11th straight conference title

By Casey Krautkramer

Stratford junior wrestler Carter Lueck and his teammates are accustomed to winning Marawood Conference championships each season. So much so that they couldn’t fathom having a year in which they didn’t win the conference title.

The Tigers beat the Marathon Red Raiders, 44-14, in Thursday’s home quad to capture their 11th consecutive Marawood Conference regular season dual meet championship. Stratford is getting closer to matching or beating Athens’ conference record of winning 13 straight Marawood dual meet titles. Pittsville ended Athens’ long regular season dual meet winning streak in 1990 but the Bluejays still won the conference tournament championship that season.

Stratford will now attempt to win its 10th straight conference tournament title on Saturday, Jan. 20, at Phillips High School. The 2021 conference tournament was cancelled because of COVID. Athens holds the conference record of winning 20 consecutive Marawood Conference tournament championships from the early 1970s through the mid 1990s.

Marathon has improved the last few years to give Stratford its stiffest challenge of any Marawood Conference squad. Stratford, however, prevailed in defeating Marathon again this season.

“These last two years that I’ve been a starting wrestler, I’ve heard from over a couple miles away in Marathon that it’s their year and every year we say that we don’t want to be the class that ends our 10-year and now an 11-year streak of winning the conference championship,” Lueck said. “We don’t want to be that class to end the conference championship winning streak so that pushes us to work hard in the wrestling practice room every day.”

Stratford head wrestling coach Adam Davison welcomes the fact that Marathon is challenging his squad in recent years.

“It’s one of those things where we see it and we hear it online that people are talking about whether this is the year that Marathon is going to get Stratford, and our guys welcome the challenge,” he said. “It’s great for central Wisconsin wrestling and it’s great for the Marawood Conference to have teams that want to fight and push each other to get better. Marathon is pushing us and that helps us get better every day too because we know that if we stop training hard then they are going to close that gap even further. Our guys worked hard in the offseason and early this season even though we got off to a late start with our football team winning the state championship again. These wrestlers from Marathon and Stratford are pretty even but we won most of the 50/50 matches that could’ve gone either way, and those matches went to the guys wearing the black and orange.”

The match draw weight was 144 pounds in which Marathon sophomore Tate Sonnentag won a 4-3 decision against Stratford sophomore Lucas Forrest. Stratford junior Brandon Knetter then pulled off one of his team’s 50/50 matches with a 4-3 decision win against Marathon senior Derek Vesely in the 150-pound weight class, See MARAWOOD CHAMPIONS page 11

TIGERS WIN THEIR SEVENTH STRAIGHT BOUT AGAINST THE RED RAIDERS- Stratford sophomore heavyweight wrestler Drew Gage is shown going into the process of pinning Marathon sophomore Alex Poppe in the last of the Tigers’ wins against the Red Raiders during Thursday’s home quad. Stratford beat Marathon 44-14 to win its 11th straight Marawood Conference regular season dual meet championship.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER Marawood champions

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which pumped up Stratford’s coaches and wrestlers on its bench.

Lueck was in Stratford’s wrestling practice room preparing for his bout when he found out about Knetter’s big win.

“That win was huge because it started our momentum for the entire match,” he said. “We didn’t know if he was going to win or lose. We needed a big win from him and we got that out of him, so when he came back into the wrestling room and we all found out that he won, we were pretty excited.”

Knetter started a streak of seven straight wins by Stratford wrestlers against Marathon. Stratford senior Kaleb Krummel won a 16-1 technical fall against Marathon senior Jacob Smith at 157 pounds; junior Jack Tubbs won a 6-1 decision against sophomore Reed McCain at 165 pounds; Lueck pinned sophomore Grant Salber in one minute, six seconds at 175 pounds; junior Mason Oertel pinned freshman Jace Ostrowski in 46 seconds; senior Noah Lucio pinned junior Juan Gomez in 1:07 and sophomore Drew Gage pinned sophomore Alex Poppe in 2:34.

Both teams forfeited 106 pounds because Stratford freshman Kolton Haupt was home sick from school. Marathon then won two straight bouts against Stratford. Sophomore Blake Underwood won a 15-2 major decision against senior Roman Schmidt at 113 pounds and sophomore Cale Quaintance won a 6-1 decision against sophomore Colin Cournoyer.

