dominating performance Dec. 18th and 19th to win the 37the annual E.H. Stech Invitational Saturday at Central for the first time in 26 years and bring to an end to a title drought for the host school. Central, ranked No. 7 in the area, took a commanding 34-point lead into the champinoship round at the two-day tournament and never looked back in wining the two-day, 18-team tournament with 212.5 points. No. 4-ranked Hartford finished second with 174.5 points, follwed by No. 3 Mukwonago (168.5) and No. 5 Pewaukee (167). The Bulldogs sent five wrestlers to the finals and came away with two champions. Central posted 23 pins in the tournament to score valuable extra points. Mukwonago had 18 pins and Hartford had 16 pins. In the 152-pound final, Central senior Joe Immekus defeated Hartford junior Weston Klink by a 7-1 decision. Immekus improved to 14-0 this year; Klink fell to 15-2. At 171, Central senior Dan Diebitz ran his record to 14-0 with a 5-1 victory over Pewaukee senior Travis Decker (9-3) in the final. A total of 11 wrestlers placed sixth or higher for Central, and the Bulldogs went 6-5 in the final round to seal their first Stech tournament title since 1983 under then-coach Dan Gaynor. "I just don't know what to say," said current Central coach Jason Stromberg. "I'm tickled pink right now. It's really a credit to my assistant coaches. The kids wrestled up to their potential the whole tournament. We always preach team, team, team until we're blue in the face. The kids wanted this one." It was Central's fourth tournament title overall and it came against a group of top-ranked area teams, making the victory even more impressive for the Central program. "From the beginning, Central wrestled well," said Hartford coach Steve Best. "They fought hard and they wrestled with a lot of passion. They really wanted to win this thing." Hartford also advanced five wrestlers to the finals, and came away with two champions in freshman Bobby Nachriener (17-0 at 103) and senior Jarid Baumgartner (16-1 at 140). But Hartford, the defending tournament champion, lacked the depth (eight place-winners) to keep pace with Central. Mukwonago was missing one starter due to illness, but even with 10 place-winners and two champions couldn't close the gap on Central. "They definitely seemed to want it more," said Mukwonago coach Jon Wierzbicki. "Central had a heck of a tournament. They came in here as a team with a bull's eye on this tournament and reallly want to win it." Mukwonago's champions came from freshman Hank Mattson (15-2 at 119) and junior Ryan Aprahamian (15-2 at 160). Germantown junior sensation Jesse Thielke rolled through the tournament and picked up his third individual title at the Stech. Thielke (13-0), the two-time Division 1 state champion, pinned Pewaukee senior Mitch Teeters (10-2) in 2 minutes 47 seconds to win the 130-pound final. Thielke pinned all three of his opponents and was a unanimous choise for Outstanding Wrestler. "I just take things one match at a time," said Thielke, who became the tournament's 14th three-time champion. "I just like wrestling." As far as his repaired jaw goes, Thielke said everything is fine. ìThe first week after I came back it was a little tough,î Thielke said. ìBut after I got used to wearing a mouth guard, itís fine. Iím ready to go.î Serveral intersting individual matchups occurred in the finals. At 135 pounds, Menasha junior Thomas Allen (10-0) defeated Hartford sophomore Nick Becker (15-2) by a 7-5 decision. Allen was able to post crucial takedowns in the match and overcome a severely bloodied nose. At 125, Wauwatosa East/West senior Demetrius Mensah (11-2) held on to defeat Hartford sophomore Nathan Hennes (8-2) by a 5-3 decision with a late takedown in overtime. At 189, Oak Creek senior Kyle Wey (14-0) remained undefeated with a late takedown to earn a 6-5 decision over Racine Case senior Ryan Ross (13-3) in a key Southeast Conference showdown at the tournament. Go Back to the Home Page Read More Articles by Joe../../../../07-08_Article_Archive/Archive.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1