Raiders advance 5 wrestlers during 3rd-place regional finish

WIAA DIV. 2 WRESTLING

The Medford wrestlers didn’t have enough to hang with the tournament favorites for the team championship Saturday, but the season will go on for five Raiders who earned top-two finishes at the WIAA Division 2 regional meet, hosted and won by the Neillsville Co-op.

Junior Thaddeus Sigmund and freshman Gage Losiewicz both secured regional championships, while Jude Stark, Logan Kawa and Wyatt Johnson all advanced with second-place finishes in their weight classes.

Their goal is to be among the top three finishers in their weight classes at this Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 Amery sectional. Wrestling starts at 10:30 a.m. at Amery High School with competitors aiming to get to the state tournament in Madison, set for Feb. 24-26.

“I would call it about as expected,” Medford head coach Brandon Marcis said of the team’s third-place finish at Neillsville. “We qualified five which is a pretty decent year. We weren’t really that far out from winning it. Regis had a little bit on us and then Neillsville had a little bit on them. We had everyone kind of at their optimum weight class, which pinched us out another weight, so we forfeited two weight classes (195 and 285), which isn’t the end of the world, but it hurts. It would be nice having guys get points through all the weight classes. Wrestling doesn’t lie. We’re young and in some cases we just need more mat time. Mat time is the key in some of those situations.”

The Neillsville Co-op totaled 220 points to earn a spot in Tuesday’s WIAA Division 2 Somerset team sectional, where the Warriors lost to West Salem-Bangor 48-32 in a semifinal dual. Regis-Altoona scored 198.5 points to edge the Raiders’ 180. Bloomer-Colfax (128.5), Abbotsford-Colby (120), Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (86) and Spencer-Columbus (75) didn’t challenge in the team aspect of the competition.

Sigmund won his second straight regional title in convincing fashion. At 113 pounds, he pinned Neillsville Co-op freshman Ethan Buchanan (24-19) in 3:34 in the semifinals and pinned Spencer-Columbus freshman Mason Wolf (16-11) in 1:23 in the championship. Wolf pinned Buchanan in 5:24 in the second-place wrestleback.

“I thought he wrestled outstanding,” Marcis said. “He was picked to win and he showed why. He was the number-one seed and he showed that was not a fluke and that he deserved it. His challenge will be coming up this weekend. He’s got a tough sectional, but if he keeps wrestling like he has, finishing his shots, outworking his opponent, wrestling with good head position –– those are all keys for him –– I think we’ll be looking pretty good there.”

The first sectional match for Sigmund (33-6) will be against Northwestern junior Tommy Brown, who comes in at 41-7 and was the runner-up at the Northwestern regional. The winner likely draws 40-1 and top-ranked Colton Hush of Baldwin-Woodville in the semifinals. Winning that first match could be key because the odds aren’t great for a wrestleback with a first-round loss.

Losiewicz (30-8) dropped down to 132 pounds after wrestling all season at 138. He pinned Wylee Huset (13-7) of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm in 2:35 in the semifinals and defeated freshman Hudzon Sebesta-Opelt (27-8) of the Neillsville Co-op 7-0 in the final.

Losiewicz’s first sectional match will be against Ben Drost (9-10), a sophomore from Rice Lake. The winner could get 36-6 Tyler Fink, a junior from Baldwin-Woodville. The bracket favorite is 41-1 Tanner Andersen of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/ Melrose-Mindoro, who also recently dropped down a weight class. Andersen beat Losiewicz at the Arcadia Challenge.

“Gage is doing awesome, especially his wrestling on top,” Marcis said. “It has been really good. If we can just keep him drilling on his feet this week, keep him light on his feet, keep him shooting, keep him finishing shots, I think his ace in the hole a little bit is just the way he’s been riding on top. Nobody gets away from him lately.”

Stark advanced at 126 pounds. He got off to a quick start with a 34-second pin of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm’s Jayson Ford (9-8) in the semifinals. Derek Zschernitz (24-4) of the Neillsville Co-op beat him 10-1 in the championship. Stark clinched his sectional spot by pinning Dayton Kunze (12-11) of Regis-Altoona in 58 seconds in the wrestleback.

“Jude wrestled good,” Marcis said. “He had a tough kid in the finals that just kind of controlled every step of the match. I think if we just change one chain of events in that match, maybe instead of him getting taken down when it’s 2-1 and we take him down and then all of sudden we have the lead, I think it’s a different match.”

