Topper wrestlers finish second in super regional, earn sectional berth, nine advance

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EDGAR — For the first time in 23 years and just the fourth time in school history, the Glenwood City wrestling team will compete in the team sectional.

By a razor-thin margin of 1.5 points, Glenwood City, who is ranked eighth in the Division 3 state poll, edged out Cadott for second place at the WIAA Division 3 Super Regional Wrestling tournament held this past Saturday, February 11 at Edgar High School. And with the Hilltoppers’ second-straight regional runner-up finish came a berth in the team sectional tournament.

This year’s team joined squads from 1995, 1999 and 2000 in achieving the feat. 

The day’s competition, however, proved to be a physical and emotional roller coaster ride for the Hilltoppers who jockeyed through out the tourney with perennial powers Stratford and Cadott for the top two spots and the coveted sectional berths. The final outcome did not come into focus until the last few wrestlebacks had been competed.

“The standings were back and forth between our three teams throughout the day,” said Glenwood City head coach Shane Strong whose squad spent much of the super regional in third place.

“We tried to avoid the distraction of the team scores as much as possible,” noted Strong. “We wanted our kids focused on what they could control on the mat. Our kids picked each other up the entire day. We would have big wins, then tough losses, I thought our kids handled it pretty well.”

Heading into the wrestlebacks last Saturday, Glenwood City was six and a half points behind Cadott who sat in second place with 231 points, Stratford had already sewn up the championship with a score of 245.

“There were still 12 points available to us,” stated Strong of the Toppers’ wrestleback opportunities.

“We did not tell the boys wrestling how significant their matches were,” added Strong. “We just sold to them that they were going out to qualify for individual sectionals in those matches and pins would help the team. Looking for a fall, but win wrestling to win the match first.”

Fortunately, that approached paid dividends in the form of a sectional berth. 

Senior Noah Brite pinned Jarvell Owens of Auburndale at the 3:16 mark of their 170-pound wrestleback for fourth place. Then, in the fourth-place wrestleback at 182 pounds, sophomore Jackson Logghe came through with a 3:01 pin of Chippewa Falls McDonell’s Jonah Christopherson. 

With those two victories, the Toppers picked up eight of the 12 possible points in the wrestlebacks to finish with a score of 232.5 and surpass Cadott for second place and the final sectional berth.

It was a scenario that was not available to the Hilltoppers a year ago when they also placed second.

But the new super regional format, which combined two former regionals into one, now awards team sectional berths the first and second-place teams while also allowing the top four place winners in each of the 14 weight classes to move on to the individual sectional meet compared to just the top two as in previous years.

By virtue of their top-two finishes, Glenwood City and Stratford moved on to compete in the WIAA Division 3 team sectional which was held in Cadott last evening, February 14. The Toppers took on Cumberland, winners of the sectionals other super regional, in one semifinal while Stratford wrestled Clear Lake in the other semifinal. The winners advanced to the championship with the victor claiming the team sectional crown and a berth in the state team tournament slated for Saturday, March 4 at the UW-Fieldhouse in Madison.

As for the final standings in the 13-school super regional, Stratford was first with 245 points and had a leading 10 wrestlers qualify for the sectional, Glenwood City copped second with 232.5 while Cadott finished third with a 231. Both Glenwood City and Cadott will send nine to the sectional meet.

Marathon placed fourth with 189.5 points and had seven sectional qualifiers, Auburndale also had seven qualify for the sectional meet and finished fifth with 179 points, Boyceville copped sixth with its tally of 127 and four sectional qualifiers, host Edgar posted a score of 82 and will have three wrestling this Saturday,
Spring Valley/Elmwood had 62 points and will send three back to Edgar, while Cornell/Gilman/Lake Holcombe with 56 points, Thorp/Owen-Withee at 54 points, Athens with a score of 34 and Durand-Arkansaw with a 29 all had one qualify for the sectional meet. Chippewa Falls McDonell finished last with a score of 13 points as its lone wrestler did not advance to sectional competition.

After having five sectional qualifiers the past two years, nine Glenwood City wrestlers, two as repeat champions, will advance to this Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 Individual Sectional tournament which will be held right back here at Edgar High. State-ranked wrestlers, senior Ian Radintz (126) and sophomore Wyatt Unser (113) successfully defended their regional championships from a year ago. Joining the Toppers’ gold-medal duo in the sectional meet will be second-place finishers senior James Knight (120) and junior Peyton Rassbach (132); third place finishers, senior Gabe Knops (145), and sophomore Mitchell McGee (138), and a trio of fourth-place finishers, senior Noah Brite (170), and sophomores Andrew Blaser (152) and Jackson Logghe (182).

Two other Hilltoppers just missed the cut. Freshman Landon Obermueller placed fifth at 106 pounds as did sophomore heavyweight Blake Fayerweather.

“Wyatt and Ian continue to wrestle at a high level, each winning championships,” said Strong of the Toppers’ two champions at Saturday’s super regional.

“They were pretty dominant throughout the day, which is something they expect of themselves in every tournament. They train for this year round, so they are pretty invested in winning,” he added.

In his final regional competition, senior Ian Radintz won his third consecutive championship and fourth sectional berth. Radintz, who received byes in the first two rounds of competition at 126 pounds, delivered pins in his semifinal and championship matches. Ranked second in the state, Radintz moved his season mark to 34-3 with a 3:25 pin of Stratford’s Mathias Kaiser in the semis and needed just 1:44 to put Tate Sonnentag of Marathon to his back in the title match.

Unser, who is ranked third at 113 pounds, also compiled four wins in Edgar this past Saturday to improve to 33-2. Following a bye in the opening round, Unser needed only 25 seconds of his quarterfinal match to put Auburndale’s Dawson Raab to the mat. He followed with a 16-0 technical fall over Likas Simenson of Cadott in the semifinals. In the finals, Unser wrestled sixth-ranked Cale Quaintance of Marathon and won 3 to 1 to claim the gold medal at 113 pounds.

 Senior James Knight (28-11), ranked eighth, delivered a gritty performance in his final regional contest as he placed second at 120 pounds to qualify for his second sectional tourney in three seasons. In the quarterfinals, he pinned Cadott’s Monte Lodahl in 4:17. In the semifinals, Knight overcame a sizable deficit when he scored a pin at 4:17 against Zade Grassel of Auburndale, who was 12th in the state polls, to punch his ticket to the finals. Knight had to settle for the silver medal as he was shut out 6-0 in the finals by Trenton Cournoyer of Stratford.

“James Knight willed his way to the finals despite being down in his semifinals match,” noted Strong. “He turned it up and picked up a big pin in the third period to get to the finals.”

Junior Peyton Rassbach parlayed a pair of pins in the quarterfinals and semifinals for a shot to wrestle for the 132-pound gold. After a bye to start the day, Rassbach pinned Evin Passehl of Athens just a 1:07 into the quarterfinal match. He then dispatched Marathon’s Dylan Dodson at 3:25 of the semifinals. In the championship bout, the state’s top-ranked wrestler, Brayden Sonnentag (43-0), defeated Rassbach by pin in 1:15. Despite the loss, Rassbach improved to 18-6 and left with a silver medal.

“Peyton Rassbach had a nice tournament avenging a loss from the Northern Badger to punch his ticket to the finals,” Strong said.

Senior Gabe Knops and sophomore Mitchell McGee will both be returning to the sectional meet following third-place finishes at the 145 and 138 pounds respectively.

After winning regional titles the past two seasons, Knops finished with the bronze medal. Ranked eighth at 138 pounds in the most recent Division 3 state poll, Knops went up a weight class for the tournament. After a bye in the opening round, the Topper senior pinned Edgar’s Austin Schreiber just a minute and 37 seconds into the quarterfinal match. Knops lost a 6-2 decision to Ryan Becker of Stratford in the semifinal but came back to record his second pin of the day in the match for third place, sticking Wyatt Malsin of Auburndale in 5:24 to take the bronze.

Knops will take a 29-8 mark into the sectional meet.

Mitchell McGee improved to 27-13 with a 3-1 performance at 138 pounds. He shut out Brandon Knetter of Stratford 9-0 in the quarterfinals. His only loss came to in the semifinals to Cadott’s Nick Fasbender on a fall at 5:00. In the third-place match, McGee scored another shut out by major decision, this one on an 8-0 count over Derek Vesely of Marathon.

Sophomore Andrew Blaser’s (13-19) biggest win came in the quarterfinals at 152 pounds where he upset Braeden Person (28-12) of Cornell/Gilman/Lake Holcombe 4-3. He went on to finish fourth to secure a sectional berth.

“Andrew Blaser came up really big for us, defeating the third seed in the quarters to score us big points, while qualifying him for sectionals,” said Strong. “That was a huge win for our team and awesome to see since Andrew is one of the hardest workers in our room.”

Senior Noah Brite (15-11) had some big pins for the Toppers including a second-period fall in a fourth-place wrestleback against Jarvell Owens of Auburndale which was one of the matches that helped his team finish in second place. In the third-place match, Brite lost 5-3 in overtime to Cadott’s Caden Kingston.

Sophomore Jackson Logghe’s fourth-place finish at 182 pounds was another key win for the Hilltoppers. Following a first-round bye, Logghe pinned Juan Gomez of Marathon just 1:07 into their quarterfinal’s match. In the semis, second-ranked Jackson Ormond of Stratford put Logghe to mat in 42 ticks. Logghe then lost to Spring Valley/Elmwood’s Keegan Merth by fall in the third-place match. He would have to defend fourth place in a wrestleback against Jonah Christopherson of McDonell whom he stuck in 3:01 to put Glenwood City in second place to stay.

Finishing fifth and just missing a sectional berth were freshman Landon Obermueller at 106 pounds and sophomore Blake Fayerweather at 285 pounds. A 7-1 quarterfinal loss to state-ranked Kaleb Lodahl of Cadott knocked Obermueller out of sectional contention while Fayerweather surrendered a second-period pin to Boyceville’s Parker Coombs after leading 9-2 in the fourth-place wrestleback for an opportunity to expand his season.

Taking sixth last Saturday were juniors Will Standaert (9-14) and Connor Gross (16-12)  at 160 and 220 pounds, respectively.

Finally, junior Steven Booth  gave up a pair of pins while wrestling at 195 pounds and did not place.

The Glenwood City wrestlers will look to fulfill team and individuals goals this week when they compete in the team and individual sectional competitions with state berths on the line.