Glenwood City wrestlers finish outstanding season as team sectional runners-up
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WORKING FOR POINTS — Hilltopper sophomore Brock Wood attempted to turn Stratford’s Brandon Knetter to his back during the 157-pound match in the WIAA Division 3 team sectional wrestling championship held Tuesday, February 18 at Clear Lake High School. Wood shut out Knetter 14-0. The Tigers, however, won the team sectional with a 41-29 victory over the Hilltoppers. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
CLEAR LAKE — For the second time in three years, the Glenwood City wrestling program’s aspirations and dreams of a first-ever team sectional championship and its corresponding berth to the state meet were dashed as the Hilltoppers finished as the sectional runner-up once again.
As in 2023, both Cumberland and Stratford stood between the Hilltoppers and their goal when they competed in the 2025 WIAA Division 3 Team Wrestling Sectional held at Clear Lake High School last Tuesday, February 18.
“Our goal was to wrestle to our full potential,” stated Glenwood City head coach Shane Strong. “We wanted our kids to focus on their individual matches and the team outcome would take care of itself.”
And focused the Hilltoppers were in their sectional opener versus Cumberland, the defending sectional champ!
Glenwood City, ranked tenth in the state poll according to WisconsinGrappler.com, opened with pins at 285 and 106 pounds and never trailed as it knocked off the seventh-ranked Beavers of Cumberland 37-24 in one sectional semifinal as they scored some big wins.
GLENWOOD CITY sophomore Preston Arvey looked to turn his Stratford opponent, Jayden DeFoe, to his back during a match at 113 pounds. The match took place during the WIAA Division 3 team wrestling sectional championship held February 18 at Clear Lake High School. After Glenwood City and Stratford had both won their semifinal contests earlier that evening, the two schools dueled for the sectional title and state team berth. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
“We had to win some matches against kids we had lost to previously,” Strong noted of his wrestlers performance against Cumberland. “It was also important to pick up bonus points in the matches we were favored, which we did. Landon Obermueller and Brock Wood picked up huge wins for us against state ranked kids.”
Junior Landon Obermueller defeated Cumberland’s Cooper Schramski in an overtime match at 132 pounds that stretched the Glenwood City advantage to ten points. Then three matches later, sophomore Brock Wood prevailed 16-12 in a high scoring bout at 150 pounds that put the Toppers on the verge of victory.
Meanwhile, the fifth-ranked Tigers of Stratford easily dispatched an undermanned and unranked Turtle Lake/Clayton, who was making its team sectional debut, 64-15 in the other semifinal.
In a rematch of the 2023 team sectional championship, Glenwood City used a pin at 106 pounds followed by a technical fall victory at 113 pounds to carve out a quick 11-0 lead over Stratford.
The Tigers won the next three weight classes as it took a 16-11 lead.
When Stratford forfeited to Topper senior Wyatt Unser at 138 pounds, Glenwood City went back in front by a point. That slim lead, however, was short lived as the Tigers won a decision at 144 and scored a pin at 150 pounds to go up by eight points.
Brock Wood would once again come up big as he shut out the Tigers’ Brandon Knetter at 157 pounds via a 14-0 major decision. That result, coupled with senior Mitchell McGee’s pin at 165 pounds gave the Hilltoppers a slim 26-25 advantage.
Stratford, however, overtook Glenwood City for good with three straight victories – two via first-period pins and the other by major decision – and went on to claim its second sectional championship in three years and the corresponding state team berth with a 41-29 victory.
Glenwood City, who won a fourth straight conference championship this season, finished with a 13-4 dual record.
GLENWOOD CITY senior Andrew Blaser (left) is shown wrestling Cumberland’s Onesimus West in the 144-pound match that took place during the semifinals of last Tuesday’s WIAA Team Sectional held at Clear Lake High School. Blaser won the match 7-6 and helped propel the Toppers to a 37-24 win.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
“Similar to Cumberland, but we needed to pull one upset in there,” Strong stated of the championship battle with Stratford. “We were not able to do that, which is hard to overcome against a team at that level. We were close a couple of times, but couldn’t finish.”
“Our kids wrestled great, they were just a little better than us this year,” stated Strong.
Stratford will advance to the Division 3 team state championship which will be held Saturday, March 8 at the UW-Madison Fieldhouse. The Tigers will be joined by Mineral Point (#2), Oostburg (#11), and Weyauwega-Fremont (#10).
Cumberland
A pair of Hilltopper pins at the start of their semifinal against the Beavers really set the tone for the entire dual.
Glenwood City led from start to finish en route to a 37-24 victory.
Senior heavyweight Blake Fayerweather got the Toppers rolling with a 1:28 pin of his Cumberland counterpart Victor Avila-Gonzalez.
Sophomore Will Obermueller followed suit at 106 pounds as he secured the fall call against the Beavers’ Colin Hagen with just a second remaining in the first period.
Two matches and two pins had Glenwood City in front 12-0.
BIG MAN PINS — Glenwood City senior Blake Fayerweather is shown pinning Cumberland’s Victor Avila-Gonzalez in the 285-pound match during a WIAA team wrestling sectional semifinal dual in Clear Lake February 18. Fayerweather’s pin opened the dual which Glenwood City won 37-24. The Hilltoppers later lost the sectional championship to Stratford. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
Topper sophomore Preston Arvey was locked in a tight battle at 113 pounds with Caleb Hile. The match was tied at sixes in the third period. But, with under 30 seconds remaining, Hile scored a takedown and three-point near fall to preview 12-6 to give Cumberland its first victory and points in the dual.
Freshman Landon Standaert put another Topper win on the scoreboard with his 8-3 decision over Simon Rodriguez at 120 pounds.
Cumberland slid sophomore Braden Johnson, who is ranked fourth at 120 pounds, up a weight class and he won a 17-2 technical fall over Hilltopper senior Logan McVeigh at 126 pounds.
Cumberland’s second win cut the Glenwood City advantage to 15-8.
In a key match at 132 pounds, Glenwood City junior Landon Obermueller forced state-ranked Cumberland senior Cooper Schramski into overtime when the third period ended the wrestlers knotted at five all. Obermueller scored a takedown in the one-minute overtime period to secure an 8-5 win and three more team points.
Senior Wyatt Unser, the Toppers’ defending state champ and top-ranked wrestler at 138 pounds, dominated Cumberland’s Michel Monchilovich. Unser picked up a 19-0 technical fall victory to push the Glenwood City lead to 23-8.
Fellow senior Andrew Blaser held on for a 7-6 decision over Onesimus West at 144 pounds.
Glenwood City continued to pile up victories.
Sophomore Brock Wood scored another key win for the Toppers when he bested state-ranked Harrison Ruppel 16-12 at 150 pounds.
State-ranked senior Mitchell McGee added a 9-0 major victory over Logan Peterson at 157 pounds that lifted the Glenwood City lead to 33-8 which assured a Toppers’ victory with just four matches remaining.
Javier Vilar-Alvarez chalked up Glenwood City’s final victory of the dual when he majored Colt Miller 19-8 at 165 pounds to pushed the locals’ lead to 37-8.
With the win secured, Glenwood City forfeited at 175 and 190 pounds.
Cumberland’s Joseph Eggert majored Glenwood City sophomore Waylon Wagner 11-2 to make the final tally 37-24 in the Toppers’ favor.
Glenwood City 37, Cumberland 24
285-Blake Fayerweather (GC) pinned Victor Avila-Gonzalez (C), 1:28; 106-Will Obermueller (GC) pinned Colin Hagen (C), 1:59; 113-Caleb Hile (C) dec. Preston Arvey (GC), 12-6; 120-Landon Standaert (GC) dec. Simon Rodriguez (C), 8-3; 126-Braden Johnson (C) tech falledr Logan McVeigh (GC),17-2; 132-Landon Obermueller (GC) dec. Cooper Schramski (C) SV-1, 8-5; 138-Wyatt Unser (GC) tech falled Mitchell Monchilovich (C), 19-0; 144-Andrew Blaser (GC) over Onesimus West (C), 7-6; 150-Brock Wood (GC) dec. Harrison Ruppel (C), 16-12; 157-Mitchell McGee (GC) majored Logan Peterson (C), 9-1; 165-Javier Vilar-Alvarez (GC) majored Colt Miller (C), 19-8; 175-Jack Owens (C) received a forfeit; 190-DauTre Allen (C) received a forfeit; 215-Joseph Eggert (C) majored Waylon Wagner (GC), 11-2.
Stratford
Glenwood City would need some bonus points and an upset or two if was going to beat Stratford in the championship dual.
It got both in the first match at 106 pounds which happened to feature a pair of state-ranked wrestlers. Sophomore Will Obermueller was able to get the better of his higher-ranked Stratford opponent, Kolton Haupt, as he scored the pin at 4:16 to give Glenwood City an early 6-0 lead.
Preston Arvey upped the Topper advantage to 11-0 when he scored a 19-4 technical fall over the Tigers’ Jayden DeFoe at 113 pounds.
Back-to-back pins, however, by Stratford’s Trenton Cournoyer against Landon Standaert at 120 pounds and Colin Cournoyer over Logan McVeigh at 126 pounds, gave Stratford a 12-11 advantage.
Aaron Knetter’s 11-1 major decision over Glenwood City’s Landon Obermueller at 132 pounds increased the Tigers’ lead to 16-11.
A forfeit to Unser at 138 pounds put Glenwood City back in the lead by a single point – 17 to 16.
Despite suffering an injury during his 144-pound match, Glenwood City senior Andrew Blaser battled hard and only lost 4-1 to Lucas Forrest.
Glenwood City then juggled its line up as senior Zeb Holden came in to wrestle at 150 pounds. Holden unfortunately fell victim to a fall by Mathias Kaiser. The pin points pushed the Tiger lead to 25-17.
Brock Wood and Mitchell McGee both bumped up a weight class and each delivered wins. Wood scored a 13-0 victory at 157 pounds and McGee won a 16-1 technical fall at 165 pounds to put Glenwood City back in front by a single point – 26-25.
That’s when the dual went south for the Hilltoppers.
Stratford won the next three matches at 175, 190 and 215 pounds via a pair of first-period pins and a major decision to secure the championship.
Glenwood City senior Blake Fayerweather closed out the dual with a 6-2 win at 285 pounds that made the final score, Stratford 41 and Glenwood City 29.
Stratford 41, Glenwood City 29
106-Will Obermueller (GC) pinned Kolton Haupt (S), 4:16; 113-Preston Arvey (GC) tech falled Jayden DeFoe (S), 19-4; 120-Trenton Cournoyer (S) pinned Landon Standaert (GC), 1:43; 126-Colin Cournoyer (S) pinned Logan McVeigh (GC), 1:36; 132-Aaron Knetter (S) majored Landon Obermueller (GC), 11-1; 138-Wyatt Unser (GC) received a forfeit; 144-Lucas Forrest (S) dec. Andrew Blaser (GC), 4-1; 150-Mathias Kaiser (S) pinned Zeb Holden (GC), 3:20; 157-Brock Wood (GC) majored Brandon Knetter (S), 14-0; 165-Mitchell McGee (GC) tech falled Jaegar Ormond (S), 18-1; 175-Jack Tubbs (S) pinned Abe Draxler (GC), 0:32; 190-Walker Weis (S) majored Dylan Laberee (GC), 17-5; 215-Carter Lueck (S) pinned Jackson Logghe (GC), 1:51; 285-Blake Fayerweather (GC) dec. Owen Lueck (S), 6-2.