GC sending five to sectional meet; Grant repeats as regional champ
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THIS QUICK MOVE by Glenwood City junior Andy Grant earned him a takedown against Brice Evenson of Boyceville during the 113-pound regional title match in Durand February 15. Grant went on to win the match on a 10-0 major decision to claim his second consecutive regional crown at that weight. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
DURAND — Improvement, sure and steady!
That’s what the Glenwood City wrestling team has shown all season long and its initial foray into the postseason was no different.
After pushing three wrestlers through last year’s regional competition, five of the Hilltoppers’ 11 varsity wrestlers that competed in the six-team WIAA Division 3 Durand Wrestling Regional held last Satuday, February 15 earned sectional berths.
Just like a year ago, Andy Grant captured the Toppers only gold medal of the day. The junior repeated as the 113-pound regional champion to punch his ticket to a third straight sectional meet.
Joining Grant at this coming Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 Individual Sectional tournament in Edgar will be two-time sectional competitor, senior Tucker Lagerstrom at 182 pounds, along with first-time participants senior heavyweight Andrew Berends, and freshmen Ian Radintz and Gabe Knops, who wrestled at 106 and 126 pounds, respectively. All four finished in second place.
“The boys wrestled tough overall,” stated Toppers’ head coach Shane Strong of the team’s regional effort.
They did indeed!
Behind one of their strongest performances of the season, Glenwood City moved up a spot in the 2020 regional meet, taking third place in Durand with 167.5 points despite open weight classes at 152, 160 and 170.
Overcoming a large deficit, and Spring Valley/Elmwood, Boyceville won its second consecutive regional title by 8.5 points over the Cardinals, who won this season’s Dunn-St. Croix title, and a berth in last evening’s team sectional at Cumberland. The state-ranked Bulldogs finished with 258.5 points compared to the Cards 250. Mondovi came in fourth with a score of 136, Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm, the lone tournament team not from the D-SC, scored 73 to take fifth and host Durand finished last with 64 points.
Spring Valley/Elmwood will be sending the most wrestlers to the Edgar Sectional after ten Cardinals qualified, Boyceville was next with eight followed by the Toppers’ quintet, four for Mondovi while Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm had one.
Three other Glenwood City wrestlers just missed the sectional cut. Senior and first-year grappler Jabin Hojem (132), sophomore Thomas Moede (138) and freshman James Knight (120) all took third place. Also closing out their seasons for the Hilltoppers were freshman Trenton McNamara (220) who copped a fourth and sophomore Marcis DeSmith (195) and freshman Noah Brite (145), both placed fifth.
“We lost some close matches that could have gone either way,” noted Strong.
Someone that didn’t have any close matches was Andy Grant.
The top-seeded wrestler in the four-man, 113-pound bracket, Grant sailed through with relative ease. After a quarterfinal bye, the junior pinned Spring Valley/Elmwood’s Tylor LaCroix in 2:46. Grant, a state honorable mention, capped his day with a 10-0 major decision over Boyceville sophomore Brice Evenson in the championship match to bring his season record to 27-8.
Ian Radintz, Gabe Knops, Tucker Lagerstrom and Andrew Berends all reached the championship match in their respective weight but finished with silvers.
LOOKING TO ESCAPE — Toppers’ 106-pound freshman Ian Radintz tried to work an escape or reversal during his regional championship match against Kaleb Casey of Spring Valley/Elmwood last Saturday in Durand. Radintz was not able to work free and lost the match 3-0 but qualified for the sectional meet in Edgar this Saturday, February 22.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
Ranked second in the 106-pound weight class and ninth in the latest Division 3 state poll, Radintz needed just 36 seconds of wrestling to make the finals against unbeaten and top seed Kaleb Casey (10-0) of Spring Valley/Elmwood.
After a first-round bye, Radintz (29-6) pinned fellow freshman Emma Gruenhagen of Boyceville just 36 ticks into the pair’s semifinal match. His finals match with Casey was a tight one but the Cardinal wrestler prevailed 3-0 to take the gold.
Another member of the Toppers’ class of 2023, freshman Gabe Knops, who competed in just one of the regional’s six-wrestler brackets, dominated in his opening round match at 126 pounds blanking Mondovi’s Ashton Fedie 16-0 for a technical fall.
In the semifinals, Knops (10-8) was pinned in the second period by top-seed Nate Stuart, a junior from Boyceville, for the second time in nine days. The loss put Knops in the third-place match against Cole Steinmeyer of SV/E, whom he beat via a 59 second pin.
