MEDFORD WRESTLING - Lavin is Medford’s highest finisher at North; Warriors win first dual

MEDFORD WRESTLING

Jordan Lavin earned the highest finish of Medford’s three varsity wrestlers, taking 11th at 126 pounds during Saturday’s Eau Claire North Husky Invitational.

Parker Lissner was 12th at 157 pounds and Ayden Tyznik was 13th at 113 pounds for Medford. Those three combined for 37 points and a 26th-place finish in the team standings ahead of Durand-Arkansaw (31.5), Blair-Taylor (28), Cochrane-Fountain City (19) and Rice Lake (0).

St. Michael-Albertville, Minn. won the team championship with 558 points, with Kaukauna (523.5), Simley, Minn. (380), Menomonie (329.5) and Auburndale (321) rounding out the top five.

Lavin went 3-2 on the day. A preliminary pin in 51 seconds over Eau Claire North’s Edgar Cruz put him into the championship bracket where he lost by technical fall 22-5 to eventual champion, Aidan Aure, a Menomonie sophomore who is unbeaten through two weeks at 100.

On the consolation side of the bracket, Lavin beat Burlington’s Nick Riggle 8-7, lost by pin to Mosinee’s Jackson Nechuta and win by pin in 39 seconds in a rematch with Cruz in the 11th-place match.

Lissner went 3-3 for the day, starting out with two preliminary wins. He pinned Durand-Arkansaw’s Devin Wahlborg in 48 seconds and Wausau East’s Camdyn Rye in 3:13 to get into the bracket of 16, where he drew top-seeded and unbeaten Declan Koch of Neenah. Koch took a 22-5 technical fall and went on to win the weight class. He is 13-0.

Lissner won his first consolation match by medical forfeit over Lucas Fry of West Salem-Bangor. In the semifinals, Burlington’s Carson Cramer beat Lissner 12-5. New Richmond’s Noah Zanon pinned Lissner in 2:52 in the 11th-place match.

In a bracket of 14 wrestlers at 113 pounds, Tyznik opened with a loss by pin in 1:37 to Auburndale’s 10-1 freshman Carson Weiler and was pinned in 33 seconds by Cochrane-Fountain City’s Deklen Lambert. Tyznik closed the day on a high night, avenging a loss from two days earlier to the Neillsville Co-op’s Mason Anding. He won the 13th-place match by pin in 1:22.

Medford put nine of its inexperienced wrestlers into the JV portion of Saturday’s tournament.

Domanic Spencer, a junior, won his 144-149 weight class with a 3-1 record. His key win was a pin in 1:38 over Kaukauna’s Sawyer Georgel, who also went 3-1. The head-to-head win gave Spencer first place. Spencer pinned Neenah’s Aiden Bucholtz in 23 seconds and Kadin Wicklund of St. Michael-Albertville in 1:14 and lost by pin in 3:32 to New Richmond’s Jack Franz.

Freshman Jackson Mayer took third in a four-man bracket at 247-253 pounds. He went 1-2, pinning Wausau East’s Jackson Gumbert in 1:32.

Five Raiders earned fourth-place finishes in their brackets.

Freshman Levi Zuleger was one of three wrestlers who went 2-2 at 141-144 pounds behind 4-0 Nathan Lenneman of St. Michael-Albertville. Zuleger was credited with fourth place through the tie-breaking process. He beat second-place wrestler Levi Lobner of Wisconsin Rapids 4-0. He lost by technical fall 15-0 to Lenneman and 4-0 to third-place finisher Xavier Knoblach-Jones of Simley. Zuleger pinned Somerset’s Alex Erickson in 2:00.

Ian Stickney went 1-3 at 209-214 pounds, pinning Kaukauna’s Trenton Taff in 1:14. Ashton Noland went 1-3 at 182-194 pounds, pinning Superior’s Zander McDonald in 1:31. Corey McVicker was 1-3 at 132-135 pounds, pinning Simley’s Andres Butler in 2:39. Preston Lyman was 1-3 at 120-126 pounds, earning a win by injury default over Arrowhead’s Rylan Wilear.

Ahrlen Lekie was fifth at 128-130 pounds with an 0-4 record. Tyler Kmosena was 0-5 and placed sixth at 106 pounds.

In girls competition Friday, Medford’s Bridget Wesle lost all three of her matches at 145 pounds and placed 12th. She lost a 7-3 decision to Wausau West’s Ali McCorison in the first round, got a bye to the consolation semifinals, where she was pinned in 31 seconds by West Salem-Bangor’s Lily Kasinger, and she lost by injury default in the 11th-place match to Superior’s McKenzzie Welch.

Medford opens Great Northern Conference competition for 2024-25 tonight, Thursday, in a quad at Lakeland. The Raiders will face Tomahawk first at 6:30 p.m. and then square off with Mosinee in round two.

Medford is at the Shawano Holiday Classic this weekend with JV competition on Friday and boys and girls varsity wrestling on Saturday.

The Bi-State Classic at the La Crosse Center is set for Dec. 27-28.

Warriors 55, Raiders 24

Medford got two pins and two forfeits to account for its 24 points Thursday in a 55-24 non-conference loss to the Neillsville Co-op at Raider Hall.

Lissner and Lavin got the pins. Lissner got his in the 157-pound match as he built an 8-0 lead before ending his bout with Joseph Dull at the 2:28 mark. Lavin’s pin closed the match at 126 pounds. He stuck Zeb Schultz at 1:43. Zuleger at 144 pounds and Stickney at 215 pounds got the wins by forfeit.

Tyznik got into the most competitive match of the night. At 113 pounds, he got the first takedown and first three points of the match in high school’s new scoring system against Anding. He got reversed and allowed a near fall but reversed Anding just before the first period ended to tie the match at 5-5.

Tyznik’s reversal late in the second period got him within 9-7, but Anding’s reversal early in the third clinched his 11-8 win by decision.

The Warriors got another key win at 113 pounds where freshman Rydge Tibbett got a takedown and pin on the mat’s edge against Nick Malchow just as the first period expired.

Otherwise it was more baptism by fire for Medford’s young crew.

Chase Lindner pinned McVicker in 1:14 at 138 pounds. In a name oddity, Neillsville’s Jackson Meyer pinned Medford’s Jackson Mayer in 35 seconds in the heavyweight match. Boden Opelt got Kmosena in 1:01 at 106 pounds. Hudzon Sebesta-Opelt earned a quick 17-0 technical fall over Spencer at 150 pounds and Jakob Luchterhand was a 15-0 winner by technical fall over Noland at 190.

Medford forfeited to Ethan Funston at 132 pounds, Jerome Buchanon at 165 pounds and Evan Kautzer at 175 pounds.

Medford's Parker Lissner finishes off a pin of the Neillsville Co-op’s Joseph Dull during their 157-pound match last Thursday. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS