ALL-GNCWRESTLING - Post-season awards reflect Medford’s dominant season in GNC wrestling

ALL-GNC WRESTLING

The Medford Raiders came into the year as heavy favorites to win another Great Northern Conference wrestling champion and they dominated as expected, earning the program’s seventh team championship in eight years under head coach Brandon Marcis.

The Raiders comfortably won all five of their GNC dual meets and then clinched the title by a 119-point margin over Tomahawk in the GNC tournament held Feb. 3 in Antigo. In that meet, 12 of Medford’s 14 wrestlers earned All-GNC awards by finishing among the top three in their weight classes.

That group was led by six champions, including senior Logan Kawa, who was named the Great Northern Conference’s 2023-24 Co-Wrestler of the Year following the meet, along with Rhinelander’s Owen Kurtz. Kawa was the 175-pound champion. Eventual WIAA Division 2 157-pound state champion Gage Losiewicz, senior Jude Stark and junior Owen Higgins all won their third straight GNC titles. Senior Cory Lindahl won his second and freshman Jordan Lavin won his first at 120 pounds.

Four more Raiders landed on the second team by placing second in the tournament. They are senior Max Dietzman and juniors Parker Lissner, Paxton Rothmeier and Evan Wilkins. Senior Braxton Weissmiller and junior Nick Malchow got honorable mention by earning third-place finishes.

The Raiders’ dominance led to Marcis being named the GNC’s 2023-24 Coach of the Year. It’s the fifth time he has won that award.

Medford finished with 474 points in the conference meet and clinched their second straight outright GNC title. The Raiders have won 27 straight GNC dual meets and have gone 5-0 for five straight seasons.

Kawa earned the Wrestler of the Year award after a dominant GNC campaign. He won nine of his 10 GNC matches by pin and won the other on Dec. 14 in a 19-2 technical fall over eventual 190-pound GNC champion Logan Schwinger of Rhinelander. Kawa pinned five straight opponents in the GNC tournament, all in the first period.

Kawa went on to win the 175-pound WIAA Division 2 regional championship, placed second at the sectional meet and reached the semifinals of the state tournament. He was on his way to the finals, leading Espyn Sweers of Mauston-Necedah 3-0 in the third period when a knee injury helped lead to a 4-3 loss. Kawa earned sixth place at state and finished the year 47-9.

Losiewicz enters next year as the frontrunner for the Wrestler of the Year after claiming his first state championship on Feb. 24. Losiewicz cruised through GNC competition with six pins and two forfeits, with three of those pins coming in the conference meet, all very quickly in the first period.

After finishing second to Abbotsford-Colby’s Tanner Halopka at the Medford regional, Losiewicz beat Halopka in overtime in the sectional championship meet at Tomahawk and beat him 6-0 in an overtime tiebreaker in the state championship meet. Losiewicz closed the year at 49-4.

Stark’s third straight GNC title came at 132 pounds. Stark went 10-0 in GNC matches, getting two forfeits during the duals and eight pins. He notched five of those pins in the GNC tournament, all in the first period. Four of them came in less than a minute.

Stark won the regional title at 132 pounds and placed third in the sectional to earn his first trip to state, where he lost his only match 7-4 to Dylan Weigel of Belmont-Platteville. Stark finished his senior year at 43-10.

Higgins followed up his 120- and 132-pound GNC titles in his first two years by taking this year’s 138-pound crown. He started the year at 144 pounds and won two GNC matches there before going 8-0 the rest of the way at 138. He pinned three opponents at the GNC tournament and added an 8-3 win over Lakeland’s Ashton Bremer and a 12-4 major decision over Tomahawk’s Ryan Larson.

Higgins finished the year at 36-9 after finishing as the regional runner-up and fourth at the Tomahawk sectional.

Lindahl’s GNC title at 150 pounds follows his 152-pound title of last winter. Lindahl won all four of his dual-meet matches by pin and went 3-0 in the GNC tournament, finishing with a high-scoring 14-6 win over Antigo’s Jayson Arrowood in the title bout. Lindahl placed third in the regional meet to advance to the sectional, where he lost his only match to finish the year 33-10.

Lavin was 1-2 in GNC dual meets and missed the double-dual with Lakeland and Antigo due to illness but he made up for it in the GNC tournament by pinning three of his opponents in the 120-pound weight class and getting a late takedown to upset Lakeland’s Justin Funmaker to complete a 4-0 day. Lavin also earned his first sectional appearance and his strong finish put him at 14-18 for the year. Among Medford’s second-team All-GNC wrestlers, Dietzman and Rothmeier were runners-up for the second straight year. Dietzman went 8-2 at 285 pounds with seven pins and a forfeit. The only GNC wrestler he didn’t beat was Rhinelander’s Reid Schultz, who pinned him during the teams’ Dec. 14 dual and at 3:41 in the GNC tournament championship, right after he had just taken a 3-2 lead. Dietzman, in just his second year as a wrestler, finished 3213 after taking fifth in the regional.

Rothmeier went 5-0 in GNC dual meets at 165 pounds with four pins and a forfeit. He pinned Tomahawk’s Kaiden Kapellisch in 24 seconds and shut out Lakeland’s Tommy Howard 7-0 at the GNC tournament but fell 3-0 to Antigo’s Nolan Kielcheski, who Medford did not see in the Jan. 18 dual, in the title bout. Rothmeier was a regional runner-up and finished 3111 after dropping his only sectional match.

Lissner, the GNC’s 138-pound champion last year, came up one win short this year at 144. He won his first two GNC matches by pin at 138 pounds, then missed time with a shoulder injury. He came back to win two matches by pin in the Lakeland/ Antigo double-dual and got three wins in the GNC tournament before getting edged 5-3 in a good match with Lakeland’s Jerome LaBarge in the final.

Wilkins also was undefeated in GNC matches until his last one. He got two pins in the Lakeland/Antigo double-dual and took forfeits, two at 190 pounds and one at 175 in the dualmeet season. Wrestling at 190 pounds in the GNC tournament, Wilkins won his first three matches, including a tight 11-9 match with Tomahawk’s Blake Younker, but fell 7-3 to Schwinger in the final. Wilkins finished second in the regional, again losing to Schwinger, and went 0-2 at the sectional to end the year at 30-12.

Weissmiller was 6-4 in GNC matches at 215 pounds with four pins, a forfeit and a 1-0 win over Mosinee’s Bruce Hintz in a Jan. 11 dual meet. Weissmiller pinned Hintz in the GNC tournament. He lost twice to league runner-up Leonard Chosa of Lakeland and twice to Kurtz. The first time was a first-period pin, butWeissmiller took Kurtz to the overtime tiebreaker with a chance to force a three-way tie for first at the GNC tournament. Kurtz finally pinned him at 7:24 to clinch the outright title.

Weissmiller was pinned by Kurtz again and placed second at the regional. He lost his only sectional match to finish 31-17.

Malchow went 2-1 in GNC duals, going between 113 and 120 pounds. Wrestling at 113 pounds in the GNC tournament, he went 2-2 to place third, pinning Rhinelander’s Hoyt Dantoin in 1:06 and beating Antigo’s Jonathan Wissbroecker 7-0. Malchow was fifth at the regional and finished 17-11.

Brandon Marcis Coach of Year

Gage Losiewicz First Team

Jude Stark First Team

Jordan Lavin First Team

Max Dietzman Second Team

Cory Lindahl First Team

Owen Higgins First Team

Paxton Rothmeier Second Team

Parker Lissner Second Team

Evan Wilkins Second Team

Braxton Weissmiller Hon. Mention

Nick Malchow Hon. Mention