MADISON – All six of the area’s state wrestling participants will be stepping on the Division 3 awards podium later this evening in the Kohl Center to accept their medals during the championship round of the 74th annual WIAA State Individual Wrestling tournament.
While the color of three of those medals have yet to be determine – the Bulldogs’ Brock Schlough, James Palmer and Garrett Joles will be wrestling in title matches tonight – the other half of this year’s state contingent have completed their state run and know their finishes.
Glenwood City’ Jacob Nadeau parlayed his second straight state appearance into a fourth place finish at 120 pounds. Meanwhile, Boyceville’s Justin Malean and Noah Novotney came in sixth at 170 and 285 pounds respectively. All three wrestlers are juniors.
Nadeau, who finished the 2016-17 mat season with a 37-10 record, split his two matches earlier today. He avenged a sectional final loss to Andrew Rothering by beating the Cochrane-Fountain City junior, 3-0, in the consolation finals. Nadeau, however, was outmuscle by Random Lake senior Josh Depies (37-3) in the 120-pound third place match on a 16-0 technical fall.
Both Malean and Novotney were unable to come up with wins at the Kohl Center today as both went 0-2.
For the second week in a row, Malean (32-16) was beaten by St. Croix Falls junior Luke Clark. This time Clark beat Malean 8-2 in the consolation finals. In his fifth place match, Malean was blanked 7-0 by Bonduel’s Jacob Banker (35-7).
Novotney (38-12), who surrendered several inches and more than 40 pounds to most of his heavyweight opponents, lost 3-0 in the consolation finals to Tyson Kauffman, a 15-7 senior from Stratford; and was beaten by River Ridge junior Bren Wheeler (37-12) by a count of 5-2 for fifth place.
