King of the Marawood again?

By Casey Krautkramer

Stratford’s varsity wrestling team is the epitome of a squad consistently reloading each year to win the Marawood Conference championship. The Tigers have won 10 consecutive regular season conference dual meet championships and nine straight conference tournament titles. They likely would’ve also won the 2021 conference tournament championship but it was cancelled because of COVID.

Tigers head wrestling coach Adam Davison has continued the excellence that Joe Schwabe left when he resigned as head coach after the team’s 2019 state team tournament appearance. Schwabe took one year off from coaching and he’s now back for his second straight season as a Stratford assistant wrestling coach. Longtime wrestling coach Kane Krummel also returns as an assistant coach this season.

Marathon gave Stratford its stiffest test in the race for the conference championship last season and it’s looking like that’s also the case again this season. Stratford has already beaten a solid Auburndale squad, 54-24, on Dec. 7 at the Athens quad. Stratford will wrestle against Edgar and Marathon during its home quad that begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.

“If we get complacent, a team like Marathon, that has really improved over the the few years, would love to stop our conference championship winning streak,” Davison said.

Davison guided Stratford’s wrestling team to the WIAA Division 3 team tournament last season for the first time in his head coaching tenure in Stratford. Unfortunately, Stratford lost to defending state champion Fennimore, 55-13, in the state semifinals match at the UW Fieldhouse in Madison. Shiocton beat Cedar Grove-Belgium, 42-25, in the other Division 3 state semifinals match. Fennimore then easily defeated Shiocton, 4318, to win back-to-back state championships.

“It had been a few years since we made a trip to team state; we had fallen just short a few times so it was just a great experience for the team to get to go down to Madison and wrestle in the UW Fieldhouse,” Davison said. “Obviously, the Fennimore dual didn’t go super well for us but we believed that we would’ve been competitive with the other two Division 3 teams at state. That isn’t meant as a slight to everything that Shiocton has built or to Cedar Grove-Belgium who finally punched through its sectional, but we felt like we would’ve been right there with them. If this team wants to reach those heights, then we just need to keep working and get a little better every day. We were a pretty dangerous team in duals last season and I think we wrestled our very best in those big moments last year, so it will be interesting to see what this team’s identity and legacy will look like when we get to February.”

Davison details his varsity team’s top returning wrestlers this season.

“We return four individual state qualifiers in Carter Lueck at 190 pounds, Kaleb Krummel at 165, Trenton Cournoyer at 126 and Colin Cournoyer at 113, along with three other sectional qualifiers in Mathias Kaiser at 138, Lucas Forrest at 132 and Jack Tubbs at 175. We also have Brandon Knetter, Jesse Bauer, Mason Oerter and Roman Schmidt, who have been starters at one point or another in the past year or two.”

Lueck took fourth place at state last season and the other three failed to place. All four of them were making their first trips to the individual state tournament last year.

He also describes the new wrestlers to this season’s varsity squad.

“If he counts as a newcomer, senior Roman Schmidt is looking to finally get his chance at the top of the starting lineup,” Division said. “Roman started as a freshman but he spent last season behind Colin Cournoyer. Senior Noah Lucio who wrestles at 215 pounds returns for the first time since his freshman year. Noah is a very quick and powerful athlete so we’re excited to see what that brings us. Sophomore Drew Gage looks to be a starter in our upper weights; he has a lot of wrestling experience at the youth level. Freshman Aaron Knetter is another kid with a lot of experience on the youth side who seems to be pushing for a varsity spot. He’s either going to bump an older kid out of a starting spot or end up giving us a ton of flexibility because of his experience and work ethic.”

Stratford’s wrestling team got off to a great start this season with a 5-0 record against opponents at the Schoenherr Duals on Dec. 2. Stratford beat Crandon, 42-36; DePere, 45-22; Southern Door, 5125; Wittenberg-Birnamwood, 37-36 and Wausau East, 61-9.

See STRATFOFD WRESTLING/ page 16

STRATFORD VARSITY WRESTLING- Introducing the 2023-24 Tigers wrestling squad. Pictured, from left to right, kneeling in the front row: Lucas Forrest, Colin Cournoyer, Trenton Cournoyer, Mathias Kaiser, Roman Schmidt, Jesse Bauer, Kolton Haupt, Kaden Ostricki and Brandon Drexler; middle row standing are Garrett Zuelke, Owen Lueck, Jaegar Ormond, Aaron Knetter, Jack Tubbs, Kaleb Krummel, Walker Weis, Tyler Budtke and John Mews; back row standing are Drew Gage, Cayden Leonhardt, Matt Kolb, Brandon Knetter, Xander Curtice, Carter Lueck, Mason Oertel, Noah Lucio and Laurenz Plattner.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER Stratford wrestling

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The Tigers then won all three of their matches at the Athens quad on Dec. 7. Stratford defeated Athens, 77-3; Auburndale, 54-24 and Osseo-Fairchild/Augusta/ Fall Creek, 84-0.

Stratford has a 2-1 record in matches at the Weyauwega-Fremeont Duals the very next day on Dec. 8. Stratford beat Oshkosh West, 44-31; Random Lake, 50-22 and New London, 44-26. Stratford lost to Neenah, 36-35 and Weyauwega-Fremont, 39-27.

The Tigers beat both of their Marawood Conference opponents at the Auburndale Quad on Dec. 14. Stratford downed Phillips, 61-15 and Chequamegon, 72-6.

Stratford also won both of its nonconference dual matches at the Abbotsford/ Colby Triangular on Dec. 19. Stratford beat Abbotsford/Colby, 54-21 and Mosinee, 73-3.

Davison wants to see continued growth from every one of his wrestlers this season.

“The hope is the kids take steps forward,” he said. “If you were a state qualifier last year, aim for a medal this year. That doesn’t mean the season is a disappointment if you don’t get there but the goal is to always improve. If you were more of a .500 wrestler last year, let’s see if you can get that up and push toward making it to sectionals this year. Obviously, most of our returning state qualifiers also wrestle quite a bit in the offseason and I’m excited to see what this season brings.”

BROTHERS PRACTICE WRESTLING MOVES AGAINST EACH OTHER- Stratford junior Trenton Cournoyer, left, and his sophomore brother, Colin Cournoyer, grapple with each other during one of the team’s practices this season. Both of them were WIAA individual state qualifiers last season.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER