Bi-State serves up mid-season lessons for young Raiders

BI-STATE WRESTLING CLASSIC

Thaddeus Sigmund placed 11th at 113 pounds and the Medford Raiders picked up a few meaningful victories during the Dec. 29-30 Bi-State Wrestling Classic hosted by Holmen High School at the La Crosse Center.

Sigmund, Logan Kawa and Gage Losiewicz had the longest runs in their brackets for the Raiders, who scored 48 points to tie Nekoosa-Assumption for 21st place out of 26 teams who were placed in Division 2 and tie for 52nd place overall out of 71 participating teams.

While the Raiders didn’t have much success to show for their efforts, head coach Brandon Marcis said it was all about the lessons his young team learned.

“The kids learned a lot of valuable lessons,” Marcis said. “At the end of the first day and a lot of our guys were out, we had a little team meeting and we talked about how when you get into these kinds of tournaments, technique is important but we have to have the drive to win the fight to want to win. We have to want it.”

Sigmund, a junior, entered the tournament with an 11-0 record and was seeded fifth in the 113-pound bracket that featured 56 wrestlers. He drew a first-round bye and soundly defeated freshman Sawyer Ostrum of Nekoosa-Assumption 10-0 in his first match. A 6-3 win over Tyler Kreidemacher of the Lewiston, Minn. Co-op sent Sigmund to the quarterfinals.

That’s where Sigmund was tripped up for the first time, as a brief loss of position late in the first period resulted in a takedown by 13th-seeded Ryan Bortz (143) of Goodhue, Minn., who won the match 2-0. Bortz went on to finish second, dropping a 1-0 heartbreaker to sixth-seeded sophomore Reid Spurley of Dodgeville in the final.

Sigmund moved to the consolation bracket, where he lost 7-0 to 14-4 Colton Weiler of Auburndale, lost 6-2 to 19-7 Isaac Jerabek and won the 11th-place match by pin over 10-5 Drake Gosda of Mauston-Necedah in 4:08.

After the tournament, Sigmund now stands at 15-3.

At 170 pounds, Kawa was seeded 27th and made a run to the round of 16, winding up one win short of getting into the placement pool. He opened with a pin in 2:29 over Hector Rosalez of Sheboygan Falls and then got a big 11-9 sudden-victory decision over sixth-seeded Gavin Kirsch of Stratford (16-3).

“He beat a kid who he shouldn’t have beaten when you looked at it on paper,” Marcis said. “I love that when you beat someone that technically it says you’re not supposed to beat. That was the match of the tournament for us.”

However, the 11th seed, senior Reed Napiwocki of Wausau West (15-4) handed Kawa his first loss with a 44-second pin.

Kawa stayed alive in the consolation bracket with a 48-second pin of Portage’s Jordan Starr (12-7), but 14th-seeded Ian Pepple of Hastings, Minn. eliminated Kawa with a 4-3 decision. Kawa is now 7-5 for the year.

After a first-round bye, Losiewicz, Medford’s 138-pound freshman and the bracket’s 14th seed, was sent to the consolation bracket with a 9-6 loss to Blake Heal of D.C. Everest. There, Losiewicz won twice, pinning New Lisbon’s Seth Fowler in 1:35 and pinning Eli Jensen of the Lewiston Co-op in 55 seconds. Isaac Blocker (17-3), a seventh-seeded sophomore from Caledonia-Houston, Minn., eliminated Losiewicz (11-4) with a 6-4 decision. Blocker eventually finished sixth.

“Gage learned about being ready to wrestle right away,” Marcis said. “He had that first-round bye and then got down by a bunch in the first period. For the rest of the match, he probably outscored (Heal) by five or seven points.”

At 195 pounds, Medford junior Wyatt Johnson drew a bye and pinned Middleton’s Tyler Mayhew (11-5) in 1:30 to get to the round of 16. That’s where he ran into third-seeded and 22-3 Kaden Hooker of Waunakee, who pinned Johnson (8-5) in 1:29. Hooker eventually finished fourth. Ethan Dupont of Eastview, Minn., who is 10-2, eliminated Johnson with a 14-6 major decision.

Freshman Paxton Rothmeier made his varsity debut at 132 pounds and went 2-2. He opened with a 7-4 win over Riverdale’s Nick Stitzer but then got pinned by Middleton’s Walker Hargrove in 1:12. After a 9-0 major decision over River Valley’s Devlin Krueger, Rothmeier’s first day ended with a 13-4 loss to John Burbach of Belmont-Platteville.

At 160 pounds, senior Oscar Hinderliter got an opening 6-5 win over Logan Anderson of Ithaca-Weston before getting pinned by 13-4 Isaiah O’Reilly of Zumbrota- Mazeppa, Minn. in 1:39 and falling in a tight one, 2-1, to Wesley Drager of Mount Horeb-Barneveld.

At 152 pounds, junior Blake Schilling went 1-2, beating Hunter Osorio of Hillsboro in a consolation match. At 182 pounds, freshman Tripp Reamer went 1-2, earning a medical forfeit in a consolation match over New Lisbon’s Sam Duckworth.

Sophomore Jude Stark entered the 126-pound bracket as the 17th seed, but after a first-round bye, he was pinned in 3:00 by Owen Breunig of Lodi and then got eliminated by Jackson Blaken of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro in a 15-6 major decision.

Braxton Weissmiller at 220 pounds, Evan Wilkins at 145 pounds, Owen Higgins at 120 pounds and Nicholas Malchow at 106 pounds all lost both of their contested matches. Higgins and Malchow wrestled in their first varsity matches.

Marshfield scored 292.5 points to win the Division 1 and overall team championship in the tournament. Holmen (251), Stoughton (224.5), Hastings, Minn. (205.5) and Wausau West (204.5) filled out the top five in Division 1.

Luxemburg-Casco scored 227 points to win the the Division 2 title, just ahead of Lodi (216) and Zumbrota-Mazeppa, Minn. (206.5). La Crosse Aquinas scored 247.5 points to easily take the Division 3 title, while Iowa-Grant/Highland (186) and Stratford (175) were second and third.

After a week where wrestling with physicality was going to be a focus in practice, Marcis said, the Raiders will finally get into Great Northern Conference competition tonight, Thursday, with a 7 p.m. dual meet at Rhinelander. Medford will attend the D.C. Everest Invitational on Saturday before returning to Raider Hall for a GNC dual with Mosinee on Jan. 13.