MEDFORD WRESTLING - FIGHTING TO THE FINISH
MEDFORD WRESTLING
One quick move made all the difference for the Medford wrestlers in their ability to earn a split Thursday in a Great Northern Conference double-dual at Lakeland.
Senior Nick Malchow went from trailing 13-1 in the second period to pinning Mosinee’s Kory Resheske at the 3:05 in their 120-pound match and that swing of at least 10 points was huge as Medford eked out a 36-35 win over the Indians.
The rest of Medford’s five wins in that dual meet came by forfeit, which was just enough to allow the Raiders to finish 2-3 in GNC duals.
Malchow got thrown to the mat within the first 10 seconds of his match with Resheske and a four-point near fall put him in an immediate 7-0 deficit. After escaping, he was taken down in a scramble to trail 10-1 after one period. Resheske got an early takedown at the edge of the mat in the second period. After a restart, Resheske nearly got Malchow to his back but Malchow fought him off. Then in a sudden twist, Malchow was able to elevate off his chest, caught Resheske on his back and pinned him to put Medford up 24-11 at the time of the dual.
“Nick came from behind to get a big pin so we could win the dual,” Medford head coach Brandon Marcis said. “That was pretty cool. He’s one who came out as a freshman and has gotten steadily better. Now as a senior, he’s driven. He never gives up. He has that senior pride and it’s exciting to see him finish strong.”
Mosinee got a pin from Jackson Nechuta over Jordan Lavin in 1:43 in the 126-pound match, a pin from Andrew Beatty over Raider Corey McVicker in 3:03 at 132 pounds and a pin in 2:20 from George Ahles over Domanic Spencer at 138 pounds to take a 29-24 lead.
But forfeit wins for Medford’s Levi Zuleger at 144 pounds and Parker Lissner at 150 pounds gave the Raiders enough cushion to absorb a forfeit win for Mosinee’s Chris Strejc at 157 and win by one.
Earlier in the meet, Paxton Rothmeier took a forfeit for Medford at 175 pounds, Ian Stickney got one at 215 pounds and Jackson Mayer got one at 285.
Mosinee’s Bruce Hintz pinned Ashton Noland in 52 seconds at 190 pounds and Jordan Feit, after giving up the first takedown to Medford’s Ayden Tyznik, dominated the rest of the way in a 19-4 technical fall at 113 pounds. There were double forfeits at 165 and 106 pounds.
The Tomahawk Hatchets improved to 5-0 in GNC duals and appear to be on their way to the overall league championship after they took care of Medford 56-21 in the first round of Thursday’s double dual.
“One thing about our kids is they never quit,” Marcis said. “Tomahawk has a nice rounded-out team. They don’t necessarily have any super hammers, but they do have a nice team of kids who have wrestled and worked hard. They have a little bit of experience on us and maybe outmatched us in a lot of spots. But there were a couple of spots where we didn’t give up the pin and instead we got tech falled. Little things. We scored some points and got some takedowns on those kids.”
Medford got three wins by pin. Malchow went 2-0 for the night. His first win was a pin in 4:52 over Tomahawk’s Zach Larson. He was behind in that match as well, 8-3 through two periods, when he got a single-leg takedown to start the third period and finished off the move with the pin.
Rothmeier pinned Tanner Wanta in 1:02 at 175 pounds and Lissner finished the dual with a pin in 1:32 over Fletcher Baumann at 150.
The most competitive match of the dual came at 126 pounds. Lavin got the first takedown against Tomahawk’s Harman Hoffman, but eventually trailed 4-3 after one period and 5-3 before getting a takedown late in the second period. The match was tied 6-6 in the third when a locked hands violation on Hoffman and an escape gave Lavin an 8-6 win by decision.
Tomahawk’s experience dominated Medford’s youth in the rest of the dual.
Kaiden Kapellusch was a 16-0 winner by technical fall over Noland at 190 and Blake Younker was an 18-0 winner by technical fall over Stickney at 215. Both Raiders did take those matches into the third period.
