Colfax’s Best and Harmon win HON wrestling championships
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TO HIS BACK — Bloomer/Colfax wrestler Sawyer Best (right) took Ashland’s Austin Defoe to the mat to score back points during the 132-pound championship match at the 2019 Heart O’ North conference tournament held in Chetek last Saturday, February 1. Best, a Colfax junior, won the title with a 5-2 victory to improve to 24-2 on the season. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
CHETEK — After finishing second at their respective weight classes in last year’s Heart O’ North Conference wrestling tournament, Colfax juniors Sawyer Best and Mitchel Harmon moved up a place to capture the only conference championships that Bloomer/Colfax squad won in this year’s event.
Harmon, who has won 25 of the 26 matches he has competed in this season, won gold in 138-pound weight class with a perfect 3-0 performance that include two pins and a 10-3 decision in the championship match at the 2019 Heart O’ North conference wrestling tournament held Saturday, February 2 at Chetek-Weyerhaeuser High School.
Likewise, Best proved his namesake laying claim to the crown at 132 pounds as he improved to 24-2 on the season with three straight wins in Chetek.
A third member of the Raptors’ wrestling team, Colfax freshman Luke Blanchard qualified for the championship match at 106 pounds where he finished second to Logan Trautt of Northwestern.
Bloomer/Colfax also got a silver-medal performance from another freshman, Alex Poirier, who was the runner-up at 113 pounds.
As a team, Bloomer/Colfax finished in seventh place in this year’s 10-team HON conference meet with 102 points. Spooner/Webster captured the tournament title with 191.5 points followed by Cumberland at 154 and Northwestern at 150.5 points.
Cumberland, however, edged out last year’s champion Northwestern and Spooner/Webster for this year’s conference team championship which is based on points accumulated from dual meet victories and the conference tournament. Cumberland (the South Division champ) finished with 15 points to win the title while Northwestern (the North Division champ) and Spooner/Webster wound up in a tie for second with 14 points each.
Bloomer/Colfax, who did not win a conference dual this season, finished ninth in the final team standings with two points.
Mitchel Harmon, who took second at 132 pounds a year ago, moved up a weight class and finishing spot at this year’s HON conference tournament.
Harmon scored a first-period pin over Ladysmith’s Caiden Engel in a quarterfinal’s match at 132 pounds just as the period ended. The Colfax junior then followed it up with a 2:59 fall over Bryce Keilholtz of Barron in the semifinal match. That victory put Harmon into his second straight finals where he controlled Cumberland’s Benett Schramski throughout the match to claim the championship title with a 10-3 win.
COMING THROUGH — Raptors’ wrestler Mitchel Harmon executed this takedown move on Benett Schramski of Cumberland during the 138-pound championship to score two points. Harmon went on to win the gold medal on a 10-3 decision at the Heart O’ North Conference wrestling tournament in Chetek last Saturday. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
Sawyer Best, who took second at 120 pounds in last year’s HON meet, surrendered just two points en route to the 2019 title at 132 pounds.
Opening with 1:14 pin fall over Barron’s Alex Martinez in the quarterfinals, Best shut out Tjay Keilholtz of Northwestern 7-0 in the semifinals and then beat Austin Defoe of Ashland, 5-2, in the finals to take home his first conference gold medal.
First-time conference tournament competitor Luke Blanchard dominated his first two opponents last Saturday, pinning Drake Marks of Hayward just 1:39 into their 106-pound quarterfinal’s match and blanking Spooner’s Jimmy Melton nine to zip in the semifinal bout. In the championship, Blanchard took an early 2-0 advantage but Northwestern’s Logan Trautt rallied for a 5-2 win to take the gold.
Alex Poirier, head coach Jim Poirier’s son, won his first two matches at 113 pounds on pin falls but fell short in the finals where he was beaten 7-0 by four-time HON champion and state qualifier Derick Vollendorf of Ladysmith.
Bowen Rothbauer took fourth for the Raptors at 152 pounds and Isaac Lagesse finished sixth at 120 pounds. Nate Rosolowski (160) and Gunnar Grambo (285) wrestled in Chetek but did not place.
Barron’s Tristan Massie won the 145-pound title Saturday and was named the 2018-19 Heart O’ North wrestler of the year.
Bloomer/Colfax will compete in the WIAA Division 2 Baldwin-Woodville Wrestling Regional this Saturday, February 9. The Raptors will be joined by host Baldwin-Woodville, Ellsworth, Osseo-Fairchild/Augusta/Fall Creek, Prescott and Regis/Altoona with wrestling beginning at 10:30 am in the B-W high school gym.
The top two individual finishers in each weight class at the regional competition will advance to the following Saturday’s individual sectional tournament in Neillsville while the winning team will earn a berth in the team sectional to be held next Tuesday evening, February 12 at Osceola High School.