MEDFORD WRESTLING - Donnybrook exactly what Raiders hoped for to start season

MEDFORD WRESTLING

Logan Kawa got to the quarterfinals and the awards podium, Gage and Avery Losiewicz both placed ninth in their weight classes and there were several more success stories during the Medford wrestling team’s appearance in last weekend’s Dan Gable Donnybrook in Coralville, Iowa.

The tournament, named after the legendary wrestler and coach from the Hawkeye state, featured several highquality squads from throughout the Midwest and was the perfect opener, according to Medford head coach Brandon Marcis, for a team that enters the 2023-24 season with high hopes.

“It was incredible,” Marcis said. “It was exactly what we were looking for. I feel like as soon as you walk into the doors at that arena and you see all of these schools from across the Midwest and a lot of them are private schools and academies where kids are there to wrestle, you automatically have to elevate everything about your game. How you prepare, how you warm up, even how you carry yourself through the tournament and how you take care of yourself. It’s a two-day tournament. You have to weigh in twice, you have to be mentally tough through two days. You have to buy in to the fact that no matter what you’re going to have a battle.

“We didn’t go down and see any moves or anything we didn’t know,” Marcis added. “We just saw good, aggressive wrestling. There are no tricks. It’s just staying disciplined, being aggressive and wrestling hard. The second you take a break in a tournament like that, you’re going to pay for it.”

Medford finished 29th out of 38 teams in the boys standings with 106.5 points and its two girls wrestlers put 28 points on the board to place 40th out of 43 teams.

The tournament format allowed each team to place a total of 14 wrestlers in any combination of weight classes they needed, so Medford doubled up in a couple of spots.

One of those was at 175 pounds where Kawa won his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals and Evan Wilkins went a solid 3-3 to place 22nd.

Kawa got off to a great start, pinning Jesse Hendershot of Iowa City High in 1:11 and Gavin Neu of Canton, S.D. in 4:46 to get to the quarterfinals. The competition jumped a level or two after that. Kawa lost a tough battle in the quarterfinals, falling 9-5 to eventual third-place finisher Damarion Ross of Fort Dodge, Iowa. That sent him to the bracket to determine fifth- through eighth-place. Kawa lost 3-1 to fifth-place wrestler Dominic Mann of Kasson-Mantorville, Minn. and 6-2 in the seventh-place match to Kyler Scranton of Iowa City West.

“The top eight get to stand on the podium so Kawa got to go shake Gable’s hand, so that was pretty cool for him,” Marcis said. “Once you hit the quarterfinals, you’re wrestling state guys. You make it to the finals, you’re wrestling nationally-ranked guys, multiple-time champs. That’s just the quality of that tournament. We just need to be a little more aggressive on his feet and work on our short offense. Now that we have that focus, I think Logan is going to definitely improve.”

Wilkins won by technical fall 16-1 over Lucas Edwards of Ozark, Mo. just to get into the main bracket. There he lost 9-0 to Braxten Westendorf of Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa to get sent to the consolation bracket. He picked up a 9-0 major decision over Elias Bentley of Antioch, Ill. and, after a loss, stayed alive with a 13-2 major decision over Mason Tilley of Iowa City High before falling 4-0 to Kinnick Lechtenberg of Linn-Mar, Iowa in the 21st-place match.

“Wilkins had a great tournament,” Marcis said. “Every match was a dogfight and a battle and he got better every match.”

Gage Losiewicz went 5-1 at 157 pounds with a second-round loss knocking him out of quarterfinal contention. He drew a preliminary match and easily won that 13-2 over Elijah Zepeda of Lincoln Way West, Ill. and then pinned Eddie Rasp of Lockport Township, Ill. in 3:28 to get to the round of 16. A 13-3 loss, however, to Luke Swanson of Kasson-Mantorville sent him to the consolation bracket.

There Losiewicz won three straight matches, two of which came by pin. He finished with an 8-4 win over Teagen Peiffer of Ankeny, Iowa in the ninth-place match.

“He came back nicely,” Marcis said. “We picked up a couple of little things to work on. He’ll be definitely working on those. On the backside he had two pins and a win to finish it out. Once he got on the backside he got everything he could.”

Cory Lindahl went 4-1 to place 17th. His loss came in his first match at 150 pounds by pin at 1:45 to Liam Kelly of Mount Carmel, Ill. The best he could do from there was 17th and he got it with four straight wins, a pin in 1:36 over Dilan Armstrong of Lebanon, Mo., an 11-5 decision over Kollin Henry of Decorah, Ill., a 17-9 major decision over Lester Brown of Staley, Mo. and a pin in 3:24 over Kendyll Kerr of Bettendorf, Iowa.

“For Cory, I think historically it’s been a challenge for him to be a thirdperiod guy,” Marcis said. “But he was Mr. Third Period at this tournament. So seeing that maturity and that growth out of Cory is very satisfying and should be very satisfying for him. It’s satisfying for me as a coach to just know that we’re getting better at the things that we’re weak at.”

