GNC WRESTLING TOURNAMENT - GNC clinched; now it’s on to ‘big show’
GNC WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
There was no suspense when it came to the team standings at Saturday’s Great Northern Conference wrestling tournament at Antigo, but the Medford Raiders did have a side goal in mind in addition to securing the team’s sixth straight league title.
The Raiders hoped to set a new school record with seven conference champions and came close, tying the current mark of six as they capped a dominant season in conference competition. Medford won Saturday’s meet with 474 points, 119 more than runner-up Tomahawk and added four second-place finishes and two thirds to their six individual titles. Medford also went 5-0 and basically unchallenged during the GNC’s dual meets in January.
“I feel like we did well,” senior Logan Kawa said after he won his first GNC title. “We tied the record again for champs. We were so close. Dang six gets us every time. We had 10 in the finals. I hope next year they can pull it off. I’m just happy to see the team doing well together and winning tournaments.”
“We had a couple of them I wish we would’ve won, just a few,” senior Jude Stark said after claiming a GNC championship for the third straight year. “We had six conference champs today. If we would’ve had seven we would’ve beat the record. But it is what it is.”
One of the things Saturday’s meet was was one more chance to get better before “the big show” as Kawa called it begins. With its deep and experienced squad the Raiders have felt this can be a year to make some post-season noise, and that opportunity begins this Saturday with the WIAA Division 2 Medford regional meet set for 10 a.m. at Medford Area Middle School.
“Next week is where it really starts,” Stark said. “We start with winning regionals and then sectionals and then hopefully state. That’s the end goal.”
The champs
Along with Kawa and Stark, Medford’s GNC champions included juniors Gage Losiewicz and Owen Higgins, who won their third straight titles; senior Cory Lindahl, who won his second straight championship and freshman Jordan Lavin, who won his first.
Lavin got a big win in his second match of round-robin competition at 120 pounds, getting a last-second takedown to defeat Lakeland senior Justin Funmaker 6-4. Funmaker was third last year at 113 pounds.
Lavin got first-period pins in the rest of his contested matches, taking care of Tomahawk’s Walter Horbic in 1:07, Mosinee’s Mason Fleming in 15 seconds and, in his final match, Antigo’s Owen Medo in 1:15.
“It feels pretty good,” Lavin said. “I knew a couple people that I was going to wrestle, but other than that, I was sick during the Antigo duals, so I missed out on that, so I didn’t really know anybody from that dual (meets with Antigo and Lakeland). I thought I had a pretty big shot coming in to winning this, which I think helped mentality wise.”
“Jordy had an excellent day going out there and beating all of his guys, showing how good of a wrestler he truly is,” Losiewicz said of his young teammate.
“I think it gives me a lot (of momentum),” Lavin said. “I think I’ve hit my peak now this season. Mostly my mentality and definitely my shooting is where I’ve improved. I’ve gotten a lot better on that.”
As a three-time GNC champion, Higgins obviously has always been a solid wrestler for the Raiders, but most would agree he is one veteran who has taken his game to a new level this season. At 138 pounds Saturday, Higgins clinched his latest title with a 12-4 major decision over second-seeded Ryan Larson of Tomahawk. He also had to go the distance in an 8-3 decision over Lakeland’s Ashton Bremer in the third round. Higgins recorded pins over Rhinelander’s Dresden Klever in 54 seconds, Mosinee’s Chris Strejc in 2:28 and Antigo’s Michael Hofrichter in 29 seconds.
“I’m feeling really good,” Higgins said. “This year I’ve kinda been doing really good. I’m beating kids I’d be close to beating and beating kids maybe I shouldn’t be beating. I’m just wrestling my hardest, having fun.”
Along with having fun, Higgins said there are specific areas he’s worked on and it’s paying off.
“I think working on bottom, I’m starting to get better with that,” Higgins said. “Last year, I’d just sit down there and stall. I’m starting to get to the flip granbys and starting to get on my feet. I think I’m doing a pretty good job. I’m doing really good up on my feet. “(The last match) was tiring but I felt I mostly controlled that whole match. He might’ve been stronger, but I had more technique. I was faster and I got him on the feet.”
It may surprise some to realize Kawa’s GNC title is his first. Medford’s sixth-place state finisher from a year ago ran into a couple of the conference’s top wrestlers in Lakeland’s Zane Grams and Tomahawk’s Logan Bishop in title matches the past two years. This time, wrestling at 175 pounds, it was no contest as Kawa pinned Rhinelander’s Max Singhammer in 53 seconds, Mosinee’s Andrew Nevienski in 1:21, Antigo’s Wyat Beaber in 1:07, Lakeland’s Kenny Thompson in 1:49 and Tomahawk’s Ethan Trayes in 39 seconds.
“It feels good to finally get one under my belt after two times,” Kawa said. “Coach (Brandon Marcis) made a deal with me at the beginning of the day. He said in each match you have to get three takedowns and a pin in the first period just for me to nominate you (for GNC Wrestler of the Year). That was just the goal I had in mind. I put in there. I just let my setups work out. My drag was working real nice. I had fun.”
There were a couple of moments in Lindahl’s 150-pound championship match with Antigo’s Jayson Arrowood where Lindahl got in some trouble, but he always quickly found a way out and pulled away for a 14-6 major decision. Arrowood took Lindahl down to take a brief 4-3 lead late in the first period, but Lindahl’s reversal put him back on top 5-4. An escape, then a takedown and near fall opened up an 11-4 lead in the second. Arrowood opened the third period with a takedown, but Lindahl quickly fought that off and closed it out.
Lindahl also pinned Lakeland’s Tyler Christiansen in 18 seconds and Tomahawk’s Conner Jones in 18 seconds in just a four-man bracket.
Losiewicz also wrestled in a fourman bracket at 157 pounds. He pinned Tomahawk’s Tanner Wanta in 44 seconds, Antigo’s Levi Binversie in 1:09 and Lakeland’s Tyson Skubal in a quick 15 seconds.
The overwhelming favorite in his bracket, Losiewicz said he just tried to take the same approach with every match.
“It was a good day,” he said. “I was just trying to get through the day without any injuries for regionals and sectionals coming up. I was just warming like I do before every match and trying to keep everything consistent, not thinking about it too much. Just going out there to wrestle.”
The rest of the Raiders
Senior Max Dietzman earned a second- place finish for the second straight year at 285 pounds. The only GNC wrestler to get Dietzman in the duals got him again Saturday as Rhinelander junior Reid Schultz pinned him in 3:41 in the final bout. Dietzman had just taken a 3-2 lead with an escape and takedown, but got caught as he went for back points and Schultz took advantage.
Dietzman got off to a great start, beating two quality wrestlers. He pinned Mosinee’s Teryn Walls in 2:22 and Lakeland’s Esaube Brown in 55 seconds. He pinned Antigo’s Trystin Powell in 38 seconds and dominated Tomahawk’s Nathan Norman before finally getting the pin at 4:16.
Parker Lissner, the 138-pound champion last year, came up one win short this time around at 144 pounds. Lissner pinned Rhinelander’s Cyrus Leisure in 2:43 and Mosinee’s Noah Nechuta in 2:31 and took a 16-5 major decision over Tomahawk’s Zander Zehner to set up a championship bout in the last round with Lakeland’s Jerome LaBarge. The T-Bird senior built a 4-1 lead on takedowns in each of the first two periods. Lissner got a reversal following the second one but got no closer in a 5-3 decision.
Paxton Rothmeier got his second straight runner-up finish, this time at 165 pounds. In that final, Rothmeier met Antigo’s Nolan Kielcheski in a battle of GNC unbeatens as the two did not see each other in the duals. Riding Rothmeier in the second period, Kielcheski got Rothmeier to his back for a near fall and that was the only scoring in a 3-0 decision.
