Team concept gets Medford past Hatchets and into GNC lead

MEDFORD WRESTLING

The Medford Raiders may not have won all of their individual matches, but collectively the wrestlers all did exactly what they needed to allow themselves to earn a crucial 37-34 win at Tomahawk Thursday night.

The victory puts Medford at 2-0 in the Great Northern Conference and into the driver’s seat in league competition, at least as far as the duals go. Tomahawk fell to 1-1.

Both teams won seven matches in the dual, but Medford outscored the Hatchets by getting five pins, a major decision and a key overtime win from 152-pound senior Emett Grunwald.

“There’s no doubt that kids got the team concept,” Medford head coach Brandon Marcis said. “It was just things that we push as a team. Wrestling for Medford. We’re not going to give up anything easy, even if we’re wrestling a guy who’s better on paper. With the pins we really emphasized going from the feet right to the back and then just trying to master the basics. Our philosophy has always been you don’t need anything flashy. You just have to master the basics. Master a half. Master good positions. Keep forehead to forehead. All the basic stuff we do every day. We do seven different drills every day to just master position and the fundamentals and it really paid off.”

One of the key matches was the very first one and the Raiders didn’t even win it as Tomahawk’s all-state wrestler Erik Decker beat Dalton Krug 8-1 in the 285-pound match.

“We knew (Decker) was going to be tough and we wanted Dalton to wrestle him,” Marcis said. “We won the draw so we presented in the even matches, which was a win for us. They had to present him first at 285. Dalton wrestled an awesome match. He never gets out of position. He never gets scored on with the basics of our Medford wrestling philosophy. He really did it. He only gave up a regular decision. He wrestled an outstanding match. He wrestled for the team. He did exactly what he had to do.”

Medford forfeited at 106 pounds and Tomahawk’s Addison Peissig won a hard-fought 5-3 decision over Raider freshman Jude Stark at 113 to give the Hatchets a 12-0 lead.

Ty Sova got Medford on the board at 120 pounds with a pin, but Tomahawk’s Mitchel Holloway got a 16-2 major decision over Raider Itsael Medina Fuentes at 126 to put the Hatchets up 16-6.

“Itsael had a guy who we knew had him by a little bit,” Marcis said. “But he fought to stay off his back. He’s got one of the best bridges I’ve ever seen. He has such a high bridge. Any time he got thrown to his back there was no doubt he wasn’t going to get pinned.”

The Raiders then got on a run to grab control of the meet. Freshman Cory Lindahl made his debut at 132 pounds and earned a pin. Carson Church got a pin at 138 pounds and Kayden Dassow got a major decision at 145 to give the Raiders a 22-16 lead.

Grunwald then came through with his tiebreaker win over Mason Evans in overtime to make it 25-16.

“It goes into double overtime and he wins it,” Marcis said. “ He wins a super close match. Both guys were just staying square. There weren’t too many points scored, but at the end of the match, he got the escape for the win.”

Tomahawk’s Logan Bishop pinned Trevon Drallmeier at 160 pounds, but another freshman stepped up in his first varsity match. Logan Kawa, who weighed in at 160 got his first pin to put Medford on the verge of victory. The Raiders forfeited at 182 pounds to make it 31-28 with two matches left.

At 195 senior Hayden Johnson took care of business, pinning Isaiah Scheffler to seal the deal. Raider Braxton Weissmiller was pinned by Kade Wenninger in 1:13 to finish the meet at 220 pounds.

“I bumped Hayden up to wrestle Scheffler at 195,” Marcis said. “Hayden tells me before the match, ‘I can pin him. If you wrestle me up I will pin him.’ I looked at him back in the eyes and said ‘OK, you’re getting it. I was like, that’s what’s happening.’” Marcis called the win one of the favorites of his tenure as head coach. Though the Raiders unfortunately are in the midst of a long holiday break, they expect to build from this victory as they head into more conference competition in January.

“We wrestled so fundamentally sound across the board,” he said. “Everybody just seemed to stay in good position and we didn’t give up any sloppy points. We have a lot of inexperience as far as wrestling varsity, but we have kids who’ve wrestled. But it seems like right now they have an open mind. They’re soaking it up like a sponge. Everybody’s getting better every day.”