Stark (24-8) will open against Baldwin-Woodville senior Hunter Bonte (30-9) in Amery with the winner getting Ashland’s Austin Defoe (37-2) or Jackson Blaken of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (32-14) in the semifinals. Zschernitz is a top contender on the other side of the bracket.

Kawa (26-13) dropped down a class to 160 pounds and pinned the Neillsville Coop’s Garrett Learman (8-15) in 1:30 in his semifinal bout. Senior Bowen Rothbauer (39-2) of Bloomer-Colfax beat him 7-1 in the final, but Kawa sealed his sectional spot with a 57-second pin of Abbotsford-Colby’s Jacob Hoppe (20-16) in the second- place wrestleback. “Logan is really starting to find his stride,” Marcis said. “I think he feels good at 160. He moves quicker, seems to be more aggressive. The thing for him will be to just let it all fly at sectionals. Don’t care about what their records are. Go out there and work his stuff and I think he’s got a great shot to be down in Madison. He’s had two good matches the last two weeks with two good kids who he hasn’t necessarily scored on, but he’s in the match. Now his next step is finding his offense.”

Kawa drew Ellsworth senior Ivan Veenendall (28-11) for his sectional quarterfi nal with the winner getting either Eddie Simes of Amery (37-8) or Connor Melton of Spooner-Webster (33-11) in the semifinals. Rothbauer headlines the lower half of the bracket.

Johnson earned his spot in Amery at 182 pounds with two big pins. He got second- seeded Damian Sampson (11-9) of the Neillsville Co-op in the semifinals before getting pinned by undefeated Caden Weber (27-0) of Regis-Altoona in the final in 2:56. Johnson needed just 1:28 to pin Carson Kilty (10-19) of Spencer-Columbus in the wrestleback.

Johnson (16-14) gets a tough opening sectional match against second-ranked Ian Smith of Northwestern (45-2).

“Wyatt finished strong,” Marcis said. “I told him at the wrestleback that you belong at the sectional tournament so you should go out there and prove it and he did. That was good for him. I think his key this week is just going to be breaking guys apart piece by piece rather than trying to pin them in one big swooping move. When he just slows down and takes it one step at a time, he’s capable of beating guys that, on paper, maybe he shouldn’t.”

Rest of the regional

Four Raiders finished third in Saturday’s meet.

Owen Higgins’ late-season surge at 120 pounds ended as two of the top-three ranked wrestlers in the state were in his weight class. Higgins (18-9) pinned Dawson Klefstad (12-18) of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm in 1:06 in his quarterfinal, but then he ran into third-ranked Treyton Ackman (29-3) of Spencer-Columbus, who pinned him in 1:23. Higgins easily won his third-place match, pinning Brison Tuschl (12-17) of Bloomer-Colfax in 23 seconds, but when Ackman lost 8-4 to second-ranked Luke Dux (26-4) of Neillsville in the final, Higgins was denied a chance at a secondplace wrestleback.

“I still say he’s wrestling great, but he just had the two best kids in the state and that’s where he ended up,” Marcis said. “Otherwise he dominated everybody else that he had to wrestle.”

At 145 pounds, Cory Lindahl (9-13) got a nice opening-round win, pinning Gavyn McFarlane (13-9) of the Neillsville Co-op in 1:57. Bloomer-Colfax’s Alex Poirier (15-7) pinned Lindahl in 3:19 in the semifinals and went on to lose 6-0 in the final to 44-1 Tanner Halopka of Abbotsford- Colby. Lindahl pinned Alexander Campbell (8-10) of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/ Prairie Farm in 1:04 in the third-place match, but Poirier’s loss in the final prevented a wrestleback.

Freshman Paxton Rothmeier bumped up to the four-man 138-pound bracket and was handed a 19-3 technical fall by 28-13 Tommy Tomesh of Regis-Altoona in the semifinals. Rothmeier got a 9-6 win over Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm senior Justin Fowler (9-16) in the third-place match, but Jarick Young (29-9) of the Neillsville Co-op pinned Tomesh in 2:52 in the final to prevent a wrestleback.

“You could tell he was kind of smaller,” Marcis said of Rothmeier. “He had a better record than the kid from Regis, but the kid from Regis just looked huge compared to him. Weight classes do make a difference. Giving up that weight didn’t help him.”

Freshman Rylan Zoellick (8-11) was in a three-man 106-pound bracket and lost his only match to second-place finisher Ayden Anderson (15-15) of Bloomer-Colfax in a 19-0 technical fall. Anderson was pinned in 19 seconds in the final by Regis- Altoona’s Deaglan O’Connell (28-11).

