Raiders roll in opener, run into tough foes at West

The first week of competition for Medford’s wrestling team showed the importance of filling a lineup in both of the Raiders’ meets.

Forfeits were part of the reason Medford easily handled the Neillsville Co-op, but the Raiders, with some illness and team members still working their way toward their ideal weights, were empty in three weight classes as well for Saturday’s Wausau West Duals. Against that competition, those holes were too tough to overcome in an 0-4 day.

“It was very high-level wrestling, very physical wrestling,” Marcis said of Saturday’s event. “I just think that we saw the value of the team and each member and we also learned that we have to be mentally tougher to overcome adversity. There are going to be times where the momentum is not going our way. We want to seize that opportunity and be the guy that changes the momentum rather than keep falling into that rut.

“I thought it was exactly what we needed because, I’ll be honest, I thought we were a little too high on ourselves after we beat Neillsville and then I think we were a little low on ourselves at West,” he added. “We did some great things and had a great day. But at the end of the day it’s really hard to come back when you give each team 18 points, especially in competitive duals with statelevel teams.”

Medford wrestled four Division 1 squads during the day. Tomah edged Medford 34-30, Stevens Point earned a 4624 win, Wausau West won 45-33 and Pulaski, who went 4-0 in the meet, beat the Raiders 48-15.

Juniors Jude Stark at 132 pounds and Logan Kawa at 170 pounds both went undefeated for the day. Junior Braxton Weissmiller at 285 pounds and Thaddeus Sigmund at 120 pounds went 3-1.

Against West, Medford got five pins and a 9-2 decision from Kawa over Connor Calmes. Parker Lissner pinned Timothy Vang in 2:37 at 138 pounds, Evan Wilkins got Timothy Gospodarek in 1:28 at 152 pounds and Gage Losiewicz stuck Henry Galang in 3:08 at 160. Those four wins gave Medford an early 21-6 lead before the Warriors got six straight wins, including the three forfeits to take command.

Sigmund pinned Xavier Sengkhammee in 3:16 at 120 pounds and Stark stuck Alexander Voight in just 31 seconds.

Kawa, Weissmiller, Stark and Matt Gebert, wrestling at 126 pounds, got pins for Medford against Stevens Point.

Medford heads to the Eau Claire North Husky Invitational Saturday with the expectation of having a full lineup ready to roll. Competition is set to start at 9 a.m. The Raiders will head west again on Dec. 15 for a quad hosted by the Regis-Altoona Co-op.

“I do have high expectations for this weekend,” Marcis said. “If we stay healthy and eligible and take care of our business off the mat, I have my fingers crossed that we can bring 14 guys to this varsity tournament, the stars will align and we’ll really see what we’re capable of because we have a week of practice. Our goal this week is to stare our weaknesses down and work on them and also to build our team concept. Those are our two big opportunities for this week.”

Medford 57, Neillsville 22

The Raiders rode five pins and four forfeits to a dominant 57-22 non-conference victory over the Neillsville-Greenwood-Loyal co-op Thursday night at Raider Hall in the first of just two home events on the current 2022-23 schedule.

Medford jumped ahead 21-0 with four wins to start the dual and then, after the visitors closed within 21-18, hit the hole in Neillsville’s lineup with four straight forfeits and a pin to put the season opener away.

In fact, the meet was all about pins and forfeits except for the first and last matches.

The biggest pin came from Stark, who stuck returning state qualifier Derek Zschernitz in the 126-pound bout. Zschernitz beat Stark 10-1 in last year’s regional final match and used two first-period takedowns to take a 4-2 lead over Stark Thursday. But Stark got the reversal he needed to get control and pinned Zschernitz at the 2:51 mark in the 132-pound match.

“Jude wrestled really good, had great mat awareness,” Marcis said. “He kinda knew where he was when the guy put his legs in. Jude’s so flexible that he just kinda used his flexibility, got right out of it and put the guy on his back and seized the moment. Once he got him there, he didn’t let him off. Jude was outstanding.”

Freshman William Bartnik got one of the night’s major highlights, pinning Damian Sampson in 1:38 to win his varsity debut at 182 pounds.

“The whole gym erupted. That was awesome,” Marcis said. “He’s a team guy. He wrestled 182 and only weighed in at about 165. He was big for the team on that one.”

The dual opened with Wilkins using an early takedown and near fall to earn a 4-0 win over Jakob Luchterhand in the 152-pound match. Losiewicz got four quick points in his 160-pound match with Gavyn McFarlane. In the down position to start the second period, Losiewicz finished the match with a reversal, near fall and then a pin at 2:30.

Kawa needed just 47 seconds to pin Joe Polzin at 170 pounds. Neillsville started its streak with a pin at 195 pounds from Carter Schoengarth over Jonathan Bartnik in 30 seconds. Exchange student Ozan Karaasian hung in there for awhile in his first match at 220 pounds and at one point had a chance for control and a pin, but Neillsville’s Braxton Kauth eventually settled in and got the pin at 2:52. The standout of the Neillsville Co-op’s squad, heavyweight Gunner Hoffman, pinned Weissmiller in 1:05.

Broden Schilling (106), Malchow (113), Sigmund (120) and Itsael Medina (126) all earned forfeits to give Medford a 45-18 lead. Lissner locked up Rogan Ashbeck from the outset and eventually pinned him in 1:58 at 138 pounds.

Hudzon Sebesta-Opelt closed out the dual by beating Lindahl in a 14-5 major decision at 145 pounds.

“I think that we always wrestle a little harder for our home meets,” Marcis said. “We wrestled well and stuck to our principles. It did help that they gave us four forfeits. I know they were down on their luck a little bit. One of their better guys was hurt. But we still wrestled very well.”

Raider Parker Lissner locks up the arms of the Neillsville Co-op’s Regan Ashbeck and works toward a first-period pin during their 138-pound match Thursday.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS