For a young man who works so hard and so diligently, Blaine Brenner walked into the Division 2 Regional title last week. He went through his normal warm-ups and was ready to pin his way to the crown. Then something unusual happened.
“I weighed in and went through a pretty good warmup, and then the first kid I was supposed to wrestle came up to me to tell me he was going to forfeit,” Brenner told Eau Claire’s Leader-Telegram. “I was just like, ‘Alright, obviously I want to wrestle but there’s nothing I can do about it.’”
So, he got warmed up for his next match. Second verse, same as the first.
“I was just loosening up for the next match, and then that kid comes up to me and tells me he’s going to forfeit,” Brenner said. “At that point I’m like, ‘Really? I’m not going to wrestle today?’ That kind of sucked.”
He admitted that the bright side was that he wouldn’t have to be contact traced from the regionals, so he has clear sailing into the sectionals. But he really did want to wrestle his way there.
Not that it was a foregone conclusion but Brennan has not lost a match since he was in 10th grade. He won the state championships in his sophomore and junior years. Now a senior, Brenner is looking for the trifecta.
Stanley-Boyd coach Greg Burzynski said, “He works so hard and wrestles so much that I don’t think missing a couple of matches is going to affect him.”
If he wins that third state title, he will be the 68th WIAA wrestler to do so. Coach Burzynski says that Brennan just keeps getting better, so he is confident of Brenner bringing home the third title.
Brenner joked that he is happy with the quick start to the playoffs.
The Sentinel & Rural News covers the news and events of Clark County and southern Taylor County, as well as regional news that affects those areas.