Jude Stark nearly did the same thing as Lindahl at 132 pounds. He lost his opener 10-0 to Miller Sipes of Staley and then won three straight matches. He pinned Jakob Siwinski of Lincoln Way West in 50 seconds, Roland Mendoza of Northwest Grand Island, Neb. in 27 seconds and Cooper Nally of Lee’s Summit, Mo. in 3:47. His run ended in the 17thplace match with a 13-1 loss to Edgar Albino of Antioch.

Parker Lissner went 2-3 and placed 14th at 138 pounds. He opened with a 5-3 win over Creighton Jongeling of Bellevue West., Neb., then lost close 4-1 and 6-3 decisions before getting into the 13th-place match with a 6-0 win over Cain Boddicker of Linn-Mar. Hudson Ikens of DeKalb, Ill. got him 13-2 in the final match.

“Parker was 2-3 and took 14th but overall his wrestling was great,” Marcis said. Parker is a tournament guy, he’s a competition guy. He always rises to the level of the competition he’s wrestling. The more high-level wrestling we can expose Parker to the higher level his wrestling is going to be.”

Braxton Weissmiller was 15th and went 2-3 at 215 pounds. He beat Marcello Aguilar of Joliet Catholic Academy, Ill. 7-1, lost three straight matches, including a close 5-2 decision, and then won the 15th-place match by pin in 2:25 over Maddon Evans of Hampton-Dumont, Iowa.

The Raiders had two entrants at 285 pounds. Senior Max Dietzman placed 19th with a 4-2 record. After a preliminary win, Dietzman was knocked to the consolation side when he was pinned in 1:14 by fourth-seeded Trenton Bindel of Liberty, Mo. Dietzman pinned Bryce Luehring of Bellevue West in 1:02 and Maverick Stapley of Linn-Mar in 1:38, took a loss and then won a hard-fought 19th-place match 10-6 over Andrew Hine of Waukee, Iowa.

Freshman Forest Hartl went 0-2 in his matches at 285.

A 23rd-place finish for freshman Ayden Tyznik at 113 pounds caught the attention of Marcis. After getting pinned to start the tournament, Tyznik edged Hortonville’s Derek Hendrickson 8-7 to stay in contention for 17th. That ended with a loss by pin. He was pinned again before finishing with a 10-8 win in the 23rd-place match with LB Fulkerson of Lebanon.

“We talk about in Medford wrestling that your attitude is everything,” Marcis said. “We just want to have the attitude that we can go with anybody, we can battle until the end, we’re ready for a dogfight and Ayden Tyznik is a perfect example of persevering through a whole match. He was 2-3 on the weekend. The matches that he won were just absolute dogfights. He went right to the end. He won 8-7 and then he won 10-8. Wrestling can be an emotional sport. Ayden is so level. I feel like in his mind he has the attitude that he never really loses, he only learns. He has that right mindset. I think it’s going to serve him great through high school wrestling.”

Broden Schilling was 0-5 at 113 pounds. Caden Olson went 2-3 at 106 pounds, winning his last two matches by pin in 1:00 over Tegan Jones of Iowa City High and 4:52 over Jaxon Christensen of Northwest Grand Island. Jordan Lavin went 0-4 in his debut at 120 pounds.

For the girls, Avery Losiewicz got her prep career off to a fine start by going 4-1 at 135 and it was so close to being even bigger.

She started with a 16-8 major decision over Sophia Glaser of New Hampton-Turkey Valley, Iowa and had Mariaha Benedict of Fort Dodge on the ropes in round two, holding a 10-2 lead. Benedict, though, came back and got a pin in 3:28, keeping Losiewicz out of the quarterfinals. Losiewicz got three straight pins after that, including one in 47 seconds over Shannon Finn of Williamsburg, Iowa in the ninth-place match.

Also wrestling at 135 pounds, Bridget Wesle lost all four of her matches.

“Every match Avery and Bridget got better,” Marcis said. “Every match they just jumped levels. Avery was actually winning the Fort Dodge match 10-2. She got caught. Just in the wrong spot at the wrong time and didn’t recover quick enough. You can’t do that on good kids. Avery came back and absolutely kicked butt on the backside to take ninth. Had she not got caught, she could’ve won it. Avery is going to do some big things. Her attitude is great. She just wants to learn. She soaks things up like a sponge and she works hard. I just think the sky is the limit for Avery.”

Decorah won the girls team championship with 408 points, while Waverly-Shell Rock was second with 367, four more than Bettendorf. Mt. Carmel of Chicago won the boys title with 401 points, 10 more than Liberty.

Medford is back on familiar ground this week, traveling to Neillsville tonight, Thursday, for the season’s first dual meet at 7 p.m. The Raiders will be at the Eau Claire North Invitational Saturday and will host a Great Northern Conference Quad at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 14 where they will face Tomahawk and Rhinelander. Mosinee will also be there.

Gage Losiewicz Ninth place

Avery Losiewicz Ninth place

Parker Lissner 14th place