Wrestlers build toward a February peak with good day at Arcadia

Thaddeus Sigmund and Gage Losiewicz won weight-class championships, Jude Stark and Logan Kawa wrestled their way to championship matches and three more Raiders earned top-five placements during Medford’s fourth-place team finish at Saturday’s 15-team Arcadia Challenge.

Despite not filling three weight classes, the Raiders totaled 390 points to trail only Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/ Melrose-Mindoro (525), Cadott (471.5) and St. Croix Central (420.5) in the final standings. Minnetonka, Minn. was fifth with 359 points, while Arcadia (326.5), Independence-Gilmanton (313), Onalaska (199), Mosinee (196.5) and Ladysmith (191) rounded out the top 10.

“I think we really wrestled good across the board just on doing little things right, hustling, outhustling the other guys,” Medford head coach Brandon Marcis said. “We relied on our conditioning. It was proof over the weekend that our conditioning is superior to a lot of teams. We can rely on that when it comes to tight matches because come the post-season you’re going to be in matches where technically maybe you’re 50-50 with the guy and experience-wise you’re going to get in those tight matches. What’s going to be the difference? We know we can fix our conditioning and outwork the other guy. That’s an easy thing to fix if we put in the work.”

The other thing that jumped out to Marcis about the tournament was Medford’s ability to not just beat opponents, but pin them. Medford’s 11 wrestlers combined for 28 pins with four of them getting four apiece.

“We had a lot of pins,” Marcis said. “We were winning on the feet and if a guy wasn’t opening up on bottom, we were coming back on the feet and just trying to crack that pin from a takedown to a pin situation.”

Sigmund and Losiewicz were two of the Raiders to pin four opponents in the tournament.

“Thaddeus and Gage both had a pretty dominant day,” Marcis said. “When Thaddeus found success, he was definitely finishing his shots. He was not hanging out in a tie or hanging on his knees too much. Gage just had an absolutely dominant day. He pinned his guy in the finals. He was working his cross-wrist series.”

Sigmund did his work at 120 pounds, a bracket that was a bit thin with just eight wrestlers. Sigmund got a bye into the five-man championship, round-robin bracket, where his key win came at the end of the day with a pin in 2:44 over Dylan Powell, a 28-5 senior from Brookwood, who was also unbeaten on the day going into the match. Sigmund improved to 32-6 for the year. He also pinned Ivan Aguilar of Arcadia in 1:39, George Ahles of Mosinee in 2:51 and Jayce Stetzer of GE- T/M-M. At 145 pounds, Losiewicz (26-10) pinned Jeron Hansen of the G-E-T/M-M reserves in 28 seconds and Kaeden Sanders of Minnetonka in 1:56 to reach the four-man championship bracket. There, he stuck Brock Swenson of St. Croix Central in 1:02 in the semifinals and then pinned Carson Koss of G-E-T/M-M in 1:23 in the championship.

“It’s not like he made up the move, but we haven’t practiced it in a long time,” Marcis said of Losiewicz’s championship pin. “He just did it like he’d been drilling it continuously for the past couple weeks. He’s just a wrestler. That’s a really good example of going to your instincts. When the match takes over and the nerves start settling, you go to what your habits and instincts are. He didn’t necessarily know exactly what he was going to do, but his instincts told him what to do and it was spot-on.”

Kawa (33-8), who just moved to 160 pounds for the first time the night before, needed just a 24-second pin over Jose Cantu Lucio of Independence-Gilmanton to reach the championship bracket. He beat Noah Nusbaum of St. Croix Central (29-8) in a 10-4 decision to advance to the final, where he lost a tight 4-2 decision to Cadott’s 29-3 Cole Pfeiffer (Cadott).

“He kept it close,” Marcis said. “Logan just has to keep focusing on scoring and not necessarily keeping it close and winning, but getting into a scramble situation and scoring. He tends to have a lot of tight matches. I see a lot of big things coming for him post-season as long as he opens it up full throttle.”

At 126 pounds, Stark (24-8) recorded three pins in preliminary competition to reach the championship bracket. He got Wyatt Oines of G-E-T/M-M) in 50 seconds, Nick Goettl of Cadott in 32 seconds and Owen Gierok of Independence-Gilmanton) in 2:50. Stark controlled Minnetonka’s Charlie Palm in the semifinals, earning an 11-2 major decision. St. Croix Central’s Teague Holzer, who is 17-1, took an 11-3 major decision in the final.

“Jude wrestled well,” Marcis said. “He hit his duck-under really good. A key for him come the post-season, and we know this, is he’s going to have to open up a few more things on the feet. If he does that, he’s going to be looking real good.”

Parker Lissner reached the 138-pound semifinals before settling for third place. Lissner (25-13) got to the final four by pinning Camren Schultz of Arcadia in 1:13 and Lance Hoglund of Minnetonka in 4:38. In the semifinals, Lissner got a rematch with David Hiles of G-E-T/M-M, who he beat in overtime at the Bi-State Classic. This time, Hiles (14-4) pinned Lissner in 3:32. Lissner finished with a 10-6 win over Cadott’s Nick Fasbender (20-14) in the third-place match.

Braxton Weissmiller (23-14) got to the championship bracket at 220 pounds by pinning Caleb Taylor of Minnetonka in 2:37 and Shawn Johnson of Minnetonka in 1:34. He got pinned in 41 seconds by eventual champion Braydon Lockington of G-E-T/M-M (13-1) in the semifinals and then was pinned in 50 seconds by 28-9 Jacob Berends of St. Croix Central in the third-place match.

Junior Cory Lindahl (16-11) continued his recent run of solid wrestling with a fifth-place finish at 152 pounds. He started with pins in 1:18 over Hayden Fry of G-ET/ M-M and in 32 seconds over Mosinee’s Oliver Janssen, but a loss by pin in 4:36 to Onalaska’s Bryce Buchanan (29-8) knocked him to the fifth- through eighthplace bracket, which he won by pinning Kickapoo’s Benny Culver in 34 seconds and Minnetonka’s Liam Dorn in 4:52.

Paxton Rothmeier finished sixth at 170 pounds by going 2-2. He pinned Minnetonka’s John Mueller in 4:52 and got an 18-2 technical fall over Arcadia’s Gery Lopez for his two wins. Owen Higgins went 3-2 to place sixth at 132 pounds. He pinned Mosinee’s Noah Nechuta in 1:01 and Jazmin Wagner of G-E-T/M-M in 34 seconds in the preliminary rounds and pinned Minnetonka’s Dylan Romero in 1:39 to get a chance to wrestle for fifth.

Max Dietzman (21-13) took seventh in the 285-pound competition. He started with pins in 1:33 over Anderson Barcenas of Independence/Gilmanton and in 1:18 over Alex Jackson of Cadott. He got a rematch with Mosinee’s Teryn Walls, who he beat on Jan. 12, in bracket competition, and lost 8-5. He pinned Kickapoo’s Levi Brown in 57 seconds in the seventhplace bout.

Broden Schilling finished 11th for Medford at 106 pounds, earning a couple of byes and losing three matches by pin.

The Raiders are now off until the Great Northern Conference Championships, set for Feb. 4 in Tomahawk.

“We just have a really nice opportunity here with this small break to really work on things, tweak some little things and get fine-tuned for post-season wrestling,” Marcis said. “I’m pretty excited.”

Gage Losiewicz 145 champion