Wrestlers earn top spots in Ladysmith

The Abby-Colby wrestling team competed at the Ladysmith Invitational this past Saturday. While the co-op only had eight wrestlers at the event, they still placed ninth out of 21 schools represented, scoring 240.5 points. They had three wrestlers place in the top three in their respective weight classes, with Levi Dommer taking first in the 220-pound division, Luis Nava Rojas taking second in the 285-pound division and Tristan Smazal taking third in the 120-pound division.

Dommer had a dominant day, going 4-0 and pinning all of his opponents in the first round of each of his matches. His first victory came over Jayden Whitman of Eau Claire Memorial, who he quickly pinned at the 0:19 mark. The senior’s next two matches saw Dommer fall behind in points early in the rounds, but he quickly changed his fortunes, pinning Samy Espinal of Bloomer/Colfax in the second round and first seeded Jack Lazar of Ladysmith in the semifinals. Dommer’s win over Lazar was just the third loss for the Ladysmith junior this season.

His final opponent was Mineral Point’s Mac Busser, who was the second seed in the bracket. In the championship match, Dommer took the initiative and took down Busser early. While the Mineral Point junior managed to escape this initial takedown, Dommer would not let him go the second time, pinning his opponent at the 1:33 mark. His four consecutive wins by fall earned the team 52.0 points.

In the 285-pound bracket, Nava Rojas came in as the sixth seed. He defeated Cadott’s Alex Jackson in the first round, pinning Jackson a minute and a half into the match. The junior then faced the third seed, Matt Aurit of Mineral Point, in the quarterfinals. No points were scored in the first two rounds and with two escapes from Aurit matching a takedown from Nava Rojas in the third, the pair faced off in an overtime. Nava Rojas took the sudden victory with his second takedown of Aurit of the match, sending him to the semifinals to face second seed Jade Busse of Reedsville. Two takedowns of Busse in the second period were all he would need to take the 4-1 decision and Nava Rojas moved on to the championship match. Number one seed Brandon Sommers of Phillips proved to be a difficult opponent, getting the win by fall in the first period. Nava Rojas’ second place finish earned his team 42.0 points.

Tristan Smazal went 3-1 in the 120-pound weight class. His first victory of the day came over Monte Lodahl of Cadott. After several close calls in the first period, Smazal finished the job in the second period, pinning Lodahl at the 3:29 mark. He then took a 7-4 decision over Talon Berg of Osceola, using an escape and a takedown in the final period to pull ahead. In the semifinals, Smazal faced off against eventual champion Roen Carey of Mineral Point and was forced into the consolation match after losing by technical fall to Carey. The freshman bounced back in the thirdplace match, defeating Bloomer/Colfax’s Theo Hovde. Smazal took the 6-4 decision after getting a reversal in the third round to break a 4-4 tie. His finish earned the coop 37.0 points.

Brayden Meyer took fourth place in the 152-pound bracket. Two wins against Joe Harrington of Shell Lake and Jacob Smith of Marathon in the first two rounds got Meyer into the semifinals. Cadott’s Tristen Drier, who would go on to win the bracket, was waiting for him there and while Meyer managed to escape trouble a number of times in the first round, he couldn’t quite make it to the second period, getting pinned at the 2:00 mark. A hard-fought match in the third-place bout saw Carson Taddy of Reedville overcoming a five point deficit to defeat Meyer 7-5. Meyer’s fourth A/C

place performance earned the team 35.5 points.

Other varsity results from the tournament included 2-2 days for Alex Sundermeyer, Jacob Hoppe and Erik Martinez who placed sixth, seventh and 11th respectively, and a 15th place finish for Warren Flink.

Abbotsford Quad

The co-op also hosted a quad last Thursday, inviting Bloomer/Colfax, Osseo- Fairchild and Marathon into town for a trio of duals. The Abby-Colby team swept their opponents, winning all three of their duals. They defeated Bloomer/ Colfax 39-33, Osseo-Fairchild 42-24, and Marathon 45-36.

In their final dual against Marathon, the team had an uphill battle in front of them. Marathon would be awarded four forfeits due to the co-op being unable to fill weight-classes compared to Abby-Colby’s one, meaning that they would have to overcome a significant deficit in order to claim a team victory.

Undaunted by the task, the Abby-Colby team did just that. Of the nine matches that were not decided by forfeit, the coop won seven, starting off with strong performances from Levi Dommer and Luis Nava Rojas and concluding with two wins from Brayden Meyer and Jacob Hoppe to put the co-op over the top.

The team will be back in action this Thursday, traveling to Neillsville for a triangular. The start time is slated for 4:30 p.m.