Fortunately, Knops was afforded a wrestle back for second when Stuart won the 126-pound title by beating Durand freshman Dawson Hartung with a fall. In the battle of first-year varsity wrestlers, Knops shined, shutting out Hartung 12-0 in a major decision that gave the Topper second place and a sectional berth.
QUICK ENDING — The Hilltoppers’ heavyweight Andrew Berends needed just 31 seconds to score the pin on Boyceville’s John Klefstad in a wrestle back for second place at last Saturday’s regional tournament in Durand. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
While Knops had to win the wrestle back to advance, senior Andrew Berends had to survive a wrestle back at heavyweight to retain his silver medal and sectional spot.
After waiting out the first round with a bye, Berends scored a first-period pin in the semifinal, sticking freshman James Brady of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm to the mat in 1:20 to qualify for the finals opposite top-seed and fellow senior Travis Marty of Spring Valley/Elmwood. Marty gained the early advantage and went on to claim the 285-pound title with an 8-3 win.
That meant Berends would have to defend his second-place finish from John Klefstad, a Boyceville sophomore who had lost on a 45 second pin to Marty in the semis. The Toppers senior needed just 31 ticks to pin Klefstad and retain his runner-up status.
Although senior Tucker Lagerstrom had just two other wrestlers in his 182-pound weight class last Saturday in Durand, one of them was top-ranked Trett Joles of Boyceville, the reigning state champion of that weight class.
Lagerstrom needed only to beat his semifinal opponent Paul Schweback of Spring Valley/Elmwood to earn a sectional seed which he did via a pin with just five seconds left in the middle period.
But Lagerstrom, who took second at 170 pounds in the 2019 regional, wanted more than silver. He went out and battled Joles and stayed close until the Boyceville junior caught him in the middle of the second period and applied the pin at 3:08.
James Knight (11-19) won the first regional match of his career by pinning Durand’s Lance Lange in 3:03 only to face last year’s state-qualifier and current number three Josiah Berg, a Boyceville sophomore, in the 120-pound semifinal. Berg pinned Knight in 2:58 and went on to win the title.
Knight dropped into the third-place match, which he won by pinning Kyle Jarmusic of C-W/PF in the second period. He earned a shot at second and a sectional berth but lost to Tristan Neisinger of SV/E 4-0 in the wrestle back.
HILLTOPPER freshman Gabe Knops prepared to turn Spring Valley/Elmwood’s Cole Steinmeyer during the third-place regional match at 126 pounds last Saturday. Knops won by fall in 59 seconds and went on to finish second after winning his wrestle back 12-0 over Dawson Hartung of Durand. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
Glenwood senior Jabin Hojem also finished third in his 132-pound bracket. After a bye to open the meet, Hojem (3-16) was pinned in the first period of the semifinal by Boyceville’s Aitor Lopez-Fernandez. He rebounded to beat Max Matthys of SpringValley/Elmwood on a first-period pin for third but never got the opportunity to wrestle back for second when Lopez-Fernandez lost in the finals.
For the second straight year, sophomore Thomas Moede copped a bronze medal at regionals when he took third at 138 pounds last Saturday. Following a bye, Moede was pinned in the semis by SV/E’s Max Schmitt. Moede came back to earn one of the Toppers’ quickest pins of the meet when he stuck Durand’s Roy Cooper in just 34 seconds for third. But like Hojem, Moede, who wrapped up the year 16-14, failed to earn a wrestle back when Schmitt lost the championship to Boyceville’s Ira Bialzik.
Freshman Trenton McNamara (12-12) lost a pair of matches at 220 pounds. He was pinned by eventual runner-up Clayton Neisinger, a Spring Valley/Elmwood senior, in the semifinal. Then in the third-place match, Boyceville’s Keegan Plemon scored a 9-0 major on McNamara.
Freshman Noah Brite and sophomore Marcis DeSmith both finished fifth.
Overcoming a one-point quarterfinal loss to Wyatt Wood of Durand, Brite finished the day on a high note as he pinned the Bulldogs’ Jacob Granley to place fifth at 145 pounds.
Despite losing his only competitive match of the day via a first-period pin in the quarterfinals, Marcis DeSmith finished fifth at 195 and the season at 5-15.
Glenwood City’s five remaining wrestlers will be vying for medals and state berths this coming Saturday in the WIAA Division 3 Individual Sectional at Edgar High School. The top three place winners in each weight class at the sectional meet will advance to the individual state championships to be held February 27-29 at the Kohl Center in Madison.