Boyceville wrestlers bounce back to maul Mondovi; place third at St. Croix Falls

The Boyceville wrestlers bounced back from their disappointing loss to Spring Valley/Elmwood in a big way last week.

The Bulldogs picked up their second conference win with a lopsided 71-6 in Mondovi Thursday, January 21. Two days later, the squad followed that with an impressive third-place finish at the 20-team St. Croix Falls Invitational as eight wrestlers placed including a pair of champions and runners-up.

Mondovi Dual

The Bulldogs trip to Mondovi took longer than the dual.

Boyceville received nine forfeits from Mondovi and added a pair of pins and a technical fall as it won 13 of the 14 matches in a 71-6 thrashing of the Buffaloes.

Boyceville was awarded forfeits at 106, 113, 120, 138, 152, 160, 182, 195 and 285 pounds.

In the five remaining matches, Boyceville prevailed in four of them.

In a match featuring a pair of state-ranked wrestled, Boyceville junior James Palmer took an 8-2 win over Mondovi’s Austin Fedie at 132 pounds.

“James wrestled a very good match and dominated Austin Fedie,” stated Jamie Olson, Boyceville head coach.

Freshman Brock Schlough did likewise in his 145-pound match against the Buffaloes’ Dillon Larson. Schlough scored an 18-2 technical fall midway through the second period.

“Brock used upper body throws and leg attacks to rack up the points,” said Olson of Schlough’s dominating win.

Justin Malean came up with a big 4-2 win at 170 pounds where he defeated Mondovi’s Bryce Johnson.

The Bulldogs other match victory came at 220 pounds where sophomore Noah Novotney hit a nice side roll and pinned Ben Andress in 4:45.

Mondovi’s lone win came in the second match of the dual. Nick Pelke caught the Bulldogs’ Jason Swanepoel in a near-side cradle and pinned him just 1:13 into the match at 126 pounds.

Boyceville, 2-1 in the Dunn-St. Croix and 15-7 overall, has two road matches remaining on its regular-season schedule. The Bulldogs will be at Eau Claire North Thursday, January 28 and will wrap the regular and conference dual season in Glenwood City next Tuesday, February 2. The tournament series get underway Saturday, February 6 with the Big Rivers/D-SC Challenge.

BOYCEVILLE 71, MONDOVI 6

120 – Braxton Ludtke (BV) received forfeit; 126 – Nick Pelke (M) over Jason Swanepoel (BV), fall 1:13; 132 – James Palmer (BV) over Austin Fedie (M), dec. 8-2; 138 – Trey Brinker (BV) received forfeit; 145 – Brock Schlough (BV) over Dillon Larson (M), technical fall 18-2; 152 – Cody Frederick (BV) received forfeit; 160 – Tyler Krueger (BV) received forfeit; 170 – Justin Malean (BV) over Bryce Johnson (M), dec. 4-2; 182 – Jordan Morse (BV) received forfeit; 195 – Garrett Joles (BV) received forfeit; 220 – Noah Novotney (BV) over Ben Andress (M), fall 4:45; 285 – Brandon Windsor (BV) received forfeit; 106 – Eli Swanson (BV) received forfeit; 113 – Nick Goodell (BV) received forfeit.

St. Croix Falls Invite

James Palmer and Brock Schlough both won individual titles at the St. Croix Falls Invitational held Saturday, January 23 to lead the Bulldogs to a third-place finish in the 20-team tournament.

Joining Palmer and Schlough in the championship round were Cody Frederick and Garrett Joles both of whom finished second.

Boyceville tallied 132.5 point and finished just ten points behind runner-up Amery (142.5). Hudson, the state’s top-ranked team in Division 1, handily won the meet with 251 points. River Falls took fourth with 128 points and Spencer was fifth with 110.5.

“This year’s St. Croix Falls tournament was as good as any tournament we’ve been in all year,” Olson said. “The competition was exactly what we needed for our kids to start focusing on the tournament run.”

Palmer and Schlough both finished the competition with unblemished 4-0 records.

Palmer took the gold at 132 pounds. After a first-round bye, he pinned North Branch’s Kaleb Lofboom in 51 seconds; edged Aaron Sistrunk of Chisago Lakes 4-3 in the semifinals and wrapped up the title by pinning Michael Slagel of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm in 3:33.

Schlough dominated all four of his opponents en route to winning the championship at 145 pounds. He stuck Trevor Anderson of North Branch in 1:18 to open the tournament. Schough then scored a 20-2 technical fall in his quarterfinals match against St. Croix Falls’ Spencer Langer. The Boyceville freshman registered consecutive pins to end the tournament beating Amery’s Johnny Benitez 2:22 into their semifinals match and Steven Jerry of Ladysmith at the 2:42 mark of the championship bout.

Cody Frederick received a bye to open tournament action and advanced to the quarterfinals where he beat Pine City’s Brody Pantlin on a 13-2 major decision. Frederick edged out Nathan Neumann of Spencer 2-1 but lost by the same score in the 152-pound championship to Clay Carney of St. Croix Falls.

Garrett Joles pinned his way to the semifinals at 182 pounds. Joles needed just 59 seconds to pin his opening round opponent, Charlie Jepsen of North Branch. Cumberland’s Tyrell Hoisington was next as Joles put him on his back in 2:19.

Joles’ semifinal match with Jared Florell of Totino Grace went the full six minutes but the Boyceville wrestler prevailed 8-3.

Hudson’s Dylan Anderson, ranked second in the state’s 182-pound division one field, awaited Joles in the championship. Anderson controlled the match throughout and posted a 14-5 major decision.

“Garrett gave up some points in that (championship) match trying to score big when the opportunity was there and I give him a lot of credit for trying some things to win that match,” said Olson. “The score does not tell the story of one of the best matches I have ever watched in my coaching career. Florell from Totino-Grace was a double All-American in Fargo last year and is currently ranked second in Minnesota.”

Justin Malean finished 4-1 to take fifth at 160 pounds, Dyllon Johnson took sixth at 120 pounds with a 3-2 mark and both Nick Goodell and Noah Novotney placed seventh at 106 and 220 pounds respectively with 3-2 records.

The Bulldogs also had five junior varsity wrestlers place at St. Croix Falls. Dylan McNew (152) and Sam Retz (160) garnered thirds, Josh Briese (132) and Christian Schultz (145) both finished in fourth, and Tanner Anderson (145) was fifth.

The Bulldogs had three open weight classes – 113, 126 and 285 pounds – in the tournament. Braxton Ludtke was ill and both Jason Swanepoel and Brandon Windsor competed a Science Olympiad tournament in River Falls.

TEAM SCORES 1. Hudson 251.0; 2. Amery 142.5; 3. Boyceville 132.5; 4. River Falls 128.0; 5. Spencer 110.5; 6. Chisago Lakes 101.5; 7. Totino Grace 99.0; 8. Cumberland 94.0; 9. Princeton 91.5; 10. Northwestern 87.5; 11. Pine City 78.5; 12. St. Croix Falls 77.5; 13. Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Praire Farm 72.0; 14. Ladysmith 68.0; 15. Cornell 34.0; 16. North Branch Area Public Schools 20.0; 17. Flambeau 16.0; 18. Luck/Frederic/Grantsburg 13.0; 18. Ogilvie 13.0; 20. Cameron 10.0