WIAA DIV. 3/GIRLS WRESTLING - Angell wins sectional title; draws the 2-seed at D3 state

WIAA DIV. 3/GIRLS WRESTLING

There certainly was no sophomore slump this season for Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestler Taydyn Angell.

After a 38-13 freshman season that ended with a fourth-place finish at the WIAA Division 3 state tournament, Angell has been nearly unbeatable this year, piling up a 40-2 mark as he heads back to the Kohl Center in Madison this weekend aiming to win his first state championship.

Angell has yet to lose to a Division 3 opponent this year after going 3-0 at 215 pounds at Saturday’s Ladysmith sectional. He’s the second seed in the state field of 12 wrestlers and will begin his quest for a title in the quarterfinal round Thursday night.

“It’s good to get another opportunity to go down there and place,” Angell said Monday.

A year ago, Angell went into the state tournament as a bit of a freshman unknown. He qualified with a third-place finish at the sectional meet, but he pulled off a couple of big wins on the first two days of the state tournament and wrestled his way back to the third-place match where he lost 2-0 to Iowa Grant/Highland junior Bode Brokopp, who is back at state this year at 285 pounds.

That performance and some off-season work had Angell confident he’d have a big sophomore season.

“My thought was that this is where I was going to be record-wise and everything,” Angell said. “I’m seeded kinda where I wanted to be.”

Already blessed with the physical strength needed to compete at his weight class, Angell said his biggest improvement this year has been moving and working while on his feet. He said his two losses to Henry Vander Heiden of Freedom, the fifth seed at state in Division 2, and Dawson Clymer of Hudson, the fourth seed at state in Division 1, were reminders that there’s always room to keep working in that area.

“Just more stuff to improve on,” he said.

It also helped this year to have senior heavyweight Lee Zagorski join the team, which gave him a true practice partner.

“It helped just to have somebody more my size besides the coaches,” he said. “That helped a lot. It was good to have more of a team. Last year, we only had four. We had six or seven people this year so that helped just to fill up the room a little bit.”

Angell’s loss to Vander Heiden came in the championship match at the River Falls Northern Badger Invitational over the holidays, which he said was a highlight tournament for him this season.

“At the Badger getting second, that was big,” Angell said. “We’ve had no one place in the top two there since 2018 (Spencer Kraus).”

Angell started sectional competition Saturday against Josh Nutt of Phillips (2422). Angell got the first takedown and turned that into a quick pin at 1:39 to advance to the semifinals.

There, he met Jackson Logghe of Glenwood City (28-19), a wrestler he’s seen several times the past two years.

“I just took him down and turned him a bunch and kept getting near fall points,” Angell said of that match, where he got the pin in 2:26. “It would’ve been a technical fall if I wouldn’t have pinned him when I did.”

A surprise result in the semifinal set up a championship match with Boyceville’s Isaiah Romero (33-14), who Angell had never faced before. Spring Valley-Elmwood’s Jack Steinmeyer (42-9), who nearly beat Angell in the Edgar regional the previous week, was ahead of Romero 9-2 before suffering an injury that knocked him out of the match. Steinmeyer eventually returned and placed third to advance to state.

In the championship bout, Romero got the first takedown 29 seconds in, but Angell needed just 11 seconds to get a reversal and added three near falls to lead 9-3 after the first period.

“I kinda slipped off and he got behind me,” Angell said. “Then I reversed him and got a near fall and just controlled the match after that.”

Angell added seven points with a takedown and four-point near fall in the second period and clinched the 18-3 technical fall 18 seconds into the third period to earn his first WIAA sectional championship.

At state, Angell will face either seventhseeded Tellyer Alix (36-11) of Weyauwega-Fremont or 10th-seeded Sam Haines of Deerfield (44-12) in his quarterfinal match late tonight, Thursday. Angell said he saw Alix wrestle at the Ladysmith Invitational earlier this season but did not face him. Romero is the 11th seed and Steinmeyer is on the other side of the bracket as the ninth seed.

The third seed and a potential semifinal opponent is 52-1 senior Wesley Egan of Parkview/Albany. The top seed is Tyson Martin, a 41-2 junior from La Crosse Aquinas.

There are two rounds of wrestling today at state, which is new this year. This will be the first time Angell experiences having a first-round bye at state. Also new at the state tournament this year is a semifinal appearance will guarantee at least at topfour finish, unlike past years where a wrestler could drop to sixth.

“I like where I’m seeded at,” he said. “(The bye) is good and it’s bad. I can at least see what I have for my first match. I can watch what these guys do a little bit. So that helps. But those guys are already going to have a match in and I’m going to be a little behind. But it shouldn’t really matter. I don’t have to wrestle two matches. It’s like an hour apart that you’re probably going to wrestle. So I’ll just get a good warm-up in.” Obviously being in the position he’s in, Angell’s goal is to win it. “I just have to do what I’ve been doing all year,” he said. “Just execute with everything I’ve learned and improved on throughout the year.”

Madlon falls

Freshman Kaitlyn Madlon competed in the WIAA Ladysmith girls wrestling sectional Friday and lost her only match.

In the quarterfinals, Madlon was pinned in 2:32 by Lillian Gottwald of Hayward-Northwood. Gottwald, now 28-8, went on to take second place in the 215-pound bracket and qualified for the state tournament. She was beaten in the final by Ashland’s Bella Roman (37-8).

In the quarterfinal match, Madlon and Gottwald went through the first period scoreless. Gottwald won the flip to start the second period and deferred the choice to Madlon, who chose the down position to try to at least score first with an escape. But Gottwald was able to turn Madlon and get the pin 32 seconds in.

Madlon finished her first year 18-14.