Glenwood City wrestlers fall to Spring Valley/Elmwood; dominate Cadott

Winning on the road is never easy, especially against a defending state champion.

But Glenwood City looked to keep its momentum rolling on the wrestling mats when it traveled to Cadott and Spring Valley for a pair of duals over a three-day span last week.

The Hilltopper wrestlers squashed the Hornets of Cadott 53-21 Tuesday, January 26 to give their head coach, Shane Strong, his 100th dual victory at Glenwood City.

Unfortunately, Strong and Glenwood City were unable to build on that milestone two nights later in Spring Valley.

Conference kingpin and defending WIAA Division 3 state champion Spring Valley/Elmwood pinned a 47-23 loss on Glenwood City, its first Dunn-St. Croix setback of the season. The January 28 defeat dropped the Toppers into a second-place tie with rival Boyceville, whom they were to host in the conference and regular season finale last evening (Feb. 2). The dual was postponed however due to a snowstorm. Both teams are 2-1 in D-SC duals.

While no make-up date for the Boyceville dual had been set as of Tuesday morning’s press time, Glenwood City will be competing in the annual Big Rivers/Dunn-St. Croix Challenge this Saturday (Feb. 6) at River Falls High School.

Spring Valley/Elmwood

Few would have given the Hilltoppers much of a chance to knock off the state champion Red Birds in their own nest.

Except the Hilltoppers themselves!

“Coming into this dual I don’t think anybody thought we had a chance to win outside our practice room,” stated Coach Strong. “But our kids were determined to compete at their highest level with something to prove.”

Although Glenwood City did not leave Spring Valley with a win January 28, the dual was closer than the 47-23 score might indicate.

While the Cardinals won 10 of the dual’s 14 matches, the Hilltoppers came up just a few points short of adding three more wins to side of the scoreboard.

“We lost three close matches that could have turned that dual around (for us) if we scored points in the third periods,” Strong said. “But Spring Valley/Elmwood is a very good team and is well coached.”

The Toppers lost a pair of 1-point bouts at 132 and 160 pounds and by three points at 113 pounds.

Sophomore Carson Strong dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker at 132 pounds to Ryan Berg, a recent Northern Badger champion and the weight classes number four ranked wrestler.

“Carson took several shots on Berg but could not finish them,” said his coach and father.

Like Strong, Jake O’Meara fell a point short in his match at 160 pounds. Spring Valley/Elmwood’s Devon Johnson, an honorable mention in the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online poll, prevailed 4-3.

Victory also alluded the Toppers’ grasp at 113 pounds where state ranked wrestlers Jacob Nadeau for GC and Dyan Bune of SV/E battled it out. The match was scoreless late in the final period when Nadeau surrendered back points and lost 3-0.

“Jake Nadeau wrestled a solid match,” said Coach Strong. “He was very close to getting away a couple of times (in the third period) but ended up getting turned in the final 20 seconds.”

Those disappointments were tempered by three Glenwood City pins.

Hogan Chouinard (195), Austin Curvello (106) and Cody Bonte (145) each registered pins and accounted for three of the Hilltoppers’ four wins in Spring Valley.

Chouinard pinned the Cardinals’ Ryan Asher at the 4:50 mark of the 195-pound match and gave the Toppers a 6-0 push to open the dual.

The senior actually trailed in the match but battled back for the fall in the final stanza.

“You could see that Hogan was still fresh and ready to go in the third period of a tough match,” said Coach Strong. “His conditioning continues to get better every week.”

Austin Curvello needed just 1:35 to put Spring Valley/Elmwood’s Luke Deppa on the mat at 106 pounds.

“Austin really wrestled aggressive,” noted his coach. “He hit a takedown and wasted no time getting to his pinning combination.”

Cody Bonte was the third and final Topper to win on a pin.

Bonte came out right away and scored a nice single leg takedown against Collin Huebel. That momentum eventually led to the fall at 3:20.

“Cody wrestled very well tonight,” stated Strong.

Glenwood City’s other victory on the night came at 120 pounds where Daniel Taylor was given a forfeit.

Spring Valley/Elmwood scored five pins and a pair of major decisions among their ten victories.

The Hilltoppers held an early 18-15 lead thanks to pins by Chouinard and Curvello and the forfeit. During that span, the Cardinals had back-to-back pins by Ethan Hofacker (220) and Dakota Elsenpeter (285) and Bune’s 3-0 decision over Nadeau.

Glenwood City, however, was unable to hold off the state’s fifth-ranked team.

Spring Valley/Elmwood won seven of the final eight matches with three more falls and the two majors decisions.

Glenwood City did have a team point deducted from its score due to a misconduct call. Apparently, the Toppers’ coaching staff at some point had asked the official why he hadn’t called the Cardinals for stalling. The official took exception to the question and dinged the Toppers for a point. But it did bring about four stalling calls against the Cardinals in the following three matches.

“I was pleased with how our kids responded and we did not back down to the challenge,” said Coach Strong.

“We are improving every week but there is still a great deal of work to be done,” he added. “We need to do a better job of finishing our leg attacks and we need to improve our ability to get out from the bottom late in matches.”

Spring Valley/Elmwood 47, Glenwood City 23
195 – Hogan Chouinard (GC) over Ryan Asher (SVE), fall 4:50; 220 – Ethan Hofacker (SVE) over Collin Schone (GC), fall 1:15; 285 – Dakota Elsenpeter (SVE) over David Hoffman (GC), fall 0:53; 106 – Austin Curvello (GC) over Luke Deppa (SVE), fall 1:35; 113 – Dyan Bune (SVE) over Jacob Nadeau (GC), dec. 3-0; 120 – Daniel Taylor (GC) received forfeit; 126 – Seth Schlegel (SVE) over Bradley Kessler (GC), major dec. 13-1; 132 – Ryan Berg (SVE) over Carson Strong (GC), dec. 1-0; 138 – Logan Newton (SVE) over Marcus Ullom (GC), major dec. 14-3; 145 – Cody Bonte (GC) over Collin Huebel (SVE), fall 3:20; 152 – Cruze Hurlburt (SVE) over John Pagnotta (GC) , fall 1:58; 160 – Devon Johnson (SVE) over Jacob O`Meara (GC), dec. 4-3) 170 – Jed Schlegel (SVE) over Spencer Peterson (GC), fall 4:20; 182: Quinton Elliott (SVE) over Jacob Kopacz (GC), fall 0:42.

Cadott

The visiting Hilltoppers hunted the Hornets from start to finish in their January 26 dual.

Glenwood City scored five pins, a pair of major decisions and received two forfeit en route to clobbering Cadott 53 to 21.

In all the Hilltoppers won ten matches.

“We came out and wrestled aggressive from the start,” stated coach Shane Strong after he notched his 100th career dual victory at Glenwood City.

“Our kids really came out to compete,” added Strong. “Our conditioning looked good in the third period and our leg attacks were much better.”

Carson Strong started the dual off with a fall at 132 pounds. He stuck Zak Schofield in 4:23.

Marcus Ullom followed suit at 138 pounds as he pinned Bennett Bowe in 5:27.

The Hilltoppers’ lead grew by three more points to 15-0 thanks to Kole Smith. The senior rallied for a second straight time in as many matches and won 7-5 in overtime against Brandon Pederson.

“Cadott moved Pederson up (a weight class) to face Smith (at 145 pounds),” noted Strong. “Pederson came into the match with a 20-8 record and had won two consecutive tournaments for Cadott.”

Smith fell behind 4-0 just as he had against Durand’s MaKenze Schuh the previous week. Smith then worked his way back to even and took the match in overtime.

“It was a great win for Kole. He showed great determination for his team,” stated Coach Strong.

The Toppers’ momentum stalled momentarily when both Cody Bonte (152) and Spencer Peterson (160) were pinned but quickly regained their footing and forward drive.

Jake O’Meara and Jake Kopacz notched consecutive major decisions to get Glenwood rolling once again. O’Meara won 15-2 at 170 pounds and Kopacz scored a 9-0 shut out at 182 pounds.

Hogan Chouinard pinned at 195 pounds.

Cadott’s CJ Spaeth interrupted the run when he pinned Bryce Fayerweather at 220 pounds.

But the Hilltoppers would take four of the final five bouts.

Austin Curvello and Jacob Nadeau scored pins at 106 and 120 pounds respectively while David Hoffman and Daniel Taylor received forfeits at 285 pounds and 113 pounds.

GLENWOOD CITY 53, CADOTT 21

132 – Carson Strong (GC) over Zak Schofield (CA), fall 4:23; 138 – Marcus Ullom (GC) over Bennett Bowe (CA), fall 5:27; 145 – Kole Smith (GC) over Brandon Pederson (CA), dec. 7-5; 152 – Tyler Gillett (CA) over Cody Bonte (GC), fall 2:32; 160 – James Pfeiffer (CA) over Spencer Peterson (GC), fall 2:45; 170 – Jacob O`Meara (GC) over Dominick Grimm (CA), major dec. 15-2; 182 – Jacob Kopacz (GC) over Mitchell Gunderson (CA), major dec. 9-0; 195 – Hogan Chouinard (GC) over Ethan Haider (CA), fall 1:08; 220 – CJ Spaeth (CA) over Bryce Fayerweather (GC), fall 0:38; 285 – David Hoffman (GC) received forfeit; 106 – Austin Curvello (GC) over Shane Chady (CA), fall 3:04; 113 – Daniel Taylor (GLCI) received forfeit; 120 – Jacob Nadeau (GC) over Cole Laird (CA), fall 0:46; 126 – Bailey Gillett (CA) over Bradley Kessler (GC). Dec. 9-6.