WIAA DIV. 2/GIRLS WRESTLING - ONE MORE STEP BEFORE STATE

WIAA DIV. 2/GIRLS WRESTLING

Four Medford wrestlers advanced to sectional competition out of two different regional meets this past weekend with Avery Losiewicz leading the way as a champion Friday in one of the state’s 16 first-ever girls regional tournaments.

In Merrill, Losiewicz went 3-0 with three pins to claim the 132-pound regional title and appears to be in a strong position to get to next weekend’s WIAA state tournament. The girls sectional meet is Friday at Ladysmith, starting at 3:30 p.m.

The boys wrestled in Hayward Saturday and came away with three qualifiers for this Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 Amery sectional, which starts at 10 a.m. Seniors Parker Lissner and Paxton Rothmeier advanced with secondplace finishes at 150 and 175 pounds, respectively. Sophomore Ayden Tyznik extended his season with a fourth-place finish at 113 pounds.

As a team, Medford placed eighth out of 13 teams with 105.5 points. Host Hayward-Northwood (251) and Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm (228.5) were the top two finishers and earned spots in Tuesday’s team sectional at Medford. Northwestern was third with 205.5 points while Mosinee (154) and GNC champion Tomahawk (151) finished a distant fourth and fifth.

The qualifiers

In Friday’s girls meet, Losiewicz had no trouble advancing out an eightwrestler 132-pound bracket. In the quarterfinals, she quickly got the ankle of Abbotsford-Colby’s Camila Meraz and pinned her in 10 seconds. In the semifinals, Losiewicz got an early takedown on Stanley-Boyd’s Lillian Fitzl and kept control until she got the pin at 1:29.

In the title bout with Merrill’s Adison Clark (34-8), Losiewicz got the first takedown 41 seconds in and recorded the pin in 50 seconds.

“Avery Losiewicz wrestled like a machine,” Medford head coach Brandon Marcis said. “She was on fire. She pinned her way through the tournament. The Merrill girl had a similar record to her, but every time Avery wrestles her she beats her by more. I like where Avery’s at. I like how she’s wrestling. I like her attitude. I’m very optimistic about the next couple of weeks with that girl.”

Now 38-7, Losiewicz needs a top-two finish at Ladysmith to advance to state, where she placed third last year at 126 pounds. Her quarterfinal match Thursday is against 15-19 freshman Adalynn Fawley of Cameron. She could get a rematch with Fitzl in the semifinals. Fitzl (25-8) faces 29-7 Anna Krizan of Ladysmith in her first match. The other side of the bracket features 39-6 sophomore Matilda Burns of Ashland, 27-8 senior Ellie Wood of Hudson and Clark.

Medford’s Bridget Wesle did not wrestle Friday as she battled illness during the week and was still feeling effects from her mid-season shoulder injury. Losiewicz scored 30 points to give Medford 10th place in the team standings. Merrill won the meet with 225 points, followed by Hudson (148.5) and Cadott (140).

At Hayward, Lissner and Rothmeier were the second seeds to start the regional tournament and both reached the finals before getting knocked off by the one-seeds.

At 150 pounds, Lissner (35-18) pinned Northwestern’s Wyatt Trzynka in 2:46 in the quarterfinals after building a 12-2 lead. He pinned Sam Nichols of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm in 2:54 in the semifinals after building a 9-1 lead with three takedowns.

In the final, Lissner ran into a tough junior from Hayward-Northwood, James Buckholtz, who pinned him in 41 seconds. Lissner faced a second-place wrestleback, but won it handily 11-3 over Lakeland’s Kade Elm, recording a takedown in each period.

“Parker did good,” Marcis said. “I thought he was getting his front heads nicely. He seems to wrestle well when he gets to his front head and he can hit some more combinations off of that. The finals kid kind of took it to him. We never really got a chance to open up and show them what we’ve got, but I think that match could look a lot different at sectionals.”

Lissner drew Osceola sophomore Isaac Dunnom (38-14) in his sectional quarterfinal. The winner could see Amery’s Bradyn Penard (26-12) in the semifinals. Buckholtz is the name to watch on the other side of the bracket, though he’ll see a solid sophomore, Everett Knospe of St. Croix Central (33-14) in his first match.

Rothmeier (28-5) started competition in the 10-man 175-pound bracket by pinning Sam Helgestad of the Spencer Coop in 3:24 in the quarterfinals. He was up 14-3 at the time of the pin. His most impressive match was a 44-second pin over 45-8 Connor Kaseno of Ashland in the semifinals. Abbotsford-Colby senior Jacob Hoppe (43-5) pinned Rothmeier in 3:00 in the finals. Rothmeier did not face a wrestleback for second.

“Paxton looked good,” Marcis said. “He got beat relatively handily in the finals, but I don’t think the things that he got beat by are things that we can’t fix in a week. He can’t take shots on a kid when that kid’s in great position because he’ll capitalize on it, which is what happened. And he can’t give him his wrist because the kid was pretty good at tilts. You take those two things away and I think the match could be a lot different.”

Rothmeier will face a solid senior from Baldwin-Woodville, Drew Stark (26-12) in his first match Saturday. The winner likely gets Griffin Marko (29-3) of St. Croix Falls in the semifinals. Marko is an opponent Medford’s 2024 state champion, Gage Losiewicz, saw often the past couple years. Hoppe is the top contender on the other side, though he could get a first-round challenge from Mondovi/Eleva-Strum’s Ethan Odegard (42-7).

Tyznik’s day started with a loss for the second straight week to Mosinee’s Kory Resheske, this time by pin in 3:45 in the quarterfinals. From there, he won three straight matches, pinning Dawson Jones of Tomahawk in 2:50, pinning Spooner-Webster’s Wyatt Christianson in 1:45 and defeating Northwestern’s Owen Claflin 115. He took charge in that match with a first-period takedown and four-point near fall. A takedown to start the third put it out of reach.

“Once he lost to the Mosinee kid, Ayden wrestled with a purpose on the back side,” Marcis said. “He did what he had to do. In that fourth-place match you could tell that he was focused and determined to go out there and win the match. He ended up winning 11-5. He controlled every aspect of every part of that match.”

The first sectional match for Tyznik (20-21) will be a tough one against top seed Kaiden Hahn of St. Croix Falls (39-5), but if Hahn wins and then wins his semifinal, Tyznik will have a chance to battle back on the consolation side for a top-three finish, which is what it takes to advance.

The rest of the Raiders

Probably the toughest loss for Medford at the regionals came in the 120-pound bracket where senior Nick Malchow seemed to be in good position to fight his way back to fourth place. But in the consolation semifinals, he was pinned by Lakeland’s Evan Hastreiter (18-20) in 4:43 after leading 17-3 through two periods.

Malchow (21-24) pinned Rice Lake’s Blayz Miller in 48 seconds in the first round, lost 11-0 to Northwestern’s Boaz Wright in the quarterfinals and won his first consolation match by pin in 45 seconds over Kayden Patterson of the Spencer Co-op.

“That was the one match of the whole day that we were kinda bummed about because he was beating the Lakeland kid in the consolation semis,” Marcis said. “The kid just caught him and pinned him. It was kind of a bummer of an end for him, but he has a lot to be proud of.”

Junior Domanic Spencer had a strong finish to his season with two wins at 138 pounds. After a first-round loss by pin in 3:42 to the Spencer Co-op’s Drew Lang, Spencer (7-17) pinned Wayne Dorn of Spooner/Webster in 1:07 and Rhinelander’s Avrom Barr in 2:30 before Tomahawk’s Walter Horabik (35-12) pinned him in 51 seconds.

“Dom had a really good day,” Marcis said. “He never actually won a contested varsity match this year and he won two Saturday. All of his wins this year were either JV or they were byes and forfeits on the varsity side. That’s a super nice way for him to finish off since he just started wrestling this year.”

In a tough 126-pound bracket, Jordan Lavin went 2-2 to finish 28-22. He started with a pin over Hayward-Northwood’s Kyle Block in 59 seconds but then was pinned in the quarterfinals by Abbotsford-Colby’s Tristen Smazal (39-8) in 2:21. A 19-2 win by technical fall over Rhinelander’s Ivan Loka kept Lavin alive, but then he was pinned in 3:21 by the Spencer Co-op’s Mason Wolf (28-13).

At 190 pounds, freshman Ashton Noland got two wins to finish 16-20. He started by coming back from a 9-2 secondperiod deficit to defeat James Chamberlain of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/ Prairie Farm 17-11. Eventual champion Deangelo Sardina of Hayward/Northwood (41-3) pinned Noland in 2:46 in the quarterfinals. Noland pinned Lakeland’s Zac Amershek in 1:11 and then was eliminated by Jakob Soback of the Spencer Co-op with a 20-3 technical fall.

“Noland won some matches in typical Ashton Noland fashion,” Marcis said. “I want to say (Chamberlain) took him down two or three times in the first period and then, OK, once the match starts rolling, Noland’s feeling good, he’s feeling loose and he starts scoring points. He just does not get tired. He had two good wins.”

Another freshman, Levi Zuleger, won two matches at 144 pounds to finish 11-24. He pinned Lakeland’s Victor Reyes in 3:40 and then got pinned in 38 seconds in the quarterfinals by 33-3 Trig White of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm, who was the eventual champion. Zuleger pinned Abbotsford-Colby’s Eyan Cortista in 2:16 before getting eliminated by a 41second pin from Spooner-Webster’s Bryson Scheffel.

“I think he ended pretty good too,” Marcis said. “He wrestled well. You could tell he wanted to go out there and he was on a mission. He didn’t qualify but it was a nice ending for a freshman in his first year on varsity.”

Forest Hartl (3-12) won his first 285pound match with a 14-second pin over Kathan Tesmer of the Spencer Co-op. He was pinned in 1:35 by eventual runner-up Reid Schultz of Rhinelander (34-6) and by Tomahawk’s Ethan Gibeault (25-14).

At 215 pounds, Ian Stickney (15-19) was pinned by James Nauertz of Spooner/ Webster (18-9) in 51 seconds and by Henry Pooler of Northwestern (22-27) in 2:31. At 132 pounds, Corey McVicker (623) was pinned by Alix Colby of Abbotsford-Colby (30-17) in 32 seconds and by Hayward-Northwood’s Memphis Demain (22-11) in 26 seconds.

Medford’s Parker Lissner locks down a pin during his quarterfinal match with Northwestern’s Wyatt Trzynka during Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 Hayward regional. Lissner finished second at 150 pounds and advanced to sectional competition this Saturday at Amery. PHOTOS BY ROSS PATTERMANN

Medford’s Levi Zuleger reads his opponent, Abbotsford-Colby’s Eyan Cortista, during their consolation match at Saturday’s regional meet. Zuleger won this match by pin in 2:16.