With nearly all spots filled, Raiders take 7th out of 32 at North

MEDFORD WRESTLING

Filling 13 of 14 weight classes, the Medford wrestlers were led by Thaddeus Sigmund and Logan Kawa while placing a solid seventh at Saturday’s 32-team Eau Claire North Husky Invitational.

Sigmund won his first three matches at 120 pounds to reach the championship match and finished in second place out of 16 wrestlers. Kawa is off to an 8-1 start to his junior season. He reached the 170-pound semifinals and took third in a field of 20 wrestlers.

Gage Losiewicz also made the semifinals in the 152-pound weight class.

The Raiders scored 233 points in the tournament to trail Simley, Minn. (577), Kaukauna (500.5), Hartland Arrowhead (401.5), Baldwin-Woodville (264.5), Stratford (255.5) and Menomonie (254). The Raiders got enough points to push past Holmen (216), Lakeville North, Minn. (214.5) and St. Croix Falls (204).

Made the final four

Sigmund’s run to second place started with a first-round pin in 4:45 over Baldwin-Woodville sophomore Drake Gartmann and continued with a solid 9-2 quarterfinal win over Stratford sophomore Trenton Cournoyer, who is 10-2. Sigmund, who was seeded sixth, pinned St. Croix Falls junior Kody Fleck (7-2) in 3:18 in the semifinals to advance to the championship against top-seeded Brandon Morvari of Simley (6-1), who won the title with a 19-6 major decision.

Sigmund, a senior is off to a 7-2 start. The third-seeded Kawa also had a 3-1 day. He was dominant in his first two matches, pinning Menomonie’s Steele Schaefer in 2:22 and Prescott’s Shane Butler in 1:36 to advance to a semifinal match with secondseeded Judah Hammen of Kaukauna. Hammen (5-1) won that 12-3 before losing 5-3 to top-seeded Travis Smith of Simley (7 0) in the final. Kawa bounced back from the loss to Hammen with a pin in 5:13 over Arrowhead’s Blake Riphenburg (93) in the third-place match.

Losiewicz, Medford’s lone state qualifier last year, had his second straight Saturday of tough competition. Seeded fifth in the 152-pound weight class, Losiewicz started strong, defeating Holmen senior Matt McBride 11-5 in his first match and pinning James Bruhn of Phillips in 3:04 in the quarterfinals.

That sent him to a semifinal match with top-seeded Zach Hanson (9-0) of Lakeville North, who won it by technical fall at 19-3 in 5:21. Hanson went on to beat Simley’s Cash Raymond 10-2 in the final. Losiewicz ended his day in fourth place after being defeated 12-5 by Arrowhead’s third-seeded Nate Druckrey (11-1).

More in top 10

Four more Raiders finished in the top 10 of their weight classes Saturday.

Jude Stark won his first two matches at 132 pounds, which got him into eighth place. His preliminary pin in 47 seconds over Holmen’s AJ Alesch got him into the championship bracket, where Stark pinned Baldwin-Woodville’s Cole Braasch to reach the quarterfinals. There, Stark was defeated 11-0 by Arrowhead’s Collin McDowell and then he dropped matches to Simley’s Amilio Salas and Stanley-Boyd’s Breckin Burzynski.

At 126 pounds, Matt Gebert was pinned in 3:21 in the round of 16 by New Richmond’s Luke Kamish, but he rebounded to win three straight matches and claim ninth place. He beat Theo Hovde of Bloomer-Colfax 10-3, took a 12-2 major decision over Isaac Briggs of St. Croix Falls and pinned Stanley-Boyd’s Justin McManus in 1:30 in the ninth-place match.

Cory Lindahl finished 10th at 145 pounds. In a 24-man weight class, Lindahl crushed Auburndale’s Wyatt Malsin 14-0 and pinned Brandon Knetter of Stratford in 3:03 to get to the championship bracket. He was pinned by Jesse Bruhn of Phillips, then won two matches by pin over Adam Briggs of Saint Croix Falls (2:31) and Matthew Poulos of Whitehall (2:58) to reach the ninth-place match where he lost by no contest to Hudzon Sebesta-Opelt of the Neillsville Co-op, who Lindahl had already lost to on Dec. 1.

Paxton Rothmeier finished 10th at 160 pounds. The sophomore went 1-1 in preliminary matches to get to the consolation bracket. His win was a pin in 5:21 over Superior’s Jonah Peterson that put him into a consolation quarterfinal, where he beat Chase Lessard of Saint Croix Falls 4-3. Rothmeier pinned Alexander Campbell of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/ Prairie Farm in 4:27 before getting pinned in 44 seconds by Menomonie’s Ray Pember in the ninth-place match.

Parker Lissner placed 11th at 138 pounds during a 3-2 day. He beat Jonah Berg of Eau Claire North 4-2 in a preliminary match, earned a 14-4 major decision over Austin Krentz (of Spring Valley-Elmwood in a consolation match and won by no contest over Holmen’s Cowan Lambert in the 11th-place match.

Max Dietzman made his varsity debut at 285 pounds placed 13th by going 3-2. He got pins over Victor Gillet of Chippewa Falls in 37 second and Garet Rivord of Superior in 2:54 before beating Stanley-Boyd’s Damian Seichter in the 13th-place match.

At 220 pounds, Braxton Weissmiller beat Noah Penigar of Eau Claire North 9-7 and Ryan Schutte of Chippewa Falls 5-1 to reach the championship bracket. He lost twice there, pinned Superior’s Will Lampton in 53 seconds to reach the 13th-place match, where Weissmiller and Matt Kolb of Stratford double forfeited.

Nick Malchow was 15th at 113 pounds, pinning Arrowhead’s Davey Carpenter in 1:44 after three losses. William Bartnik went 0-2 at 182 pounds and Jonathan Bartnik went 0-2 at 195 pounds.

JV results

Six Medford wrestlers competed in five-man, round-robin brackets in the JV portion of Saturday’s tournament.

Kaleb Dassow was the champion of his 147-156 pound weight class. He pinned opponents from Arrowhead, Whitehall, Eau Claire North and Wausau West. Owen Higgins went 2-2 to finish 3rd in his 132-139 pound grouping. He pinned his opponent from St. Croix Falls and was a 4-2 winner over Jerrod Jones of Simley. Jaxon Fallos took third in a 203217 pound grouping with a 2-2 record. He pinned opponents from Superior and Cameron.

Blake Schilling went 1-3 in a 146-151 pound pool, pinning Wyatt Mitchell of Superior in 5:31. Broden Schilling went 0-4 at 93-101 pounds and Itsael Medina was 0-4 at 126-132 pounds.

Up next

The Raiders are scheduled to attend a quadrangular tonight, Thursday, in Altoona that features the host Regis-Altoona co-op, Hayward and Durand-Arkansaw. The meet is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m.

The Raiders’ final pre-holiday competition is Saturday when they attend the Shawano Holiday Classic, which starts at 9 a.m.

Thaddeus Logan Kawa Sigmund