Wrestlers roll to championship dual, but then fall to state-ranked Chiefs

SHIOCTON DUALS

The Medford wrestlers won their fourteam pool Friday to advance to the championship dual meet of Shiocton’s Clausen Duals, but that’s where the home team had the upper hand and took a 44-26 victory to win the tournament’s team title.

Before that, the Raiders’ depth carried them to wins over Kiel, Winneconne and Clintonville, with two of them coming decisively. The win over Winneconne was a tight one at 39-31.

Thaddeus Sigmund at 120 pounds, Matt Gebert at 126 pounds, Paxton Rothmeier at 160 pounds and Max Dietzman at 285 pounds all went 4-0 for the tournament.

The results boosted Medford’s dualmeet record for 2022-23 to 8-6. The previous night, the Raiders routed Rhinelander and Tomahawk to start this season’s competition in the Great Northern Conference.

Shiocton, ranked fourth in Division 3, started the championship dual by getting a 9-0 major decision at 138 pounds from Blake Carton over Raider Parker Lissner. Carton was ranked eighth in the state at his weight in Division 3 coming into the tournament and was a 2022 state qualifier.

Medford’s returning state qualifier, Gage Losiewicz, ranked seventh in Division 2 at 145 pounds, countered with a pin in 40 seconds over Reid Flannery. Shiocton’s eighth-ranked Colten Schuh earned a 13-0 major decision over Blake Schilling at 152, but Medford took a 12-8 lead when Rothmeier pinned Ben Kortens in 1:06 at 160 pounds.

The decisive run in the dual started in the highlight match of the meet. The 170-pound bout featured Medford’s sixthranked Logan Kawa and Shiocton’s thirdranked Brad Demerath and was won 2-0 by Demerath thanks to a second-period reversal. 2022 state qualifier and 12thranked Dion Helser pinned Raider Evan Wilkins in 5:31 at 182 pounds, Israel Sanchez pinned Raider Jonathan Bartnik in 3:28 at 195 pounds and fourth-ranked Ilijah Sanchez pinned Braxton Weissmiller in 53 seconds at 220 pounds to give Shiocton a commanding 29-12 lead.

Dietzman took a forfeit, but Shiocton added a pin in 2:21 from Mason Demerath in the 106-pound bout over Raider Broden Schilling and a forfeit win for Izaiah Sanchez at 113.

Sigmund, ranked eighth at 120 pounds in Division 2, dominated Jackson Young in a 19-3 technical fall that ended at 4:26 and Gebert capped his undefeated night with a 3-2 decision over Zach Reif before returning state qualifier Jordan Jahnke edged Owen Higgins 6-5 to close out the dual at 132 pounds.

Shiocton got to the championship by defeating Reedsville 63-18, Menasha 62-9 and Stevens Point 46-34 in its pool.

Pool competition

In pool competition, Medford opened with a 48-21 win over Kiel. Kawa was again involved in one of the top matchups of the dual. Facing fourth-ranked Connor Faust, a returning state qualifier, Kawa trailed 5-3 going into the third period, which started with the wrestlers in neutral positions. Kawa got two takedowns in the period to pull off a big 7-6 win.

The other big match came at 145 pounds where Losiewicz squared off with top-ranked Eyan Dessellier, last year’s Division 2 state runner-up at 126 pounds. Dessellier took Losiewicz down twice in the first period, but Losiewicz got a late reversal to get back in it at 4-3. But that was all the Raider sophomore would score in a 6-3 loss.

Sigmund got a pin in 1:43 over Ian Adorno and Dietzman stuck Jackson Barts in 56 seconds for the Raiders. Wilkins added a 4-0 win over Trevor Muehlbauer.

Gebert, Higgins, Lissner, Rothmeier and Broden Schilling all took forfeit victories.

Weissmiller was pinned in 1:54 by returning state qualifier Ben Kienbaum. Bartnik was pinned in 3:21 by Emmett Langenfeld and Blake Schilling was pinned in 31 seconds by Joah Lund. In round two, the Raiders got their win over Winneconne, clinching it on Sigmund’s 5-2 win over Troy Zemke in the final bout at 120 pounds. Though it ended up close, the Raiders led the dual from start to finish, jumping out to an 18-4 lead thanks to a big pin in 1:44 by Gebert over Chase Sternard, a state qualifier last year at 106 pounds, a pin in 1:14 by Lissner over Bryce Jones at 138 and a pin in 19 seconds from Losiewicz over Tyler Engelke. The Raiders opened up a 36-19 lead thanks to Kawa’s pin in 1:45 over Vincent Duncan, an 8-6 win from Rothmeier over Brady Yonke, an 8-3 win for Wilkins over Carson Piotraschke and a forfeit win for Dietzman.

Blake Schilling cut a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 in the third period against Nathaniel Jechort but eventually lost 7-3. Winneconne’s ninth-ranked Garrett Marks, a 2022 sectional champion, earned a 13-2 major decision over Higgins and Bartnik, Weissmiller and Broden Schilling all lost by pin. The Raiders forfeited at 113.

Medford finished pool competition by crushing short-handed Clintonville 78-0. Winners by pin included Blake Schilling at 152 pounds, Rothmeier at 160, Wilkins at 182, Weissmiller at 220, Dietzman at 285 and Gebert at 126. Higgins, Lissner, Losiewicz, Kawa, Bartnik, Broden Schilling and Sigmund all won by forfeit.

Winneconne beat Reedsville 42-36 in the third-place dual, Menasha beat Kiel 51-30 in the fifth-place dual and Stevens Point beat Clintonville 66-6 in the seventh- place dual. Medford is at home for the second and final time this season tonight, Thursday, when it hosts Mosinee in a 7 p.m. GNC dual. The Raiders will compete in the Freedom Invitational on Saturday before wrapping up GNC duals on Jan. 19 by going to Mosinee to face Antigo and Lakeland.