Tripp Reamer dropped down two weight classes to 170, but that bracket was a tough one and the freshman went 0-2 to finish in fourth place and 10-12 for the year. He was pinned in 1:28 by eventual champion Brayden Albee of Regis-Altoona (40-5) in the semifinals and in 1:20 by Talon Severson of Abbotsford- Colby (26-16) in the third-place match.

Braxton Weissmiller (10-26) was sixth at 220 pounds, getting pinned in 1:22 by eventual champion Levi Dommer of Abbotsford-Colby (23-19) and in 1:28 by Bloomer-Colfax’s Samy Espinal (22-14) in the fifthplace match.

Blake Schilling (5-14) was pinned by eventual third-place finisher Brayden Meyer (26-13) of Abbotsford-Colby in 3:25 in his opening match and lost the fifthplace match at 152 pounds 11-4 to James Chamberlain (14-17) of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser- Prairie Farm. “It’s really promising for us because everybody that wrestled this weekend can wrestle next year,” Marcis said.

As for five Raiders wrestling Saturday, Marcis said it will come down to perfecting the things they’ve been working on all season in the wrestling room.

“All five of our qualifiers are kind of in the same boat,” he said. “They’re going to have to beat a guy with a similar record to them in order to make it and they’re going to have to beat a guy who maybe on paper they shouldn’t if they want to win it. Nobody is really out of it to go to state, and none of them are really the favorite per se. But they’re all in it. They all have a shot at going. That’s pretty promising.

“As for our focus this week, I think it’s the little things that make a difference,” he added. “Finishing shots, running back to the middle, always having hand control, wrestling with our head. Every little fundamental thing that we work on through the season we hone in on those things here at the end and get short, intense workouts in and try and perfect our fundamentals.”

WIAA Div. 2 Amery sectional brackets

113 pounds Colton Hush, 40-1, So., Baldwin-Woodville vs. Logan Mueller, 18-8, So., Ellsworth Thaddeus Sigmund, 33-6, Jr., Medford vs. Tommy Brown, 41-7, Jr., Northwestern Brett Plomedahl, 32-6, So., West Salem-Bangor vs. Lane Anderson, 33-12, Fr., Amery Carter Schulz, 33-7, Sr., Rice Lake vs. Mason Wolf, 16-11, Fr., Spencer-Columbus 126 pounds Hunter Bonte, 30-9, Sr., Baldwin-Woodville vs. Jude Stark, 24-8, So., Medford Austin Defoe, 37-2, Sr., Ashland vs. Jackson Blaken, 32-14, So., G-E-T/M-M Derek Zschernitz, 24-4, Jr., Neillsville Coop vs. Will Schmitt, 29-13, Fr., St. Croix Central William Penn, 30-7, So., Ellsworth vs. Noah Christianson, 30-15, Jr., Hayward-Northwood 132 pounds Tyler Fink, 36-6, Jr., Baldwin-Woodville vs. Nick Ziegler, 15-17, Jr., West Salem-Bangor Gage Losiewicz, 30-8, Fr., Medford vs. Ben Drost, 9-10, So., Rice Lake Tanner Andersen, 41-1, Sr., G-E-T/M-M vs. Lucas Sedivy, 38-8, Sr., Osceola Drake Marks, 36-11, Sr., Hayward-Northwood vs. Hudzon Sebesta-Opelt, 27-8, Fr.,

Neillsville Co-op 160 pounds Eddie Simes, 37-8, Sr., Amery vs. Connor Melton, 33-11, So., Spooner-Webster Ivan Veenendall, 28-11, Sr., Ellsworth vs.

Logan Kawa, 26-13, So., Medford Jesse Larson, 26-16, Sr., Northwestern vs. Jacob Sedivy, 38-11, Sr., Osceola Bowen Rothbauer, 39-2, Sr., Bloomer-Colfax vs. Ben Peterson, 25-18, Jr., G-E-T/M-M 182 pounds Grant Cook, 34-9, Jr., Amery vs. Luke Noel, 22-18, Jr., West Salem-Bangor Caden Weber, 27-0, Jr., Regis-Altoona vs. Aidan Drost, 19-15, Jr., Rice Lake Louis Jahnke, 24-8, Jr., Ellsworth vs. Parker Shackleton, 34-9, Jr., St. Croix Central Ian Smith, 45-2, So., Northwestern vs. Wyatt Johnson, 16-14, Jr., Medford