Bulldogs fall hard to Saints in team wrestling sectional
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CUMBERLAND — Competing with intensity is one thing, but trying to maintain it or duplicate it is an entirely different conundrum. The Boyceville wrestlers discovered this in last Tuesday’s team wrestling sectional.
The Bulldogs were never able to replicate the intensity and high that had led them to their “Best Day of Wrestling” this season and a repeat regional championship just three days prior in Durand.
Instead, Boyceville, missing a key cog due to the flu, fell flat in its semifinal match against St. Croix Falls at the 2020 WIAA Division 3 Cumberland Team Sectional February 18.
The Saints dispatched the Bulldogs for a second straight year, winning 12 of the dual’s 14 matches including eight by pins falls and two others on forfeits, en route to a 66-9 semifinal trouncing.
While missing state-ranked 120-pound Josiah Berg, who did not make the trip to Cumberland High School due to a bout with the flu, did not help, Boyceville was never able to find it footing or confidence against St. Croix Falls.
“It’s tough sometimes when you come off a high there and then you have to turn around and try to duplicate that intensity on a Tuesday and it just wasn’t there for us,” said the Bulldogs’ veteran head coach Jamie Olson in reflection.
A pin by top-ranked and defending state champion Trett Joles at 182 pounds and a gutsy 11-4 win by an ailing Nate Stuart at 126 pounds were the only two wins the Bulldogs managed to muster.
“It was almost like we left it all on the mat Saturday (in Durand) and we didn’t recover and rebound and Josiah gets sick and Nate’s a little bit under the weather.”
“We knew we were up against a tough team in St. Croix Falls but you have to be on your “A” game to battle and win some of those tough matches against them and we didn’t. We didn’t win the close ones and not having Josiah hurt.”
Wouldn’t you know it, the semifinal duals began right where the Bulldogs had an unexpected yet gaping hole – 120 pounds.
Without Berg in the line-up, Boyceville had little choice but to give St. Croix Falls’ sophomore Mason Will an opening-match forfeit.
Unknown to many, Nate Stuart, the practice partner of Josiah Berg, was also feeling the effects of illness which cast doubt on a win at the next weight class – 126 pounds.
But, like a wry veteran, Stuart not only put away his discomfort for six minutes, the junior also did likewise to his Saints’ opponent Devyn Rode.
Stuart used a pair of first-period take downs to establish a 4-1 advantage over Rode which he carried into the third period. There, Stuart made a succession of moves, scoring a reversal, a third take down and a three-point near fall to extend his lead over Rode to 10-1. The St. Croix Falls freshman came up with an escape and a take down but Stuart closed out the scoring and match with a late escape to post a gut-wrenching 11-4 decision.
The win cut the Saints lead in half at 6-3, but that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get.
Sam Glenna’s second-period pin of Bulldog sophomore Peyton Ponath at 132 pounds kicked off a stretch of six consecutive victories that included four pins for the Saints, whose lead burgeoned to 36-3.
But early in that match at 132, Ponath looked to stake himself to a victory as he darted a 5-2 lead after two minutes of wrestling. However in the second period, Ponath, clinging to a 6-4 advantage, was taken to the mat by Glenna and pinned at the 3:10 mark.
That loss seemed to take away much of Boyceville’s momentum and fight.
Junior Zach Clark added three points to the Saints tally with a hard-fought 6-1 win over Ira Bialzik at 138 pounds.
Defending state champion Kole Marko added another six to the Saints lead which grew to 21-3 with his 1:23 fall over Boyceville’s Jacob Granley at 145 pounds.
Talented sophomore Tyler Dormanen sought to turn the tide in Boyceville’s favor at 152, however, the Saints’ Bennett Bergmann outlasted Dormanen 2-1 in a great match.
St. Croix Falls then capped its streak of half a dozen wins with two more pins.
Graidy Guggisberg built a 6-1 lead over Boyceville’s Preston Coombs at 160 pounds before earning the pin at 3:18. James Kemp followed at 170 pounds, giving the Saints another pin-fall victory after putting Nick Hillman’s shoulders on the mat at the 5:13 mark.
Trett Joles gave the Bulldogs their only other win as the top-rated wrestler and defending Division 3, 182-pound state champion needed just 1:39 to pin the Saints’ Calan Leahy at that weight.
Despite Joles’ victory, Boyceville still trailed by a wide margin, 36-9, and would need to finish out the dual with pins or forfeits to claim the victory.
Instead, St. Croix Falls sprinted to the end with five straight match victories – four via falls and one by forfeit – for the 57-point win.
McKinley Erickson started the Saints’ second winning streak with a 29 second pin of Boyceville’s lone senior Josh Marzofka at 195 pounds. Tragically, it would be the second-to-last match of Erickson’s young life as he, along with freshman teammate Kegan Koshoil,were killed in a one-vehicle crash on Friday morning, February 21 as they traveled to join teammates for a training session at school. Erickson had also earned a berth in last Saturday’s individual section meet.
Bulldogs’ sophomores Keegan Plemon (220) and Brice Evenson (113) and freshman Emma Gruenhagen (106) were all beaten by pins while number one ranked heavyweight Tanner Gaffey received a forfeit for the Saints who finished with 66 points to the Bulldogs nine.
St. Croix Falls took on defending Division 3 state runner-up Stratford, a 64-10 winner over Phillips in the evening’s other semifinal, in the championship dual. The Tigers won the sectional title and state team berth, defeating the Saints 43-30. Stratford will advance to team state in Madison on March 7.
St.
Croix
Falls
66,
Boyceville
9
120-Mason Will (SCF) received a forfeit; 126-Nate Stuart (BV) dec. Devyn Rode (SCF), 11-4; 132-Sam Glenna (SCF) pinned Peyton Ponath (BV), 3:10; 138-Zack Clark (SCF) dec. Ira Bialzik (BV), 6-1; 145-Kole Marko (SCF) pinned Jacob Granley (BV), 1:23; 152-Bennett Bergmann (SCF) dec. Tyler Dormanen (BV), 2-1; 160-Graidy Guggisberg (SCF) pinned Preston Coombs (BV), 3:18; 170-James Kemp (SCF) pinned Nick Hillman (BV), 5:13; 182-Trett Joles (BV) pinned Calan Leahy (SCF), 1:39; 195-McKinley Erickson (SCF) pinned Josh Marzofka (BV), 0:29; 220-Kyle Zehm (SCF) pinned Keegan Plemon (BV), 1:26; 285-Tanner Gaffey (SCF) received a forfeit; 106-Kaden Clark (SCF) pinned Emma Gruenhagen (BV), 4:58; 113-Luke Thaemert (SCF) pinned Brice Evenson (BV), 1:28.