Tigers are on the mend

Squad’s best wrestlers are coming back from injuries

By Casey Krautkramer

Area wrestling fans might’ve figured Stratford would have trouble beating Marawood Conference foes Chequamegon and Phillips on Thursday, considering it didn’t have top seniors Elijah Lucio, Gavin Drexler, Cole Marten and Raife Smart available.

It turns out Stratford still has enough talented wrestlers on its roster to withstand injuries to key wrestlers, as evidenced by how well the Tigers fared at the Auburndale quad. Stratford beat Chequamegon, 60-21, and Phillips, 60-18.

Drexler, who is committed to wrestle at Division 1 North Dakota State next year, won two straight WIAA Division 3 state championships heading into this final high school season. Lucio has qualified for state the past two seasons, and he placed fifth at state last year. Smart finished as a state runners-up last season. Like the previous three wrestlers, Marten is also ranked high in Division 3 this year. All four of them earned first team all-Marawood Conference honors last season.

Not having this collection of talent didn’t faze Stratford against Chequamegon and Phillips. Younger wres- tlers like freshman Trenton Cournoyer stepped up to help the Tigers defeat the Screaming Eagles and Loggers. Cournoyer, junior Ryan Becker and senior Dillon Kirsch pinned both their Chequamegon and Phillips opponents.

Dillon Kirsch managed to pin James Bruhn of Phillips while dealing with the distraction of hearing Auburndale wrestlers remove tape from the mats on the other side of the gym, after Auburndale had just beat Cheqaumegon.

Stratford head wrestling coach Adam Davison said his wrestlers who competed later in the match against Phillips did a great job not letting the noise of the mats being rolled up and people exiting the gym affect them.

“It comes down to doing your job, and your job is to go out there and win your match and score as many points for the team and try to pin the kid if you can,” Davison said. “Obviously, it’s a little different if your match gets done first and then you can watch the other match, instead of the mats being rolled up next to you. Our kids were able to keep their focus by staying on the mat and wrestling in the moment, and they did a good job down the stretch there.”

Stratford junior Jackson Ormond, who is ranked sixth in Division 3 at 182 pounds, received forfeit wins against the Screaming Eagles and Loggers. He said it feels great to dominate the Marawood Conference competition, like Stratford has done by winning eight consecutive conference championships. He’s excited to get his teammates back healthy in the starting lineup again.

“We are a little banged up right now with Eli, Cole, Gavin and Raife all gone this week so it’s kind of hard to keep practices going, but I feel we are doing pretty good,” Jackson, the son of Les and Kristi Ormond, said after Thursday’s quad in Auburndale. “We have the numbers to stay together and be a good team. We have good team bonding in the wrestling room which is always good to have. Not many teams in this conferences have a whole team and they probably don’t have as much fun as we have. We have a lot of fun and we probably work the hardest in the conference, in my opinion.”

Jackson Ormond is excited for his team to compete against top-level competition in Fennimore, Holmen and Marshfield in Stratford’s home quad at 5 p.m. this Friday, Jan. 14.

Stratford has of course battled Fennimore many times for the WIAA Division 3 state team championship in recent past. Holmen and Marshfield both qualified for Division 1 team state last season and Marshfield recently won the Bi-State Classic in La Crosse.

“It’ll be a good home quad and there should be a lot of people in attendance,” Jackson Ormond said. “Our team will hopefully be healthy again for it which would be nice because I feel we can upset some good teams in our home quad.”

Coach Davison echoed Jackson Ormond’s thoughts on this Friday’s quad in the Stratford gym.

“It’s going to be a pretty intense night for a lot of these kids,” Davison said. “There’s going to be a lot of great individual matchups and the names Fennimore, Holmen and Marshfield speak for themselves because they’ve been great wrestling programs for a long time in the state. It’ll be a lot of fun for our kids.”

He wants to make sure his wrestlers currently out with injuries are fully healthy before they wrestle against top-notch competition this Friday in Stratford.

Stratford took third place overall as a team at the Fred Lehrke Invite at D.C. Everest last weekend. Cournoyer took first place at 106 pounds, Cayden Leonhardt was fourth at 113, Ashtyn Kuehn third at 126, Becker fourth at 145, Dillion Kirsch second at 152, Gavin Kirsch third at 160, Carter Lueck fourth at 170, Jackson Ormond third at 182, Patrick Greenberg third at 195 and Alex Mueller second at 285.

Stratford will compete against Athens, Auburndale, Edgar and Marathon in the Marawood Conference championship tournament on Saturday, Jan. 29, at Edgar High School.

Athens has still won the most Marawood Conference wrestling championships, 21, dating back to when the conference was formed in 1960. Athens won 20 consecutive conference titles from the 1970s through the 1990s. Marathon won its only wrestling conference title in 1964. Stratford is second behind Athens with 14 Marawood Conference wrestling championships. Edgar is third with 10 wrestling conference titles, followed by Auburndale with eight and Pittsville with six. Pittsville left the Marawood Conference a few years ago.

This year’s WIAA Division 3 wrestling regional on Saturday, Feb. 12, at Auburndale High School includes Athens, Auburndale, Edgar, Marathon, Pittsville and Stratford. These teams are in the WIAA Division 3 Bonduel sectional for individual wrestlers, which will take place on Saturday, Feb. 19, at Shawano Community High School. The WIAA Division 3 Suring/Gillett team sectional, which includes No. 1 ranked Coleman, will be on Tuesday, Feb. 15.

The WIAA individual state wrestling championships will be held on Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 2426, at the Kohl Center in Madison. WIAA Division 3 team state will be on Saturday, March 5, at the UW Fieldhouse in Madison. Jackson Ormond wants Stratford’s wrestling squad to get back to competing at team state again.

“The goal this year is to make it to team state and win the whole thing,” he said. “It’s going to be tough to get past Coleman in team sectionals but we should have a good shot.”

BECKER GAINS PINS AGAINST CONFERENCE FOES- Stratford junior Ryan Becker is shown wrestling against Chequamegon’s Dalton Schmidt on Thursday at Auburndale High School. Becker pinned Schmidt and Jesse Bruhn of Phillips in the 145-pound bout to help the Tigers win Marawood Conference dual matches against the Screaming Eagles and Loggers.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER

COURNOYER CONTROLS HIS OPPONENT- Stratford freshman Trenton Cournoyer dominates Chequamegon senior Kale Kielpikowski in the 113-pound bout on Thursday at Auburndale High School. Cournoyer pinned Kielpikowski in four minutes, 24 seconds. Cournoyer also pinned his Phillips opponent, Maverick Hoogland, in 55 seconds on Thursday in Auburndale.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER

GOING FOR THE PIN- Stratford wrestler Carter Lueck grapples with James Bruhn of Phillips at the Auburndale quad on Thursday. Lueck pinned Bruhn in just over one minute in the 170-pound bout. Lueck received a forfeit win against Chequamegon.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER

MUELLER’S A CHAMPION- The wrestling official raises the arm of Stratford’s Alex Mueller to signify he won his 285-pound bout against Daniel Wagner of Chequamegon on Thursday in Auburndale.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER