NGL sends 3 to state wrestling tourney

The Neillsville-Greenwood-Loyal (NGL) wrestlingteamhadthreeindividualscompete at the WIAAState Individual Boys Wrestling Tournament held Feb. 27-28 and March 1 at the Kohl Center at UW-Madison.

TheNGLteamtook20th place out of 54 teams that competed at state, earning 24 points.

Individual results are as follows: 144-pound class Hudzon Sebesta-Opelt (50-4) competed in the 144-pound class, placing second and scoring 18 team points.

In the quarterfinal round, Sebesta-Opelt won by an 8-3 decision over Isaac Briggs of Saint Croix Falls. He then won by fall over Ben Miller of Wittenberg-Birnamwood in 1:08 in the semifinal round to qualify for the first-place match.

In the first-place match, Sebesta-Opelt lost by technical fall (TF 1.5 4:27 (16-1)) to Haakon Peterson of Dodgeville, finishing in second place in his weight class.

165-pound class Jakob Luchterhand (47-12) competed in the 165-pound class, scoring three points for NGL.

In round one, Luchterhand won by a 10-7 decision over Matheo Ngbemeneh of Somerset, allowing him to move on to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, he lost by an 11-0 major decision to Steven Kielpikowski of Denmark. In the consolation round, Luchterhand won by fall in 2:48 over Conner Sitzberger of Campbellsport before losing by a 4-0 decision to Carter Ries of Big Foot/Williams Bay 285-pound class Jackson Meyer (44-14) also competed for NGL at state, representing the team in the 285-pound class. He scored three team points at the tournament.

In round one, Meyer won by 7-5 decision over Aiden Isaacson of Mondovi/Eleva-Strum, moving on to the quarterfinals. There, he lost by technical fall (TF-1.5 3:27 (19-4)) to Hunter Vander Heiden of Freedom.

In the consolation round, Meyer won by fall in 0:30 to Jordan Pynenberg of Little Chute. In the semifinal round of the consolation tournament, Meyer fell in 1:49 to Dalton Wolf of Fennimore.

For additional wrestling coverage, including photos, see pages 13-14.