WIAA DIV. 2 WRESTLING - Wrestlers rule regional, advance 11
WIAA DIV. 2 WRESTLING
Seniors Logan Kawa and Jude Stark won weight-class championships and nine other Medford Raiders kept their individual seasons going with top-four finishes at Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 wrestling regional hosted by the Raiders at Medford Area Middle School.
That individual success added up to 259 team points and a regional team championship by a comfortable margin over the runner-up Neillsville Coop, who earned 191 points and joined Medford at Tuesday’s WIAA Division 2 team sectional at Somerset.
Both teams, however, lost their semifinal dual meets Tuesday (see page 8).
The regional team title was Medford’s first since the 2019-20 season. The 11 sectional qualifiers is one better than the Raiders did last year in the first season of the WIAA’s new super regional format. The individual sectional is set for 10 a.m. Saturday at Tomahawk with the top three wrestlers in each weight class advancing to the Feb. 22-24 state tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison.
The sectional also marks the start of post-season competition for the girls with the champions in each weight class advancing to Madison.
“You get what you earn,” Medford head coach Brandon Marcis said after Saturday’s tournament. “I think a couple kids are disappointed and beat up. They know we have the target on our backs. It’s hard to keep making those big strides, but overall it was a great day. We got a lot of kids going on, we qualified for the team sectional. I think we’re right where we need to be.
“I saw a lot of good things today,” he added. “Sometimes you see a few bad things and you start to dwell on those things, but overall I was sitting in that chair for first-place matches quite a bit. I know a lot of them didn’t go our way but there were tough kids here.”
Medford put seven of 14 wrestlers in championship matches. Though the Raiders lost five of those matches, it was indicative of how the tournament played out. Medford had, by far, the deepest team, but the other 12 schools certainly brought some talented individuals.
“Sending 11 kids is an accomplishment,” Stark said.
“It’s fun to do,” Kawa said. “It makes sure that the wrestling room will still be full for practice.”
While the week ahead represents everything Medford has worked for all season long, Marcis said it is important the Raiders stay focused on wrestling one match at a time.
“We just have to wrestle aggressive and not worry about anything but wrestling in the moment,” Marcis said. “Wrestle for the now, don’t worry about the outcome or how many champs we can have or how many we’ve had in the past. None of that matters, we just want to represent ourselves right now.”
Regional title matches
Wrestling at 132 pounds, Stark won his second straight regional title with three pins. He stuck AJ Loscheider of Mondovi/Eleva-Strum in 18 seconds in the quarterfinals, Fletcher Baumann of Tomahawk in 2:22 in the semifinals and Adam Kautzer of the Neillsville Co-op in 2:51 in the final. Stark gave up the first takedown against Kautzer and was down 3-1 when he connected on his shot and got the pin.
“I didn’t start off too hot, it was a little slow on my part,” Stark said. “As soon as we got to the second period, I knew I needed to step it up a little. I just went out and just cradled him and called it a day.”
Now 40-8, Stark’s path to his first state berth will begin Saturday with a quarterfinal match against Tracker Dodds (32-13), a senior from the Luck Co-op. St. Croix Central’s Teague Holzer (47-2) and Baldwin-Woodville’s Colton Hush (41-2) are among the top wrestlers in that sectional bracket.
Kawa improved to 43-7 with his 2-0 day at 175 pounds. After two byes put him right into the semifinals, Kawa pinned Ethan Odegard of Mondovi/Eleva-Strum in 1:13 and Jacob Hoppe, a solid 24-8 wrestler from Abbotsford-Colby, in 1:53.
“Really I just stuck to my basics,” Kawa said of the title match. “I went for the throw early on. It sucked it was out of bounds, but after that I got my slide by. After that I looked at Marcis and Marcis told me I had 36 seconds to pin him and I said OK and put my mind to it and went out and pinned him.”
“They’re working so hard in the practice room,” Marcis said of his two champions. “They always have sweat pouring off their faces. They’re leading by example right now. I think they’re wrestling very well. They’re technically wrestling solid, doing good technique, not too much sloppy stuff from those guys. They’re wrestling well. I’m very proud of their effort today.”
Seeking his second state trip, Kawa opens sectional competition Saturday against 5-1 Noah Nusbaum of St. Croix Central. Other notables in the weight class include 37-3 Addison Uddin of Osceola and 45-1 Lucas D’Jock of the Luck Co-op.
One of the most anticipated finals of the day came at 157 pounds where standouts Gage Losiewicz of Medford and Tanner Halopka of Abbotsford-Colby squared off. Losiewicz got the first takedown and a 2-0 lead, but Halopka (46-4) got a reversal in the second period and a near fall in the third to hand Losiewicz a 5-2 loss, his first defeat since the Bi-State Classic during the holidays.
Losiewicz came back with a vengeance, pinning Stanley-Boyd’s Aaron Sturm in 24 seconds in the second-place wrestleback. Earlier, Losiewicz pinned Tomahawk’s Tanner Wanta in 1:00 in the quarterfinals and Gavyn McFarlane of the Neillsville Co-op in 3:10 in the semifinals.
Shooting for a third straight state trip, Losiewicz (43-4) gets Osceola’s Reed Church (30-13) in his first sectional match. Halopka, Griffin Marko of St. Croix Falls (32-1), who Losiewicz beat twice in the post-season last year, and St. Croix Central’s Brock Swenson (42-8) carry the top records into Saturday’s bracket.
“Gage won that first scramble,” Marcis said. “He got that first takedown, he did a lot of great things. That could be a state finals match right there. We knew that. We played our cards they way we wanted to, it didn’t work out this time. We knew (Halopka) was really good at a bar and a half and he did slip it in. It is what it is. We have to seal out a little better. If you win on the feet and you get out from bottom you won’t lose and we got half of that today, so we’ll get the other half next week.”
Braxton Weissmiller got a rematch with Rhinelander’s Owen Kurtz at 215 pounds. After battling Kurtz for more than seven minutes in the previous week’s Great Northern Conference title match, Kurtz (43-1) got Weissmiller in just 1:20 this time, but Weissmiller (31-16) had a strong day otherwise, spinning Gryphon Brown of the Osseo-Fairchild Co-op in 2:53 and Wyatt Karl of Spencer-Columbus in 1:44.
Aiming to get back to state for the second straight year, Weissmiller opens sectional competition against 39-12 Bradey Gottwald of Hayward-Northwood. Kurtz, Rice Lake’s Easton Stone (44-4) and Northwestern’s Ian Smith (13-0) make this a tough sectional weight class.
“I think Braxton is a man on a mission,” Marcis said. “He’s got kind of a special relationship with coach (Nick) Berger because they’re kind of the big guys that go in their corner. I think that’s really good for him. That’s setting his mind right and I see a look in his eye that shows he wants to get something done here in February. I’m really excited for him.”
Owen Higgins (34-7) came into the regional on a recent tear, but he also knew he had one of the regional’s top wrestlers in his weight class. Higgins pinned Drew Lang of Spencer-Columbus early in the third period and took a 17-4 major decision over Ashland’s Justin Defoe to get to the title bout with Stanley-Boyd’s 42-3 Breckin Burzynski. Burzynski ended Higgins’ personal 17-match win streak with a 10-0 major decision.
Higgins will face Baldwin-Woodville’s Garrett Guthrie (21-11) in his sectional quarterfinal Saturday. Others standing in the way of his first state berth could be William Penn of Ellsworth (44-2), Trenton Kirkland of Hayward-Northwood (42-4) and Burzynski.
At 165 pounds, Paxton Rothmeier got byes into the semifinals where he was a 14-7 winner over Ashland’s Conner Kaseno. That put him in the title match against Jakob Luchterhand (37-10) of the Neillsville Co-op. Rothmeier trailed 7-1 before rallying late with two takedowns, but he came up short 8-6.
Rothmeier (31-10) will face Spooner-Webster’s Conner Melton (43-5) in his first match Saturday with the winner possibly seeing 48-0 Owen Wasley in the semifinals.
Parker Lissner got off to a solid start at 144 pounds, pinning Evan Kautzer of the Neillsville Co-op in 1:22 and beating Rhinelander’s Aiden Ostermann 8-2 in the semifinals. Stanley-Boyd’s Landen Hoel (28-9) got out to a 5-0 second-period lead in the final before Lissner got an escape late in the period and got another to start the third. Lissner was an inch or two away from a takedown that would’ve pulled him within 5-4, but the action was ruled to have come out of bounds. Hoel got a late takedown to win 7-2.