Otherwise, Rothmeier’s day was a success as he pinned Tomahawk’s Kaiden Kapellesh in 24 seconds and beat Lakeland’s Tommy Howard 7-0.
Evan Wilkins earned his second career All-GNC award by taking second at 190 pounds. The junior was 4-0 for the day before meeting up with Rhinelander’s Logan Schwinger in the title bout. Schwinger got ahead 5-0 in the first period and won it 7-3.
Wilkins survived a good thirdround match with Tomahawk’s Blake Younker, building a lead and then holding on 11-9. He pinned Antigo’s Caleb Vandenlangenberg in 4:49 and earned a 16-1 technical fall over Lakeland’s Carmello Roche-Vetterneck.
Braxton Weissmiller, last year’s 220-pound runner-up, came up short in one of the day’s top matches and slid to third at 215 pounds. He took the oddson favorite in the bracket, Rhinelander’s Owen Kurtz to overtime with a 1-1 tie. The two went scoreless in the one-minute sudden victory period. But in the first 30-second period of the tiebreaker, Kurtz quickly escaped and then got Weissmiller to the mat with a quick move and pinned him at 7:24.
A win there would’ve created a threeway tie atop the bracket with Lakeland’s Leonard Chosa, who beat Weissmiller 3-2 to start the day and lost 4-1 to Kurtz. Weissmiller pinned Antigo’s Jordy Pregler in 1:02, took a forfeit over Tomahawk’s Skylar Harper-Dahlvig and pinned Mosinee’s Bruce Hintz in 5:08 after leading 3-0 through two periods and narrowly avoiding a takedown at the end of the second.
Nick Malchow got third place and honorable mention at 113 pounds with a 2-2 day. After losing to champion Presley Gutbrod of Tomahawk by pin in 1:52 and to runner-up Jackson Nechuta of Mosinee by pin in 4:38, Malchow pinned Rhinelander’s Hoyt Dantoin in 1:06 and shut out Antigo’s Jonathan Wissbroecker 7-0 for a strong finish to his day.
Freshman Ayden Tyznik was fourth at 106 pounds, going 1-3 with a 44-second pin over Rhinelander’s Gaven Liebherr. Broden Schilling was 0-5 at 126 pounds.
Lakeland was third in the team standings with 301 points, followed by Mosinee (260), Antigo (234) and Rhinelander (225). The Hodags actually wound up with the second-most champions with three. Lakeland had two, while Tomahawk, Mosinee and Antigo each had one.
Looking forward to it
Saturday’s regional meet will feature 13 teams, including Medford’s GNC rivals Mosinee, Rhinelander and Tomahawk. Cloverbelt Conference squads Abbotsford-Colby, the Neillsville Co-op, the Osseo-Fairchild Co-op, Bloomer-Colfax, Stanley-Boyd, McDonell-Elk Mound and Spencer-Columbus Catholic will be there, along with Ashland and Mondovi/Eleva-Strum.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class will advance to the WIAA Division 2 Tomahawk sectional on Feb. 17. The top two teams will head west to Somerset on Tuesday for the WIAA team sectional, where the champion earns a spot in the WIAA’s team state tournament March 2 in Madison.
Medford made the team sectional last year, losing in the semifinals to Baldwin-Woodville.
“We’re very excited I’d say,” Kawa said. “We’re up there with the top teams. We should make it to the top. But we have to keep our minds set, keep working hard in practice, keep having fun, because if you’re not having fun, it isn’t going to turn out.”
“I feel like we’re going to make it pretty far as a team, further than we have in a long time,” Higgins said. “Hopefully a trip to team state. That’s the goal.”
Medford’s Logan Kawa lifts Antigo’s Wyat Beaber completely off the mat during their 175-pound match Saturday, which Kawa won by pin in 1:07. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
