MEDFORD WRESTLING - Strong showing for wrestlers at Shawano; Raiders sweep duals

MEDFORD WRESTLING

Gage Losiewicz led a list of seven Medford Raiders who placed among the top six finishers in their respective weight classes during the team’s third-place finish at Saturday’s 30-team Shawano Holiday Classic.

An eighth wrestler, Avery Losiewicz, won the 132-pound bracket in girls competition during the Raiders’ second straight strong Saturday showing in one of Wisconsin’s largest tournaments of the weekend.

Gage Losiewicz went basically unchallenged in his path to the tournament’s 157-pound championship. He opened with a pin in 1:29 over Freedom’s Liam Murphy. He then pinned Bonduel’s Matthew Walenta in 1:04 in the quarterfinals, earned a 7-0 decision over Peshtigo’s Ethan Brissette in the semifinals, giving the 18-1 wrestler his first loss of the season, and then stuck Shawano’s 14-4 Carsen Herm in 3:06 in the title bout. Losiewicz is now 16-2 for the year.

Avery Losiewicz was pushed a little more than she was the previous Saturday at Eau Claire North with two of her three matches getting to the second period. She pinned Alanna Bustamante of Winneconne in 2:45 and Sophia Soukup of Two Rivers in 2:52 to reach the 132-pound championship, where she pinned Suring’s Parker Zahn in 40 seconds. Losiewicz is 13-1 on the year.

Also in that bracket, Medford’s Bridget Wesle went 0-2, but she took both matches into the third period. Kettle Moraine’s Hunter Phillips got her at 4:28 and Bustamante pinned her in 4:21.

A semifinal loss was the only defeat of the day for senior Jude Stark, who placed third in the boys 132-pound weight class. Stark, now 14-4, got to the semis with pins of 20 seconds and 1:46 over Marinette’s Wyatt Liebman and Brady Shepard of Wabeno-Laona/Three Lakes. Once he got to the final four, Stark ran into the bracket’s top seed, Brillion’s 14-3 junior Bob Huntley, who outscored Stark 11-6 before falling 9-5 to second-seeded Peter Tomazevic (15-1) of Freedom in the final.

Pushed to the consolation bracket, Stark pinned West De Pere’s Daniel Beaupre in 4:25 to get to the third-place bout, where he took care of Shawano’s Owen Montour in a 9-0 major decision.

Senior Logan Kawa also took just a semifinal loss in a third-place finish at 175 pounds. Kawa went to overtime twice in his 4-1 day, which started with a pin in 3:48 over Marshfield’s Haiden Carlson and a quarterfinal pin in 3:58 over 12-5 Zach Sherman of Peshtigo. The thirdseeded Kawa (13-5) met second-seeded Justin Klinkner (10-1) of Two Rivers in the semifinals. The two battled to a scoreless tie through regulation, but in the 60-second sudden-victory period, Klinkner got a takedown to secure a 2-0 win.

Kawa responded, closing out his day with a pin in 3:23 over Florence’s Breyson Kelley, who is 13-5, and an overtime win over fourth-seeded Patrick Moore (13-4) of Freedom. This was another match that was scoreless through regulation. Neither wrestler scored in the sudden-victory period. Eventually in the ultimate tiebreaker, Kawa got the escape and a 1-0 win.

Cory Lindahl took fourth at 150 pounds, losing two matches to the same wrestler.

After pinning Appleton West’s Collin Evers in 1:27, Lindahl lost a tight 5-3 decision to Brayden Lenz of Valders in the quarterfinals. He worked his way through the consolation bracket, gettin a 28-second pin over Logan Hansen of Two Rivers and a pin in 1:26 over Oshkosh North’s Jamond Thompson-Schreck to earn a third-place rematch with Lenz, but Lenz (16-2) took that close match as well 6-4. Lindahl is 13-5 so far this season.

Owen Higgins (9-3) earned a fourthplace finish at 144 pounds, following a path similar to Lindahl. He pinned Cole Chitko of Florence in 3:31, but then lost a heartbreaker, 5-3 in the sudden victory overtime period, to Hortonville’s Jack Cleereman. In consolation competition, Higgins got a medical forfeit and then a 6-2 win over Crandon’s Ty Dennee to earn a spot in the third-place match, where he dropped a 9-5 decision to Freedom’s Murphy Beyer.

At 215 pounds, Braxton Weissmiller rebounded after an opening loss in the quarterfinals to finish in fifth place. The Raider senior was pinned by Oneida Nation’s 10-4 Nelson Ninham in 38 seconds to start, but he rattled off two pins after that, sticking Brillion’s Max Lau in 1:20 and Wausau East’s Elmer Heard in 4:59. Freedom’s Henry Vander Heiden (15-1), the bracket’s second seed who suffered his first loss of the year in the semifinals, pinned Weissmiller in 2:24 in the consolation semifinals, pushing Weissmiller (10-8) to the fifth-place bout, which he won by pin in 43 seconds over Kale Zimmermann of Valders.

