Medford’s Losiewicz 5-0 in Greco, 6-3 in freestyle for Wisconsin’s 16U team

USA WRESTLING NATIONAL DUALS

Right after competing in pole vault for the Medford Raiders at the WIAA Division 2 state track and field championships, Gage Losiewicz switched gears and joined Team Wisconsin for USA Wrestling’s 16U National Duals held last week in Loves Park, Ill.

Wisconsin placed fourth in Greco Roman competition, going 2-2 in the eightteam Gold/Silver placement pool. Losiewicz, who will be a junior this fall, was part of the Wisconsin Blue team for the freestyle tournament. That team placed 18th overall while finishing second in the Red/Blue placement pool. Wisconsin’s Red team made it to the Gold/Silver pool and finished fifth overall.

Losiewicz went a perfect 5-0 and was named to the 16U National Duals Greco Roman All-Tournament team at 152 pounds. Athletes who went undefeated in their dual-meet matches in Greco-Roman qualified for the All-Tournament team, as long as they had a minimum of five wins. There were 54 athletes on the All-Tournament team representing 24 states. Declan Koch of Neenah was the only other Wisconsin wrestler on the All-Tournament team. He went 6-0 at 126 pounds.

Losiewicz was 6-3 in the freestyle competition. He is a two-time WIAA Division 2 state qualifier at Medford.

Team Wisconsin started Greco Roman competition in the 10-team Pool A, where it placed second to earn a shot at the overall championship in the Gold/Silver placement pool. Wisconsin opened with a 72-8 rout over South Carolina that included a Losiewicz pin over Caleb Anderson in 35 seconds. In the pool quarterfinals, Wisconsin took care of North Dakota Blue 62-14 with Losiewicz earning an 11-1 technical fall over Rocker Aguilar in the dual’s third match.

Wisconsin edged Washington 39-35 in the pool semifinals. Losiewicz did not wrestle in that dual. Iowa took first place in the pool by beating Wisconsin in the final 48-24. Losiewicz won the second-tolast bout in the dual, earning an 8-4 decision over Kyler Knaack.

There was no second-place dual as Wisconsin had already defeated Washington, who won the third-place dual over the Oklahoma Outlaws Red squad 38-30.

The first round of competition in the Gold/Silver bracket put pool runnersup against pool champions. Wisconsin dropped its opener 48-25 to Illinois and then won a back-and-forth battle with Minnesota Blue 38-37 and then rolled over Tennessee 46-28. Losiewicz got a technical fall in that dual, beating Findley Smout 11-0. The 2-1 record in the bracket put Wisconsin in the thirdplace dual, where it was defeated 42-32 by Pennsylvania Blue. Losiewicz bumped up to 160 pounds for that dual and won by technical fall 8-0 over Cash Morrell.

Iowa beat Illinois 38-32 to win the championship dual.

In the freestyle portion of the event Friday and Saturday, Wisconsin Blue compiled an overall record of 5-4.

The team was placed in the opening 11-team Pool B and opened with a 54-22 loss to Michigan Blue. The team took care of Louisiana 56-20 and then edged Team Texas A 37-33 in the consolation semifinals, but a 53-17 loss to Missouri Red knocked Wisconsin Blue to the fifthplace dual, which it lost to Georgia Black 40-35.

Losiewicz fell by technical fall 13-3 to Michigan Blue’s Dylan Granger, got 10-0 technical falls over Louisiana’s Luke Cusachs and Texas A’s Owen Vaught, lost an 8-4 decision to Missouri Red’s Colby Gray and pinned Georgia Black’s David Jewell in 2:41. The win over Vaught was one of two Wisconsin Blue got at the end of the dual to secure the team victory over the Texas squad. Brady Stammer of Mequon got a 10-8 decision over Logan Soileau at 160 pounds to finish it.

In the Red/Blue placement pool to determine 17th through 24th place, Wisconsin Blue went 3-0 with wins of 38-33 over Colorado, 35-34 over Missouri Blue and 36-35 over Nebraska to earn a shot at winning the pool. Team Florida, however, won the final dual 43-30.

Losiewicz tied Colorado’s Jonathan Montes 6-6 but won the match on the tiebreaking criteria. He lost a match in that fashion after tying Missouri Blue’s Kellen Long. Losiewicz earned a 10-0 technical fall over Team Nebraska’s Carter Eisenmann and a 15-5 technical fall over Florida’s Kalias Nazario.

Both Missouri wrestlers Losiewicz faced went 7-1 in the tournament.

Iowa completed a sweep of the team championships by, again, beating Illinois in the championship dual 41-26. Ohio Scarlet was third, beating Pennsylvania Blue 34-32 and Wisconsin Red downed Minnesota Blue 46-27 for fifth.