Mayer took the 285-pound match into the third period before he was pinned in 5:07 by Nathan Norman.
Brayden Ristau used two secondperiod takedowns to open up a big lead and beat Tyznik 12-1 at 113 pounds. Spencer got the first takedown against Walter Horabik at 138 pounds and led 3-2 going into the second period, where he was pinned at 3:35. Jack Derleth pinned McVicker at 1:20 at 132 pounds and Connor Jones pinned Zuleger in 1:24 at 144.
Medford forfeited at 157, 165 and 106 pounds.
In exhibition matches, Medford’s Avery Losiewicz was a 16-0 winner by technical fall over Mosinee’s Shelby Chaney. Ahrlen Lekie won by pin against Mosinee and lost by pin against Tomahawk and Preston Lyman lost by technical fall to his Tomahawk opponent.
The regular season concludes Saturday with the Great Northern Conference’s championship tournament, which Lakeland will host. The first round is set to start at 10 a.m. Medford enters the meet tied with Mosinee for fourth place in the standings after both teams went 2-3 in the duals. With its 46-27 win over Rhinelander Tuesday, the Red Robins and Hodags are 3-2 and tied for second behind the Hatchets.
Along with the team title, first-team, second-team and honorable mention individual awards will also be handed out in each weight class after the meet.
Likely being out of championship contention is a strange position for Medford to be in going into the GNC meet after having earned at least a share of the last six titles and seven of the last eight. But it wasn’t completely unexpected knowing how much inexperience and youth the team started the season with. Marcis said there is plenty to accomplish this Saturday as the team heads into postseason competition next Saturday with the regional meet in Hayward.
“We’re always trying to beat somebody that we’re not supposed to on paper,” Marcis said. “If we are outmatched, we’ll try to score every point that we can. It’s a thing to surprise your opponent with attitude and effort and hustle. You can really gain ground on a guy and start shocking him if you run back to the center every time, you’re the first guy back there. You never give up even though you’ve been scored on multiple times. That makes a difference and that will help kids close the gap.
“We’ve lost some really tight matches at a couple of weights,” he added. “I look for us to close that gap and win some of those tight ones and make it tighter this time in the ones where we were really outclassed.”
Girls at North
On Saturday, Medford’s Avery Losiewicz and Bridget Wesle competed at the Eau Claire North Girls Husky Challenge.
Losiewicz took second at 132 pounds and Wesle tested her shoulder, which has held her out of action the past couple of weeks, getting in two matches at 138 pounds.
Losiewicz (29-7) had no trouble getting to her bracket final. She pinned Tomahawk’s Alicia Voermans in 28 seconds, Breana Steven of Forest Lake, Minn. in 1:00, took a medical forfeit over Morgan Hooverman of St. Croix Falls and pinned 27-6 Adison Clark of Merrill in 3:51.
Undefeated Nora Akpan (25-0) of Centennial, Minn. defeated Losiewicz in the final with a 15-0 technical fall that ended at 4:00.
“Avery went against a buzzsaw there in the finals,” Marcis said. “Avery is doing well. She is improving at the little things. I think she gets better every time. She has such a great attitude. She got beat a few more times than she did last year, but she’s also seeing a lot better competition. The girls division in general from when it started to where it is now, there are no gimmes anymore, it’s not new anymore. I think everything is in perspective for her and I think she’s going to make a great run in February because she is very talented.”
Wesle was credited with 15th place at 138. She was pinned by Emma Czech of Hutchinson, Minn. and Jamie Peterson of Forest Lake before calling it a day with medical forfeits.
The girls are scheduled to compete in a large invitational at Merrill on Friday. That tournament starts at 4 p.m. at Prairie River Middle School. Merrill will also host the girls regional meet on Friday, Feb. 14, also at 4 p.m.
Medford’s Ayden Tyznik tries to get his leg out from the hold of Mosinee’s Jordan Feit during their 113-pound match Thursday at Lakeland. Feit won by technical fall 19-4, but avoiding the loss by pin was key as Medford took the dual 36-35. BRETT LaBORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES
