Co-op wrestlers take on best in Cloverbelt
By Nathaniel Underwood
Heavy snow may have slowed down many weekend activities, but Abbotsford/Colby wrestling teams stayed ahead of the storm as they traveled to Spencer on Friday afternoon for the Cloverbelt conference meet originally scheduled for Saturday morning. The co-op boys team took seventh out of nine teams, finishing with 74.5 points while four wrestlers represented Abbotsford/Colby in the varsity girls tournament.
Cadott won the team title by a landslide, securing 246.0 points over the course of the afternoon and evening. Neillsville/Greenwood/ Loyal narrowly edged out Regis/Altoona for the second spot, the two squads finishing with 162.0 and 158.5 points respectively. There was a fairly large gap between Abby/Colby and their next closest team; sixth place Bloomer/Colfax finished with 106.0 points while eighth place Thorp/ Owen-Withee had 28.5 points.
Two members of the Abby/Colby co-op squad won their respective weight classes on Friday. Tristen Smazal grabbed the conference title in the 126-pound bracket while Jacob Hoppe earned the top spot in the 175pound tournament.
Friday’s first place conference finish was Smazal’s third in as many tries for the junior. As a freshman, he took the title in the 113pound category and as a sophomore he repeated as champion, though this time in the 120-pound weight class.
For Hoppe, it was the senior’s first conference title, his previous best result coming in the 160-pound bracket at last year’s conference meet, where he took third place.
After receiving a first round bye, Smazal faced off against Regis/Altoona’s Cillian O’Connell in the semifinals. The Abby/ Colby junior dominated the affair, starting off with a quick takedown in the opening 10 seconds of the match before adding two more after ceding a pair of escapes to his opponent. Following his final takedown, Smazal scored a pair of four point nearfalls to win by technical fall, 17-2, in the first period.
The victory sent him to the championship bout, where he faced off against Bloomer/ Colfax’s Zeke Anderson. Smazal once again scored first, notching the match's first takedown. Anderson managed an escape midway through the round, but another takedown by Smazal before the end of the period netted him a 6-1 lead heading into the second. He then quickly notched a reversal and used the position to pin his opponent at the 2:44 mark. Smazal’s title win earned Abby/Colby 23.5 points.
Hoppe also earned a first round bye in his bracket, setting him up to face off against Evan Kautzer of Neillsville/Greenwood/ Loyal in the semifinals. While Kautzer managed to keep things neutral for over a minute, Hoppe continued to press his opponent, eventually earning the first takedown of the match at the 1:12 mark. He quickly converted the takedown into a four-point nearfall seconds later and then finished the match with a pin of Kautzer with four seconds left in the first period.
The finals followed a similar script for Hoppe, where he faced off against Sam Helgestad of the Spencer/Columbus/Granton co-op squad. After 45 seconds of sparring for position, Hoppe got the better of Helgestad and took him down for the sole takedown of the match. While Helgestad managed to hold out for another 45 seconds, Hoppe worked his second victory by fall of the day, pinning his opponent at the 1:37 mark to earn his first Cloverbelt conference title. The A/C senior’s performance earned his team 24.0 points.
Alix Colby also had a top three finish for the boys’ squad, placing third in the 132pound weight class. The A/C sophomore started his day by facing off against Stanley-Boyd’s Julian Ruiz in the first round. Colby did not cede a single point in his first match, earning a takedown and a three point nearfall before defeating Ruiz by fall at the 1:48 mark.
He then faced off against Cadott’s Kellen Blanchette in the semifinals. While Colby was the opponent to not get pinned by the eventual 132-pound champion, he could not quite keep up with the Cadott freshman’s scoring. Blanchette earned the first takedown of the match and while Colby managed a reversal, Blanchette countered with a late reversal of his own and a four-point nearfall in the final seconds to go up 9-2. Colby grinded out a two-point nearfall in the second, but a reversal from Blanchette evened the score in the second. Blanchette’s final takedown in the third all but sealed his victory and while Colby notched a reversal in the final 30 seconds, he could not work a pin and fell in a 146 major decision.
The loss put him into the consolation bracket, where he faced off against Regis/Altoona’ Brayden Kunze. The two were almost even after a flurry of scoring in the first round, with Colby holding a 9-8 advantage heading into the second, but a quick reversal and pin of his opponent in the second earned him a spot in the third place match. There he faced off against Bloomer/Colfax’s Blake Sparrgrove. Another fairly even first round saw Colby holding a slim 5-4 lead after the end of the period, but the A/C sophomore took control in the second, notching nine points in the middle round to Sparrgrove’s one. A takedown in the third led to Colby’s
See CLOVERBELT TOURNEY/ Page 16
RIGHT WHERE I WANT YOU - Izaac Sundermeyer battles against Cadott’s Brenton Faber in the first round of the Cloverbelt conference tournament.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
TAKING DOWN THE COMPETITION - Alix Colby takes his opponent to the mat after scoring a reversal in the first period of his semifinal match.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
EYEING UP THE COMPETITION - Camila Meraz takes stock of her opponent, Stanley-Boyd’s Lillian Fitzl, before entering the fray.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Cloverbelt tourney
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win by fall at the 4:49 mark, earning him third place and 18.0 team points.
Junior Eyan Cortista took sixth on Friday in the 144-pound weight class. He suffered a defeat from Bloomer/Colfax’s James McElroy in the first round then faced off against Cadott’s Max Davis in the consolation bracket. Cortista was the first to take an advantage in the match, scoring a takedown of Davis 40 seconds into the bout, but the Cadott wrestler managed to work a reversal a few seconds later. Davis then used the position to pin Cortista at the 1:16 mark, forcing him into the fifth place match against McDonell/Elk Mound’s Ford Hay. The match ended with Hay winning by fall a minute into the bout after notching five points. Cortista earned 3.0 team points.
Izaac Sundermeyer also earned sixth place, doing so in the 165-pound category. He faced off against Cadott’s Brenton Faber in his first match of the day. Faber grabbed the lead with a late takedown in the first round and then went up with a four-point nearfall at the end of the period. Sundermeyer notched an escape in the second, but 10 more points for Faber earned him the 17-1 technical fall victory. Sundermeyer then went up against Regis/Altoona’s Nash Cullinan in the consolation bracket, but couldn’t get on the board after Cullinan controlled the pace after a takedown midway through the first. Sundermeyer once again made it to the second round, but another takedown from Cullinan would eventually lead to a pin at the 3:04 mark. A familiar face awaited Sundermeyer in the fifth place match in Faber, but another technical fall loss to the Cadott wrestler saw the A/C freshman earn sixth place and 3.0 team points.
Xavier Hoppe and Aiden Burt also wrestled for the boys varsity squad on Friday. Hoppe took seventh in the 157pound bracket, falling to Cadin Yeager of Stanley-Boyd in his first round matchup before taking on Gregory Toisi of Regis/ Altoona in the consolation bracket. Troisi earned an early takedown but Hoppe managed to get a point back by escaping back into neutral. Troisi kept up the pressure and earned another takedown and ended Hoppe’s day with a pin at the 1:00 mark. Burt fell to Cadott’s Anthony Glenz in his first match of the day and then faced off against Thorp/Owen-Withee’s Jordan Wulff in the 285-pound consolation bracket. Burt took the advantage with the first takedown of the match, but a late reversal by Wulff led to a pin of Burt in the final seconds of the period. Burt then had to forfeit his seventhplace match due to injury.
On the girls side, Makenna Herrmann went 2-1 in her matches in the 126-pound weight class, earning herself second place. In a round-robin tournament, Herrmann first faced off against Cadott’s Arianna Walker, a matchup that she held control for much of the bout. A takedown a minute into the contest earned Herrmann a lead and she expanded it with a four-point nearfall shortly after. After being awarded a penalty and escaping to start the second, Herrmann forced another takedown that she was able to convert into a pin of her opponent, winning by fall at the 2:34 mark.
She then faced off against Regis/Altoona’s Jaelyn Bowe. Herrmann remained on the attack early, grabbing a pair of first round takedowns to hold a 6-1 lead heading into the second. Bowe bounced back, however, forcing a takedown and four two-point nearfalls in the middle round to turn the tables. A pin for Bowe in the third completed the comeback effort.
Herrmann had a bounce back performance of her own in her final match of the day, going up against Stanley-Boyd’s Sierra Marten. Undeterred by the earlier loss, Herrmann made quick work of her final opponent, quickly notching a takedown before pinning Marten 30 seconds into the bout.
In a two-athlete 120-pound bracket, Romina Perez only faced one opponent on Friday, going up against Cadott’s Tess York. The A/C freshman could not find an opening to take advantage of, suffering a takedown and a four-point nearfall before York won by fall at the 1:40 mark. Kori Geiger also only had one match on Friday, taking third place after suffering a defeat by fall in the 285-pound opener against Mc-Donell/Elk Mound’s Hailey Pelkey.
In the girls 132-pound round robin bracket, Camila Meraz faced off against a trio of opponents. Her first two opponents, Lillian Fitzl of Stanley-Boyd and McDonell/Elk Mound’s Luca Burcaw, were able to turn early takedowns into pins, defeating Meraz by fall at the 0:35 mark and the 0:13 mark respectively. In her final bout of the day against Cadott’s TaliAnn Donahue, Meraz got on the board with a reversal of her opponent, but ultimately Donahue was able to get the win with a first round pin. The loss gave Meraz a fourth place finish.
Both teams will be back in action for their first postseason tournaments of the year this coming weekend. The girls will be traveling to Merrill for their regional meet on Friday, Feb. 14 while the boys will travel to Hayward for their Division 2 regional on Saturday, Feb. 15. The girls tournament is set to begin at 4 p.m while the boys first session is scheduled for 10 a.m.
THREE-PEAT - Tristen Smazal makes a move against Regis/Altoona’s Cillian O’Connell during his semifinal match at the Cloverbelt conference tournament on Friday evening. Smazal went on to win his third conference title in as many years, taking first in the 126-pound bracket. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
