WIAA DIV. 2 STATE WRESTLING - Two more medals for Medford; unfortunate ending for Kawa

WIAA DIV. 2 STATE WRESTLING

The Medford Raiders took four competitors to the WIAA individual state wrestling championships and came home with three medals after the three-day competition.

Aside from Gage Losiewicz’s state championship in the Division 2 157-pound bracket, senior Logan Kawa placed sixth at state for the second straight year, this time at 175 pounds and freshman Avery Losiewicz, as Medford’s first-ever competitor in the girls state tournament, placed third at 126 pounds but could make the argument she was the second-best wrestler among the 16 entrants in the bracket.

Kawa’s sixth-place finish came with an unfortunate break as he was in control of his Friday night semifinal match with Mauston-Necedah’s Espyn Sweers for five minutes and leading 3-0 with a first-period takedown and an escape to start the third period after he successfully rode Sweers through the second.

Kawa was warned for stalling with 1:31 left and then Sweers was awarded a stalling point with 49 seconds left. Sweers took Kawa down with 26 seconds and when Kawa pulled the action out of bounds, he was called for stalling again with 21 seconds left, giving Sweers a 4-3 lead which he held for the win.

Kawa, though, left the mat limping noticeably, and he said Sunday upon the team’s return that he tore his meniscus during the match. The fifth-seeded Kawa could’ve still finished as high as third on Saturday, but not being able to compete, his two medical forfeits dropped him to sixth and a 47-9 finish to the season.

Before that tough last semifinal minute, Kawa was on top of his game in his first two state matches.

Most noteworthy was his 9-0 major decision in Friday’s quarterfinal over fourthseeded Lucas D’Jock of the Luck Co-op, who had beaten him 8-6 in the sectional title match six days earlier.

“It felt great,” Kawa said. “I knew what I had to do. I stayed solid on my defense. Ran the little things on offense and everything went.”

D’Jock was 48-1 while entering the quarterfinal with a first-round bye. Each wrestler had a good shot denied in the early going, but Kawa connected on his next one, getting a takedown and a 2-0 lead with 10 seconds left in the first period.

“First I went in for my sweep tangle, and got deep,” Kawa said. “Give props to him. He’s damn good at feet defense. So I worked that, couldn’t get it. We ended up out of bounds. After that, he went in, it was right at the edge of the mat. He went for a double, lucky enough I had my feet back. Right as he was popping up from it, I went and hit my left-side single, came with a cut-across and just finished hard.”

Starting the second period on the bottom, Kawa reversed D’Jock and got him to his back for a three-point near fall, basically putting the match out of reach at 7-0.

“I broke him down a few times and kept working to my feet,” Kawa said. After awhile, I hit a quick switch and just worked it around. I think he thought he was out of bounds, he rolled and I caught him. Got my back points there.”

In his opener Thursday night, Kawa was in command from start to finish and beat 12th-seeded Brody Nichols of Delavan-Darien (37-10) by a score of 8-0. Takedowns in the first and second periods, plus a two-point near fall out of the second one put him up 6-0 through two periods. Kawa reversed Nichols in the third.

Second-seeded Justin Klinkner of Two Rivers (35-4) won the weight class title, beating the eighth-seeded Sweers 3-1 in the final. Sweers upset top seed Mason Lane of Lodi 6-3 in a tiebreaker in the quarterfinals. Sixth-seeded Patrick Moore of Freedom (45-12) beat Lane 3-0 in the third-place match. Fifth went to thirdseeded Ben Kienbaum of Kiel.

Avery Losiewicz went 4-1 over the weekend and none of her wins were particularly close. She started Thursday by immediately taking down 13th-seeded Brianna Buechner of Wautoma-Wild Rose and getting two near falls for a 7-0 lead in their first-round match. Losiewicz got the pin in 2:33.

The quarterfinal Thursday night didn’t start quite as well as Losiewicz got taken down by fifth-seeded Addisen Olson of Peshtigo. No further damage was done and Losiewicz got a quick takedown and pin 27 seconds into the second period to advance to Friday’s semifinals.

There, she got a rematch with unbeaten Madi Peach, a senior from Milton. Peach pinned Losiewicz in 40 seconds at Arcadia on Jan. 20. This time, Peach took her down at the 40-second mark. Losiewicz fought for a minute but Peach (25-0) got the pin in 1:41 and went on to win the title match Saturday 7-1 over third-seeded Natalie Klavetter (27-3) of Hudson.

Losiewicz came back strong on Saturday, pinning second-seeded Lily Becker of Brookfield East in 2:28 in the consolation semifinals. She led 7-0 at the time. In a third-place rematch with Olson (35-8), Losiewicz rode takedowns in the first two periods to a 6-0 win and a 36-4 final record.

“It was fun,” Losiewicz said. “I felt pretty good about how I did. I was a little upset about the match with Madi Peach and how I wrestled. But there’s always next year. I was hoping to at least wrestle the whole match and try to win it.”

After finishing so close to the top and seeing her brother win a state title, Losiewicz is looking forward to 2024-25.

“There’s definitely motivation for next year,” she said.

Medford senior Jude Stark closed his outstanding career with a 7-4 loss in his first-round match Thursday night. The 10th-seeded Stark was the aggressor early in his bout with seventh-seeded Dylan Weigel of Belmont-Platteville (42-11), but his shots were fended off. Weigel got a takedown with 23 seconds left in the period and he escaped early in the second period, taking some wind out of Stark’s sails. A takedown with four seconds left in the period put Stark in a 5-0 hole.

Stark got on the board with an escape to start the third period, but Weigel put it out of reach with another takedown. Stark didn’t go out quietly, getting an escape and a takedown in the last 10 seconds, but it was too little, too late.

Stark finished his 100-plus win career with a 43-10 senior season.

Weigel lost his next two matches and did not place. The overwhelming favorite in the bracket, Baldwin-Woodville’s Colton Hush (47-2) won the championship match 10-4 over third-seeded Peter Tomazevic of Freedom (46-6).

Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe’s Troy Duellman works toward an early takedown against Ithaca-Weston’s Nolen Waldner in consolation competition Friday.