Bulldogs control mid, upper weights to claim dual win over Toppers

BOYCEVILLE — It took an extra week and a change in venue but Boyceville and Glenwood City did meet for their annual showdown on the wrestling mat.

Although Mother Nature socked the area with a winter snow storm and caused the postponement of the February 2 dual scheduled in Glenwood City, the teams agreed to get together a week later in Boyceville, between conference and regional tournaments, to wrap up their respective conference and regular season schedules.

The Hilltoppers and Bulldogs, neither wrestling at full strength, split the first six matches as Glenwood City clung to a slim one-point lead at 13-12.

But Boyceville took advantage of its strength in the middle and upper weights and a pair of Glenwood City forfeits to win six of the final eight matches and the February 9th dual by a 43-22 score.

“It was a nice win for us,” said Jamie Olson, Boyceville’s head coach. “Glenwood City has a nice team and we knew going in we would have to wrestle well to win.”

And that the Bulldogs did; dominating the action in the mid and upper classes.

“Even though both teams were not at full strength, it turned out to be an exciting dual,” Olson said.

The Hilltoppers, who had to juggle their lineup after losing Jake Logghe in the first week of the season, needed to change up their plans once more after Cody Bonte was injury in practice the previous day.

That included bumping Hogan Chouinard from his usual 195-pound slot all the way up to heavyweight.

“We didn’t decide to move Hogan up until Tuesday,” said Glenwood City head coach Shane Strong. “Our plans changed when we lost Cody Bonte to an injury in Monday’s practice.”

“After we lost Logghe at the beginning of the year, we were forced to move our weights up most of the year to fill the 182-pound weight class but without Cody, we were not able to do that,” added Strong. “We would have plugged Cody into 152 which would have filled our weights.”

Not wanting to throw a young and inexperienced wrestler “to the wolves” at heavyweight against Boyceville senior Brandon Windsor, the top ranked 285-pounder in Division 3, Strong opted to match his top senior, Hogan Chouinard, against Windsor.

“I knew it was his (Windsor’s) last home dual in Boyceville, so I wanted to get him a match,” explained Strong.

Windsor slowly built a 6-0 lead before Chouinard was able to score on a third-period reversal but that would be as close as the Topper wrestler would get. Windsor added a late escape to prevail 7-2 and push the Boyceville lead out to 9-0.

Sophomore Noah Novotney had given the Bulldogs a quick 6-0 lead to open the dual when he pinned Hilltopper freshman Bryce Fayerweather, who had been wrestling at heavyweight, just 25 seconds into the 220-pound match.

The Hilltoppers got on the scoreboard in the next match.

Jacob Nadeau scored a pair of takedowns – one in each of the first two periods – to take a 4-0 lead into the final period of his 106-pound match against Boyce-ville’s Nick Goodell. Nadeau tacked on three more takedowns in the final two minutes to earn a 11-3 major decision over Goodell and the Hilltoppers’ first points.

Austin Curvello gave Glenwood City a second straight victory with a hard-fought 9-4 decision over the Bulldogs’ Braxton Ludtke at 113 pounds.

At 120 pounds, Dyllon Johnson extended the Bulldogs’ lead to 12-7 with a 8-5 win over Bradley Kessler but it was not without some trepidation. Johnson was 6-1 after the first period, but Kessler scored a pair of reversals in the middle period to close to within 8-5. Johnson held on to win by the same margin despite being unable to work free of Kessler in the final period.

Glenwood City would take its only lead of the dual in the next match.

12th ranked Carson Strong, according to Wisconsin Wrestling latest online poll, needed just 1:03 to pin Boyceville’s Jason Swanepoel at 126 pounds and give the Toppers a 13-12 advantage.

It would be short-lived as the Bulldogs took back the lead with three straight wins from state-ranked grapplers and never relinquished it.

James Palmer, ranked sixth, took care of business and the Toppers’ Joe Obermueller at 132 pounds with a fall in 1:48.

Freshman phenom Brock Swenson demonstrated why he is ranked third at 138 pounds as he went on to blank GC junior Marcus Ullom, rated ninth, by a count of 14-0.

Bulldogs’ sophomore Cody Frederick, ranked fifth, scored a 18-3 technical fall over Toppers’ senior Kole Smith at 145 pounds to up the Boyceville lead to 27-13.

Junior Jake O’Meara broke the Bulldogs’ winning streak with a 5:20 pin at 152 pounds over a scrappy Sam Retz.

Spencer Peterson gave Glenwood City a second win in a row with a 7-4 victory against Boyce-ville’s Tyler Krueger at 160 pounds. The win pulled the Toppers to within five points of the Bulldogs at 27-22.

And with the Bulldogs’ Micah Johnson sidelined by illness, the Hilltoppers looked to add another win at 170 pounds.

Instead, the Bulldogs and Justin Malean slammed the door on any comeback the Toppers may have entertained.

Malean moved up a weight class and scored an impressive 12-3 major decision over Glenwood City’s Jake Kopacz.

The dual ended with a pair of Toppers’ forfeits as Garrett Joles and Alec Schaffer were awarded wins at 182 and 195 pounds respectively. Those wins gave the Bulldogs a 43-22 victory.

“I thought our kids wrestled hard all night,” said Olson after the match.

A sentiment shared by his Glenwood City coaching counterpart.

“I felt our kids came out to wrestle and compete against a very good Boyceville team,” echoed Strong.

Boyceville finished the year with 17-7 dual record and went 3-1 in the Dunn-St. Croix to take second behind Spring Valley/Elmwood for a third straight season.

Glenwood City, meanwhile, doubled its win total from a year ago as it tallied 18 wins against five losses this season. The Toppers finished third in the conference standings with a 2-2 record.

Boyceville, 43, Glenwood City 22 

220 – Noah Novotney (BV) over Bryce Fayerweather (GC), fall 0:25; 285 – Brandon Windsor (BV) over Hogan Chouinard (GC), dec. 7-2; 106 – Jacob Nadeau (GC) over Nick Goodell (BV), major dec. 11-3; 113 – Austin Curvello (GC) over Braxton Ludke (BV), dec. 9-4; 120 – Dyllon Johnson (BV) over Bradley Kessler (GC), dec. 8-5; 126 – Carson Strong (GC) over Jason Swanepoel (BV), fall 1:03; 132 – James Palmer (BV) over Joe Obermueller (GC), fall 1:48; 138 – Brock Schlough (BV) over Marcus Ullom (GC), major dec. 14-0; 145 – Cody Frederick (BV) over Kole Smith (GC), technical fall 18-3; 152 – Jacob O`Meara (GC) over Sam Retz (BV), fall 5:12; 160 – Spencer Peterson (GC) over Tyler Krueger (BV), dec. 8-4; 170 – Justin Malean (BV) over Jacob Kopacz (GC), major dec. 12-3; 182 – Garrett Joles (BV) received forfeit; 195 – Alec Schaffer (BV) received forfeit.