Three place at Bi-State; key GNC dual tonight with Tomahawk
MEDFORD WRESTLING
As usual, nothing came easy for the Medford Raiders at the 68-team Bi-State Classic, though three of the team’s wrestlers earned placements in their weight classes during the two-day event that concluded Friday at the La Crosse Center.
Senior Thaddeus Sigmund wound his way back through the consolation side of the 120-pound bracket to place eighth out of 51 wrestlers in the weight class. Junior Logan Kawa took ninth out of 57 wrestlers in the 170-pound weight class and sophomore Gage Losiewicz was ninth out of 58 wrestlers while moving down to 145 pounds for the first time this season.
Overall, Medford scored 114 points to place sixth in the Division 2 standings of the tournament behind Caledonia-Houston, Minn. (189 points), Zumbrota-Mazeppa, Minn. (188), Prairie du Chien (184.5), Luxemburg-Casco (176) and Lodi (168.5). Dodgeville (106.5), Cannon Falls-Randolph, Minn. (104) and Evansville (98) were seventh, eighth and ninth. Hastings, Minn. won the Division 1 and overall titles with 328.5 points, outscoring Marshfield (237), Hudson (212.5) and Bay Port (196). La Crosse Aquinas was the Division 3 champion and was second overall with 250 points.
Medford’s top three
Sigmund (16-5) won his opening match with a one-minute pin over Titan Foht of the Cuba City Co-op, but D.C. Everest’s Easten Cooper sent Sigmund to the consolation bracket with an 11-6 win in the second round. Cooper would later reach the semifinals.
Sigmund then went on a tear in consolation competition to finish 6-3 in the tournament.
He pinned Stoughton’s Lukas Hartberg in 2:30 and Luxemburg-Casco’s Reese Barbiaux in 4:03 and earned decisions of 6-5 over Sawyer Ostrum of Nekoosa-Assumption and 10-4 over Tomah’s Landen Bloom. A 9-2 win over 18-3 Drake Gosda of Mauston-Necedah kept Sigmund in contention for third place, but that run ended with an 8-0 loss to 19-3 Ethan Eggert of Pulaski. New Richmond’s Luke Kamish (17-5) beat Sigmund 3-1 in a good seventh-place match.
Sigmund was seeded 20th in the weight class at the start of the tournament.
Kawa (20-5) showed he was better than the 15th seed he drew in the 170-pound bracket.
He started with a pin in 1:19 over Austin Weber of the Cuba City Co-op but then got knocked to consolation competition with a tough 2-1 loss to 20-8 Andy Johnson of West Salem-Bangor, who wound up reaching the semifinals.
Kawa earned a 5-2 win over 14-2 Ben Peterson of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/ Melrose-Mindoro, downed Grant Reed of Goodhue, Minn. 11-6 and edged Isaiah O’Reilly of Zumbrota-Mazeppa 2-1 to give himself a chance at third place. But 14-3 Ian Pepple of Hastings stopped Kawa’s run with a 10-1 major decision. That sent Kawa to the bracket to determine 9th through 12th places. He won both matches there, pinning Emmett Brooks of Sparta in 3:52 and David Fargen of Ithaca-Weston in 2:49.
Losiewicz (15-9) was the lone Raider to win his first two matches and reach the round of 16. He opened 145-pound competition as the 14th seed and pinned Brice Buxton of the Cuba City Co-op in 1:51 and Mauston-Necedah’s Jackson Whitney before getting pinned in 1:45 by Marshfield’s 21-0 Hoyt Blaskowski, the weight class’s eventual champion.
Losiewicz rebounded with a pair of wins, pinning Waunakee’s 18-5 Dane Spencer in 3:35 and getting a 13-3 major decision over Carson Rowland of Chatfield, Minn. Caleb Delebreau of Luxemburg-Casco (20-7) ended Losiewicz’s bid for third with an 11-2 major decision, but Losiewicz finished strong in the ninth through 12th bracket, beating Whitney again 9-0 and getting a 6-4 overtime win over Holmen’s Andrew Weiss.
The rest of the bunch
Medford’s Jude Stark went 3-2 at 126 pounds with three convincing wins. He pinned Hunter Thurin of Viroqua in 44 seconds in the first round, pinned Nekoosa-Assumption’s Fletcher Brock in 3:48 and took an 11-2 major decision over Riverdale’s Chaise McGuire. He lost in the second round to quarterfinalist Turner Campbell of Holmen by a score of 11-5.
Parker Lissner went 3-2 at 138 pounds. His wins included a 7-3 decision over Evansville’s Wyatt Nelson, a 5-0 decision over Nick Reddington of the Cuba City Co-op and a 9-7 overtime win over David Hiles of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/ Melrose-Mindoro. His first loss was by pin to eventual semifinalist Owen Denstad of Caledonia-Houston. Max Dietzman got a first-round bye at 285 pounds and then was pinned in 55 seconds by eventual quarterfinalist Austin Culpitt of Cashton. Deitzman then won three straight consolation matches, pinning Christian Parcher of La Crosse Logan-Central in 1:28, Bronson Mchone of Iowa-Grant/Highland in 1:51 and Keenan Josett of
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New Lisbon in 1:45.
Cory Lindahl went 2-2 while bumping up to 152 pounds. He pinned Jeremy Earley of Oconto Falls in 1:48 and Jayden Zimbauer of Mauston-Necedah in 48 seconds in consolation competition.
Braxton Weissmiller went 1-2 at 220 pounds, getting an opening-round pin in 1:17 over Lucas Dykman of La Crescent-Hokah, Minn. Blake Schilling went 1-2 at 160 pounds, pinning Julien Vinson-Audetat of the Winona-Winona Cotter Co-op in 3:44 in his first match. William Bartnik was credited with two wins at 182 pounds, getting a consolation bye and a medical forfeit over 13-8 Jayden Delao of La Crosse Logan-Central. Nick Malchow got four points with a forfeit win at 113 pounds. Jonathan Bartnik (195 pounds), Owen Higgins (132 pounds) and Broden Schilling (106 pounds) all lost both of their contested matches.
Big one Thursday
The Raiders begin Great Northern
Conference competition tonight, Thursday, with the first of their two GNC quads. This one will be hosted by Rhinelander at 6:30 p.m. The Raiders will face an undermanned Rhinelander squad in the first round, but then they’ll get the Tomahawk Hatchets in round two in a matchup between the co-champions of the GNC for the past two years. Mosinee is the other team in the quad. Medford will host the Indians in a single dual meet Jan. 12.
On Friday, Medford will head to some new territory when it attends the Shiocton Duals. That event starts at 4:30 p.m.