Max Dietzman had a full day at 285 pounds going 3-3 in six matches. His wins all came with pins. He stuck Liam Johnson of Valders in 1:15, Clintonville’s Parker Phillips in 28 seconds and Winneconne’s Daniel Simon in 1:22. Dietzman (12-7) was pinned in 2:25 in the quarterfinals by Omro’s Andyboi Hernandez (10-2) and in 2:15 in the consolation semifinals by Crandon’s Connor Lawrence (13-2) before taking a 1-1 fifthplace match with Appleton West’s Jevonte Johnson to overtime. Johnson caught Dietzman in sudden victory with a fivepoint move and won 6-1.

Caden Olson went 2-2 for Medford at 106 pounds earning pins in 3:39 over West De Pere’s Kaeden Van Camp and 20 seconds over Peshtigo’s Nick Mans. Evan Wilkins went 1-2 at 190 pounds, getting an opening pin in 1:07 over Antigo’s Wyat Beaber. Paxton Rothmeier was 1-2 at 165 pounds, opening with a pin in 2:23 over Lakeland’s Tommy Howard. He lost 9-3 to 16-2 Lincoln Nemec of Peshtigo.

Jordan Lavin was 1-2 at 120 pounds with a pin in 4:29 over Freedom’s Ben Micke. He was pinned by 13-3 Mason Boerner of Omro and 14-2 Milo Knuth of Kettle Moraine. Ayden Tyznik was 0-2 at 113 pounds.

Medford is back in action Friday when it hosts a double-dual with Baldwin-Woodville and Tri-County. Wrestling is set to start at 5:30 p.m. Baldwin-Woodville and Medford last met in last February’s WIAA Division 2 team sectional, a dual meet the Blackhawks won 44-27.

Medford is at the Bi-State Classic in La Crosse Dec. 29-30.

2-0 in GNC quad

Medford got Great Northern Conference competition for 2023-24 started Thursday by dominating both of its dual meets in a league quad at Raider Hall. The Raiders won the last eight matches to bury Tomahawk 64-16 and they won all but the first and last bouts in a 71-9 rout of Rhinelander.

The Tomahawk dual got off to a fast start with Braxton Weissmiller pinning Blake Younker in 3:07 in the 215-pound match, Max Dietzman pinning Tristan Bridges in 1:10 at heavyweight and Caden Olson taking a forfeit at 106 pounds.

Tomahawk made a move, taking three straight wins to pull within 18-16. Ayden Tyznik got the first takedown in his 113-pound match with Tomahawk’s Bryden Ristau and used a reversal to start the second period to go up 4-2. But tied 4-4 going into the third, Ristau took over, getting three near falls to win by major decision. Jordan Lavin got an escape, takedown and two-point near fall to take a 5-2 first-period lead over one of Tomahawk’s better wrestlers, Presley Gutbrod in the 120-pound match. Lavin led 8-4 after a takedown in the second period, but he got caught and Gutbrod pinned him in 3:49. Harman Hoffman pinned Medford’s Broden Schilling in 3:44 at 126 pounds.

Starting at 132 pounds, the Hatchets got into the teeth of Medford’s lineup and did not survive.

Jude Stark pinned Jack Derleth in just 57 seconds at 132 pounds. Parker Lissner recovered from an early takedown by another of the Hatchets’ more experienced wrestlers, Ryan Larson, and nearly had Larson pinned multiple times before settling for a 14-3 major decision at 138 pounds.

Owen Higgins turned the first takedown into a pin of Mason Towle at 1:31 at 144 pounds. Cory Lindahl got his pin at 57 seconds in the 150-pound match with Zander Zehner. Gage Losiewicz stuck Andrew Tollefson in 58 seconds at 157 pounds. Paxton Rothmeier’s pin in the 165-pound match with Tanner Wanta came at 1:10 and Logan Kawa needed just 1:02 to take care of Kaiden Kapellisch at 175 pounds. The dual ended with Raider Evan Wilkins taking a forfeit at 190 pounds.

The tightest match in the Rhinelander dual came right away at 285 pounds. Hodag junior Reid Schultz got Dietzman for a two-point nearfall in the second period and rode that to a 3-1 win.

But Medford on a 12-match winning streak after that to go up 71-3.

Olson was up 7-0 before pinning Gavin Liebherr 32 seconds into the 106-pound match. Tyznik and Schilling drew forfeits at 113 and 120. Lavin built off his solid outing against Tomahawk controlled his 126-pound match with Tony Boldt, pinning him in 2:34. Stark made it 30-3 by pinning Gage Anderson in 51 seconds at 132 pounds.

The run continued with Lissner fighting through some left shoulder pain to pin Dresden Klever in 4:46 at 138 pounds. Lissner got a key takedown just before the first period ended and a reversal in the second period before getting the late takedown and pin. Higgins got his pin in 54 seconds over Hodag senior Robert Schramke at 144 pounds and Lindahl was done in just 38 seconds in his 150-pound match with Aiden Ostermann.

Losiewicz and Rothmeier took forfeits, Kawa recorded a 19-2 technical fall over Lgoan Schwinger in 3:17 at 175 pounds and Wilkins took his second forfeit of the night at 190.

The dual ended with Rhinelander’s top gun, 215-pounder Owen Kurtz, pinning Weissmiller in 1:17.

In the quad’s other duals, Mosinee went 2-0 by beating Rhinelander 48-30 and Tomahawk 40-36.

Raider Owen Higgins has Mason Towle’s arm barred and tries to turn him to his back during his pin over the Tomahawk wrestler in Thursday’s 144-pound bout. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS