STATE CHAMPION

The seed numbers may not have shown it, but there was a belief within Medford’s wrestling camp that Gage Losiewicz would see ninth-seeded Abbotsford-Colby’s Tanner Halopka for a third straight post-season weekend in the WIAA Division 2 championship match at 157 pounds.

That’s exactly who Losiewicz got Saturday night at the Kohl Center and the two waged a battle typical of highcaliber wrestlers who are well-versed in what the other does well.

After nearly eight minutes of scoreless wrestling and the possibility of an ultimate tiebreaker looming, Losiewicz was able to pounce on his opportunity and in a matter of a couple seconds, he had six points and his first WIAA state championship.

“As soon as I got him and he was laying there on his back, I was like ‘yes,’” Losiewicz said.

The championship win capped a 49-4 season for the junior, who took the top spot on the awards podium while getting there for the first time. He was one and done at state as a freshman and went 1-2 but did not place last year.

Now he’s claimed Medford’s 13th WIAA individual state title and the first since Jake Rau won his second title in 2020.

“It ranks pretty high,” Losiewicz said.

“Now it’s on to being a two-timer next year.”

Losiewicz took care of business early in the tournament as the second seed in the 157-pound bracket. He drew a first round bye into the quarterfinals early Friday afternoon where the outcome was never in doubt in an 8-1 win over seventh-seeded Bryce Lenzendorf of Prairie du Chien (4216). Losiewicz took Lenzendorf down just 25 seconds in and reversed him right off the whistle in the second period for a 4-0 lead. He got a takedown later with a trip to go up 6-1 late in the second.

“It was a good first match of the day, just going out there and taking care of business,” Losiewicz said. “Get ready for the next one. It was just about being quicker on the feet and being better technically I think.”

Just before Losiewicz took the mat for the match, Halopka dominated topseeded Brady Hart of Winneconne (21-2) 10-3 to earn his semifinal spot. There, he knocked off fifth-seeded Griffin Marko of St. Croix Falls 8-6. Losiewicz, meanwhile beat third-seeded Braylin Goebel (46-4) of Darlington-Black Hawk 6-5.

“I was expecting it to be Hart or Halopka,” Losiewicz said. “When Halopka beat Hart, it was like OK, it’ll be a rematch.”

As for his semifinal, it was close throughout and Losiewicz did trail 4-3 going into the third period, but, after escaping, he got his shot at Goebel’s legs with 1:09 left and got the takedown he needed to win it.

“That was good,” Losiewicz said. “He was a really good wrestler. I just remember going in and battling on the feet and getting my shots.”

Halopka beat Losiewicz in the Medford regional meet 5-2, while Losiewicz got a 4-2 overtime win in the Feb. 17 Tomahawk sectional championship match.

This time, neither wrestler came close to scoring in the first period. Losiewicz won the flip and deferred to start the second period. Halopka chose to go down, but Losiewicz was able to ride him through the period, with Halopka nearly getting out once late. A stalling warning early in the period was key, according to Losiewicz.

“I’m just looking for any points, anything I can get,” he said. “Just getting something and not giving up anything. Getting the stall warning before overtime, that was good just because it put more pressure on him because he has to do stuff.”

With the choice to start the third, Losiewicz chose to stay neutral rather than try to get the match’s first point with an escape.

“We went neutral last time and it worked out, I ended up getting a takedown on him,” he said. “We were thinking we could get a takedown on him right away. But it kinda got a little sketchy there and the takedown did not happen.”

There was a scramble in the final seconds of the period, but no takedown was recorded, sending the match to a oneminute sudden victory period. Halopka nearly had a takedown right off the whistle, but Losiewicz narrowly avoided being controlled.

The tiebreaker periods were next. Halopka was down for the first 30-second period, but Losiewicz held, getting a trip to prevent Halopka from getting to his feet. Losiewicz then was down for the next 30-second period simply needing an escape to win and he got much more than that, starting with a locked hands penalty on Halopka.

“I was just looking for the escape,” Losiewicz said. “I based out hard initially and he kinda moved me to the side. Then I spun. I was looking at the clock and there was like 11 seconds left and I hit a big standup to a switch and then he got locked hands. I got around for the two (reversal) and got a near fall out of it.”

Goebel wound up taking third in the bracket, beating sixth-seeded Steven Kielpikowski of Denmark (43-10) by a score of 7-0 in the third-place match. Hart, who came into state undefeated at 19-0, won the fifth-place match 7-0 over Marko (40-5).

Already looking toward a goal of repeating, Losiewicz would join Rau and Josh and Jordan Crass as Medford’s lone winners of multiple state titles. Rau won his in 2019 and 2020, while the Crass brothers were three-time state title winners from 2002-04.

Above: Gage Losiewicz secures the clinching takedown on Darlington-Black Hawk’s Braylin Goebel in the third period of Friday’s WIAA Division 2 157-pound state semifinal match. Losiewicz won this match 6-5 to earn his spot in Saturday’s championship match. Middle: Avery Losiewicz works toward a second-period pin of Wautoma-Wild Rose’s Brianna Buechner in first-round girls 126-pound competition. Right: Jude Stark looks for a way to gain an advantage on Dylan Weigel of Belmont-Platteville during their 132-pound first-round match. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS