Colfax loses one senior, gains three freshmen for 2016 wrestling season

By Cara L. Dempski

BLOOMER — Last year’s Viking wrestlers numbered five and graduated just one senior but it was a big one – 2016 Division 2, 138-pound state runner-up Brady Simonson.

The Colfax grapplers  will again compete as part of a cooperative with Bloomer.

This season, Colfax will contribute three freshmen and a shiny new assistant coach, Adam Davison, to the cooperative. Davison teaches history at Colfax High School and will assist Bloomer head coach Jim Poirier.

Bloomer-Colfax went 9-10 last season, with Simonson leading the way. The Colfax senior won a regional championship and finished second to 4-time State titleist Hunter Marko of Amery at both the sectional and state touraments last February. Simonson lost 5-3 to Marko in the 138-pound weight class in the Osceola Sectional and fell 9-1 in the state final to the Amery wrestler the following week. Simonson was also named to the all-conference team last season.

Senior Cole Olson and sophomore Dalton Schotter are the only two Colfax letter winners returning to the team this year.

Olson, who made it to sectional a year ago and finished 31-9, will end his high school career on the heavier end of the weight class, while Schotter will maintain a spot in the middleweight classes.

Dalton Klukas and Tommy Anderson are both wrestling as sophomores. Anderson hopes to participate in the 172-pound class, while Klukas, like Schotter, will wrestle in the middleweight classes.

Poirier said he will look for leadership from his seniors in both Colfax and Bloomer, and said there are high quality freshmen joining the team.

“We will be inexperienced in some of the weights,” Poirier said about his team’s weakness.

Three Colfax freshmen, Mitchel Harmon, Sawyer Best and Austyn Bartz, joined the team this year and are hoping to fill in some of the team’s gaps in weight class.

Jim Poirier again leads the cooperative team, with Adam Davison from Colfax and Zach Borofka from Bloomer providing assistance.

The team will hit the mats for the first time this season on December 1 at Bloomer when it hosts Spooner. They will then travel to Glenwood City on December 3 for the John Timm Dual before hosting Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm on December 6 in Colfax.

2016-17 Roster
Senior: Cole Olson.
Sophomores: Dalton Schotter, Tommy Anderson, Dalton Klukas.
Freshmen: Mitchel Harmon, Sawyer Best, Austyn Bartz.