The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Head Wrestling coach Mike DeRoehn enters his second years as the squad’s leader and following a three-title performance at the opening home meet on Nov. 7. DeRohen and company look to build off their previous season.

Last year, juniors Mason Bohm, Cole Ferguson and sophomore Michael Cole all qualified for the NCAA Division III national tournament. Cole is not on the 2015-16 roster, but Bohm and Ferguson both return to the team as leaders and potential returning national qualifiers.

According to the Pioneers’ website, this year’s team consists of five seniors, four juniors, eight sophomores and 15 freshmen.
Senior team captain Bryant Etherton said that the freshman have adapted to college wresting and he sees potential for some to become national qualifiers this season.

“I see our freshmen as excellent caliber wrestlers who are able to take on the collegiate level of wrestling and come out successful,” Etherton said. “They will develop beyond the success we are already seeing and their current effort clearly foreshadows an even greater team than what we have now.”

DeRoehn said that as a program they are not changing their approach to the season from what they did last year. Since it is the second year for the staff, they are able to move through the system at a faster pace.

“The returners did a nice job helping our new guys early on and some of our incoming freshmen had worked with me over the years,” DeRoehn said.

This past weekend, the Pioneers’ hosted several teams from around the country at the Super 8 Invitational held at Bo Ryan court. Three of the champions came from UW-Platteville.

Freshmen Jon Goetz, 146-pound weight class, and Grant Wedepohl, 174-pound weight class, both began their collegiate careers with first place match victories. Bohm was the other victor, building off of his late season success last year.

“When it comes to talking about competition specifically, we encourage everyone to do these three things each and every competition: have fun, score points and fight your butt off,” DeRoehn said. “If Mason, Cole and everyone else on our team does that, we are going to put out an exciting product for people to watch at home meets and win a lot of wrestling matches in the process throughout the season.”

The Pioneers hit the mats on Nov. 12 to take on Lakeland College at Bo Ryan Court with the first match set to begin at 7 p.m.

The 2015-16 regular season consists of 17 meets and if a wrestler is talented enough, three postseason meets.

“Everything takes steps, and we can’t get too focused on the end and forget about what we need to be doing on the journey,” Etherton said.

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