Freedom Irish Invitational
JV Dual tournament Friday January 14, 2022
Varsity Individual tournament Saturday January 15, 2022
Youth Invitational SUnday January 16, 2022
Our Fieldhouse gym allows for five full mats to be utilized during our tournament.
2022 Tournament Preview
Want to watch some great wrestling in a small gym setting, then the Irish gymnasium in Freedom should be your destination for Saturday, January 15th, 2022.
The 49th annual Irish Invitational will be loaded with not only state ranked talent, but nationally ranked talent as well! Nineteen teams from Wisconsin and Michigan will take the mat Saturday, seven of them bring state rankings with them, including the State’s #1 ranked division 2 team Amery. Four D2 teams will enter the Irish Invite with rankings: host Freedom brings with them the #4 rank, Evansville sits at #7 in the latest polls, Brillion will enter ranked #8 and Denmark rounds out the ranked teams also carrying an Honorable Mention ranking. Shiocton one of only three division 3 teams sport the #9 ranking in their division while Bay Port will be the only D1 ranked team participating as they are Honorable Mention. Bark River, Michigan has been added to this tournament, giving the Irish Invitational some out of state talent as they make their way down from the Upper Peninsula. They will bring some upper level talent to this field, particularly at 113, 132, 145 and 182 pounds where they are highly ranked in the Michigan D4 polls.
Even more impressive is the 74 state ranked individuals that make up the line ups of this year’s 19 team field. Four number one ranked wrestlers will be competing: D1 #1 Noah Tonsor at 120 pounds for Slinger, as well as three D2 #1’s from Amery: Kale Hopke, Koy Hopke and Robert Beese at 195, 220, 285 respectively. The tournament will also boast five number two ranked wrestlers. Evansville, a new comer to this year’s event, brings the D2 #2 ranked 170 pounder Owen Heiser. Jacob Ward of Bay Port is #2 at 145 in D1 along with hometown favorite Nathan VandeHey of Freedom #2 at 145 in D2, which should make that weight class a real dogfight. The other #2 ranked wrestlers are 152 pound Wyatt Ingham of Amery in D2 and 182 pound Sloan Welch of Auburndale in D3.
The Irish Invite will also display a couple wrestlers who have had success on wrestling’s biggest stage, Fargo. Junior Wyatt Skebba from Hortonville brought home All-American honors this summer, placing 6th at 106 pounds and also captured the Pre-season Nationals title at 113 pounds. Sophomore sensation, Amery’s Koy Hopke, was crowned National Champ in both Freestyle and Greco at 220. Koy is also the 9th ranked 220 pounder in the country according to Flowrestling and fresh off a Cheesehead Title in Kaukauna last weekend.
The Irish Invite teams at a glance:
Team Rank Wrestlers Ranked
Amery D2 #1 9
Appleton North 3
Ashwaubenon 1
Auburndale 5
Bark River, MI 4
Bay Port D1 HM 4
Brillion D2 #8 6
Burlington 4
Denmark D2 HM 5
Evansville D2 #7 5
Freedom D2 #4 6
Hortonville 6
Medford 1
Mishicot 1
Sheboygan North 0
Shiocton D3 #9 8
Slinger 3
Two Rivers 1
West DePere 1
Weight Classes at a glance:
106 (six ranked wrestlers)
D1 #6 Tristin Ellerman, Hortonville
D1 #9 Owen Wathke, Bay Port
D2 #3 Logan Mueller, Brillion
D2 #6 Peter Tomazevic, Freedom
D2 #7 Brendan Burke, Amery
D3 #12 Derek Godard, Auburndale
113 (eight ranked wrestlers)
D1 #4 Wyatt Skebba, Hortonville
D1 #12 Colin Schroeder, Hortonville
D1 HM Eli Becker, Slinger
D2 #9 Bob Huntley, Brillion
D2 #12 Thad Sigmund, Medford
D2 HM Lane Anderson, Amery
D2 HM Gunner Katzenmeyer, Evansville
D3 #2 Colten Weiler, Auburndale
120 (five ranked wrestlers)
D1 #1 Noah Tonsor, Slinger
D1 #11 Griffin Jens, Hortonville
D2 #4 Danny Heiser, Evansville
D2 #11 Trenton Nicklaus, Brillion
D2 #12 Brett Soquet, Denmark
126 (four ranked wrestlers)
D1 #11 Owen Noel, Bay Port
D1 HM Nolan Skebba, Hortonville
D2 #11 Alec Bergelin, Denmark
D2 HM Camden Staver, Evansville
132 (three ranked wrestlers)
D1 #9 Henry Niebauer, Hortonville
D3 #10 Blake Carton, Shiocton
D3 HM Noah Altman, Auburndale
138 (three ranked wrestlers)
D1 #7 Jake Stoffel, Appleton North
D2 HM Joseph Wentz, Amery
D3 #11 Isaiah Carton, Shiocton
145 (five ranked wrestlers)
D1 #2 Jacob Ward, Bay Port
D1 #11 Aidan Ford, Slinger
D1 #12 Alek Ukkola, West DePere
D1 HM Austin Skrundz, Burlington
D2 #2 Nathan VandeHey, Freedom
152 (four ranked wrestlers)
D2 #2 Wyatt Ingham, Amery
D2 #4 Garnett Stebane, Brillion
D2 HM Caden Clausen, Freedom
D3 #7 Bradley Demerath, Shiocton
160 (six ranked wrestlers)
D1 Andrew Karnes, Burlington
D2 #7 Ricky Braunschweig, Evansville
D2 #12 Thomas Ullmer, Denmark
D2 HM Jack Van Rossum, Freedom
D3 #3 Brant Cracraft, Mishicot
D3 HM Dylan Herb, Shiocton
170 (four ranked wrestlers)
D2 #2 Owen Heiser, Evansville
D2 #5 Eddie Simes, Amery
D2 #6 Elijah Shefchik, Denmark
D3 #9 Dion Helser, Shiocton
182 (four ranked wrestlers)
D2 #7 Grant Cook, Amery
D2 #10 Damon Schmidt, Brillion
D3 #2 Sloan Welch, Auburndale
D3 #7 Hunter Schuh, Shiocton
195 (seven ranked wrestlers)
D1 #4 Brock Arndt, Appleton North
D2 #1 Kale Hopke, Amery
D2 #5 Chase Mathias, Two Rivers
D2 #6 Patrick Moore, Freedom
D2 #8 Eagan Babiash, Denmark
D3 #7 Dylan Larsen, Shiocton
D3 #10 Brice Theil, Auburndale
220 (four ranked wrestlers)
D1 #4 Zeke Tiedt, Burlington
D2 #1 Koy Hopke, Amery
D2 #3 Garrett Kilgas, Brillion
D3 #8 Iliajah Sanchez, Shiocton
285 (six ranked wrestlers)
D1 #5 Troy Dietzler, Ashwaubenon
D6 #6 Ethan Hansen, Appleton North
D1 #10 Vaughn Campbell, Bay Port
D1 HM Grant Otter, Burlington
D2 #1 Robert Beese, Amery
D2 HM Hunter Vander Heiden, Freedom
*** all Wisconsin State rankings courtesy of www.wiwrestling.com January 13th rankings.
ABOUT
Starting in 1971 Freedom High School has hosted a varsity level wrestling tournament. Since then the tournament has grown to include 16 varsity teams, a JV team tournament on Friday night to kick off the weekend and a youth invitational on Sunday to wrap-up the festivities.