The second-place finish pairs Lissner (21-10) with St. Croix Central junior Maverick Kostrzak (34-12) in Saturday’s sectional quarterfinals. The winner could see 41-3 Kellen Kelly of St. Croix Falls in the semifinals. Hoel and Graiden Monicken of Baldwin-Woodville (26-6) highlight the other side of the bracket.
Medford’s Caden Olson didn’t get to the 106-pound finals, but the freshman wrestled his way back to second place to qualify for his first sectional. Olson looked to possibly be done for the day after injuring his hip in his semifinal match with Tomahawk’s Braden Ristau. After defaulting that match, Olson returned and got a third-period takedown to stun the Neillsville Co-op’s Chase Lindner 8-7 and then pinned GNC rival Cohen Iczkowski of Mosinee in 4:37 in the second-place wrestleback.
Another freshman, Jordan Lavin (1416), also qualified for his first sectional with a fourth-place finish at 120 pounds. After two losses, he won the fourth-place wrestleback by pin in 28 seconds over Mosinee’s Mason Fleming.
“Caden took a little ice and wrapped it up and put his head on straight,” Marcis said. “Lavin and Olson in the last couple weeks have turned a corner as high school wrestlers not only physically but mentally, definitely. For Caden to gut that out and even Jordy, he had a good day too. That’s going to be important for Tuesday that those guys battle it out and wrestle six minutes and have their mind right.”
“They’re starting to pick back up again,” Stark said of the freshmen. “They both had really good beginnings and then in the middle it was a little rough but now they’re showing up again.”
The rest of the Raiders
Senior Cory Lindahl took third at 150 pounds to advance. After pinning Mason Antczak of the Osseo-Fairchild Co-op in 1:37, Lindahl got pinned in the semifinals by Ashland’s Laken Villeverde, but Lindahl (33-9) responded with a 33-second pin over Stanley-Boyd’s Candin Yeager in the third-place bout. Lindahl faces 33-9 junior Taden Holldorf of Baldwin-Woodville in his sectional opener and could see regional champion Hudzon Sebesta-Opelt (33-2) of the Neillsville Co-op in the semifinals.
Junior Evan Wilkins advanced with a third-place finish at 190 pounds. He won a wild quarterfinal match with Alex Coffey of Mondovi/Eleva-Strum 19-12 but lost by pin in 3:17 to Rhinelander’s Logan Schwinger (36-12) in a rematch of the GNC title bout. Wilkins beat another GNC nem-esis, Blake Younker of Tomahawk, 5-0 in the third-place match.
Wilkins (30-10) gets Deangelo Sardina (36-10) of Hayward-Northwood in his first sectional match. Wyatt Ingham of Amery (28-1) and Dane Luchterhand of the Neillsville Co-op (37-10) are two of the top wrestlers at that weight class.
Senior Max Dietzman (32-13) went 1-3 and finished fifth in a tough 285-pound bracket. He pinned Teryn Walls of Mosinee in 44 seconds, but got pinned in 1:09 by Blaine Severson of Mondovi/Eleva-Strum, lost 5-1 to Ashland’s Gunner Crowe and fell 5-0 the Neillsville Co-op’s Jackson Meyer in the fourth-place wrestleback.
Nick Malchow (17-11) went 2-2 to take fifth at 113 pounds. He pinned Gavin Andrew of Spencer-Columbus in 3:15 and defeated Barrett Fedie of Mondovi/Eleva-Strum 9-1 before dropping a 15-0 technical fall in the fourth-place wrestleback to 32-15 Rydge Tibbett of the Neillsville Coop.
At 126 pounds, Raider Broden Schilling went 0-2, losing by pin to Josh Defoe of Ashland and Josh Reis of the Neillsville Co-op.
Medford’s Parker Lissner goes on the attack as he tries to get some late points in his 144-pound championship match with Stanley-Boyd’s Landen Hoel during Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 Medford regional. Hoel held off Lissner 7-2. Both will compete at Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 Tomahawk sectional. PHOTOS BY MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Medford’s Caden Olson has early control in his 106-pound semifinal match with Tomahawk’s Braden Ristau Saturday, but he eventually had to bow out with an injury default. He fought back later in the day to take second place in the bracket.