Straford freshman Andre Terry received a forfeit win at 126 pounds because Marathon junior Levi Krautkramer is out with an injury. Tigers junior Trenton Cournoyer won a 6-0 decision against Marathon sophomore Swayne Stencil at 132 pounds to achieve his 100th career match victory. Several Stratford wrestling fans held up 100 win signs following his accomplishment. Marathon senior Dylan Dodson won a 15-1 major decision against sophomore Mathias Kaiser at 138 pounds to end the match.

Coach Davison loved the intensity of his wresters on the team’s bench during its match against Marathon.

“A big conversation before the match was just because you are not wrestling this match doesn’t mean you don’t matter; we need that energy,” he said. “We need you to clap and cheer because the fans will feed off it.”

Marathon will continue to push Stratford in future years toward its goal of winning the school’s first regular season dual meet championship since 1964, which was the first year of Marawood Conference wrestling. The conference tournament championship didn’t begin until 1976.

Tigers down Wildcats

Stratford defeated Edgar, 60-18, in the first match of Thursday’s home quad. The draw weight was 138 pounds and Kaiser won a 16-0 technical fall against Edgar senior Corey Schilling for the first of Stratford’s six straight bout wins.

Forrest won a 7-0 decision against Edgar junior Austin Schreiber at 144 pounds; Knetter received a forfeit win at 150 pounds; Krummel pinned Wildcats junior William Hackel in 1:16 at 157 pounds, Tubbs pinned Wildcats sophomore Preston Erickson in 3:42 at 165 pounds and Lueck pinned Edgar sophomore Alex Schneider in 1:23 at 175 pounds.

Edgar received its first bout win against Stratford when sophomore Lucas Stahnke pinned Oerter in 3:39 at 190 pounds. Lucio pinned Edgar junior Dakota Ellenbecker in 1:27 at 215 pounds. Wildcats senior Harrison Graveen pinned Gage in 1:42 at 285 pounds.

Wildcats freshman Jeremy Malouf received a forfeit win at 106 pounds. Schmidt won a 14-2 major decision against Edgar freshman Isaiah Kraft at 113 pounds; Colin Cournoyer received a forfeit win at 120 pounds; Trenton Cournoyer pinned Edgar sophomore Dominic Contreras in 2:50 at 126 pounds and Stratford freshman Aaron Knetter pinned Edgar freshman Tyler Schmidt in 5:03 at 132 pounds to conclude the match.

Tigers win D.C. Everest tourney

Stratford’s varsity wrestling squad took first place at Saturday’s 67th Fred Lehrke Invitational at D.C. Everest High School. Stratford amassed 419 team points, ahead of second-place D.C. Everest with 370 points.

Haupt, with a 19-8 match record this season, placed second at 106 pounds; Schmidt, 23-8, placed second at 113 pounds; Colin Cournoyer, 27-6, placed first at 120 pounds; Trenton Cournoyer, 28-5, placed second at 126 pounds; Aaron Knetter, 23-8, placed first at 132 pounds and junior Jesse Bauer, 10-8, placed third at 132 pounds.

Forrest, 19-16, took fifth place at 144 pounds, Brandon Knetter, 17-9, placed second at 150 pounds; Krummel, 26-8, placed second at 157 pounds; Tubbs, 258, placed third at 165 pounds; sophomore Jaeger Ormond, 9-10, placed fifth at 175 pounds, Lueck, 35-1, placed first at 175 pounds; Oerter, 6-9, placed eighth at 190 pounds; junior Matt Kolbe, 9-10, placed 10th at 215 pounds; Lucio, 31-6, placed second at 215 pounds and Gage, 18-11, placed fourth at 285 pounds.

Lueck achieved his 100th career win during the Fred Lehrke Invitational.

THE THRILL OF VICTORY- Stratford wrestlers get off the team’s bench to celebrate junior Brandon Knetter pulling of a 4-3 decision win against Marathon senior Derek Vesely in the 150-pound weight class during Thursday’s home quad. Knetter’s bout win was the first of Stratford’s seven consecutive bout victories against Marathon. Stratford wrestlers pictured, from left to right, are: Kaden Ostricki, Matt Kolb, Garrett Zuelke, Cayden Leonhardt in the front with Xander Curtice behind him.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER

100TH CAREER MATCH WIN- Wrestling official Cliff Ange of Athens holds up Stratford junior wrestler Trenton Cournoyer’s arm on Thursday night to signify his 6-0 decisioin win against Marathon sophomore Swayne Stencil during the Stratford quad. It marked Trenton Cournoyer’s 100th career match victory.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER