WIAA DIV. 2 SOMERSET TEAM SECTIONAL - Panthers get key wins early; Raiders can’t make up ground

WIAA DIV. 2 SOMERSET TEAM SECTIONAL

Twenty years since Medford’s last WIAA Division 2 team sectional wrestling title, this year’s Raiders took their shot at another one Tuesday, but the matchups didn’t fall their way and the Raiders were eliminated by St. Croix Central in the semifinal round 38-27.

The Panthers won eight of the 14 matches but they got three pins and two major decisions in those wins to create too much of a margin for the Raiders, who only got two pins, to come back from.

The chess match between Medford head coach Brandon Marcis and St. Croix Central head coach Brad Holzer centered largely around the Panthers’ top gun, undefeated Owen Wasley, who is a 48-0 individual sectional qualifier at 165 pounds. When the draw put the start of the dual at 190 pounds, the question became where would Wasley and Medford’s 175-pound ace Logan Kawa be used.

St. Croix Central bumped two wrestlers up to start the dual and they earned wins that put Medford behind the eight-ball early and the Raiders never got out.

“They threw us a little curveball at 190,” Marcis said. “We didn’t expect to wrestle that guy. It was still a good competitive match, but it just didn’t go our way. We knew we had to do good up top. We had to get some pins up top and it just didn’t quite go our way. They were pretty good at basing out and not getting turned when it mattered. They got pins when it mattered, so they definitely beat us at the pinning game and that’s what it came down to.”

Noah Nusbaum who was the fourthplace sectional qualifier individually at 175 at Saturday’s St. Croix Falls regional, bumped up to 190 to take on Medford’s Evan Wilkins, the third-place sectional qualifier at Saturday’s Medford regional. Each wrestler nearly had first-period takedowns but both were ruled to have come out of bounds. From the down position to start the second period, Nusbaum got an escape and takedown to draw first blood and that was basically the difference in a 6-1 win.

At 215 pounds, Medford’s regional runner-up, Braxton Weissmiller, drew St. Croix Central’s fourth-place sectional qualifier at 190, Hayden Buckel, who got the first takedown, but Weissmiller immediately drove through that and reversed Buckel to tie it. Buckel’s escape gave him a 3-2 lead after one period. Buckel led 4-3 in the third when Weissmiller took his best shot with 40 seconds left. Buckel avoided that and took down Weissmiller with 20 seconds left and added a two-point near fall for an 8-3 decision.

Knowing the Panthers had the advantage in the lightweights, Medford needed a win out of senior 285-pounder Max Dietzman and they got it. Dietzman got a first-period takedown and then got one late while never allowing Landon Langer to get close to scoring in a 7-0 win, his 33rd win and final win of the season.

“That was definitely pride points for him,” Marcis said. “We talked about that just after kind of a rough weekend for him. I think that’s finishing on a high note. I’m proud of him for that. I thought he wrestled good with high energy. It’s a nice way to end his wrestling story.”

Three straight pins opened up a 24-3 lead for the Panthers. Trennon Holzer had the technical fall wrapped up as the second period was about to expire and Raider Caden Olson was five seconds away from avoiding the pin, but Holzer got it at 3:55 in the 106-pound match. Garrett DeLong won his 41st match of the year by pinning Nick Malchow in 4:35 at 113 pounds and Will Schmitt got his 45th win by pinning Broden Schilling in 2:39 at 120 pounds.

Freshman Jordan Lavin breathed life back into Medford’s hopes with a 22-second pin over St. Croix Central’s Camryn Wille in the 126-pound bout, making it 24-9.

“Before the dual you look at matchups you want and that was really the first matchup that we kinda planned on and it actually worked out in our favor, so that was good,” Marcis said. “He got the quick pin. We still had a chance then. He definitely brought momentum back to the bench and fired up the team a little bit being a freshman, being in that position. That’s pretty cool to get one of our two pins.

That’ll be really nice for Jordy going into this weekend.”

Next up was a 132-pound matchup between Medford’s regional champion Jude Stark (40-8) and St. Croix Central’s regional runner-Holzer grabbed a leg and tripped Stark for the first takedown. He got another late in the second to go up 5-0 and then he built up enough points in the third for a major decision at 11-3.

Owen Higgins got a 4-0 win for Medford over Everett Knospe at 138 pounds, getting takedowns in the first two periods. He was unable to escape Knospe in the third to build on that lead.

“They knew Owen was good with bars and they obviously practiced not getting turned on bars,” Marcis said. “They shut his bar down. He still won, he still wrestled tough for us. I’m still proud of him.”

St. Croix Central’s third-place sectional qualifier at 144 pounds, 34-12 Maverick Kostrzak controlled his match with Raider regional runner-up Parker Lissner 12-1 to give the Panthers a 32-12 lead and put Medford in a position where it was pins or bust down the stretch.

Cory Lindahl got a pin at 150 pounds. He nearly got it in the first period but had to settle for a near fall and a 5-0 lead. He took Christopher Woehrman down and got the pin at 2:27.

“He’s a bull,” Marcis said. “Cory’s a bull and he bulled his way right to the pin. That’s what we expect from him. Super proud of his effort.”

Another of Medford’s aces, Gage Losiewicz did his job in getting a win over a solid 42-8 wrestler in Brock Swenson in a matchup of regional runners-up at 157 pounds. Losiewicz was in control throughout in a 6-1 win but Swenson refused to be pinned.

“That’s a decent kid and we beat him in all directions,” Marcis said. “His deal was he was trying to avoid the pin. It’s hard to wrestle a guy like that. Gage did what he could. We might see him again this weekend.”

With two matches left and St. Croix Central leading by 11, the Panthers held their trump card with Wasley and declared him for the 165-pound match. Medford forfeited and the Panthers forfeited to Kawa at 175.

“We wanted Kawa to wrestle Wasley,” Marcis said. “We knew that would be a cool match to watch, but once the dual was kinda decided we decided we just wanted to save our guys and go from there. They played their cards right with bumping their guys up. It could’ve worked completely the opposite way for them. You wrestle that dual again and it could go completely the other way and we win by how many. It is what it is. Tomorrow we’re going to get back in the room and go back to work.”

St. Croix Falls routed the Neillsville Coop 63-12 in the other semifinal and beat St. Croix Central 38-24 in the championship dual.

Medford ended the year with a dualmeet record of 13-2 and now is focused on this Saturday’s individual sectional meet at Tomahawk, where the Raiders have 11 qualifiers from the regional and two girls entries as well.

“Overall I’m proud of this team, I’m proud of what they did,” Marcis said. “We had a great season as a team. It didn’t end the way we wanted but that’s the way wrestling is.”

Medford’s Logan Kawa tightens his grip and finishes off a pin of Mondovi/Eleva-Strum’s Ethan Odegard in 1:13 during their 175-pound semifinal in Saturday’s regional meet at Medford Area Middle School. Kawa went on to win the regional title and will aim to clinch his second straight WIAA Division 2 state appearance at this Saturday’s sectional meet in Tomahawk. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Raider Evan Wilkins does what he can to maintain control while riding St. Croix Central’s Noah Nusbaum during the second period of their opening 190-pound match at Tuesday’s WIAA Division 2 team sectional. Nusbaum won 6-1. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS