Simonson brings silver medal back to Colfax

MADISON — It took four long years and three trips to the state meet but Bloomer-Colfax wrestler Brady Simonson found his way to the medal podium with a second place finish at the 2016 WIAA State Wrestling meet Saturday, February 27 in Madison.

Simonson, competing at 138 pounds, won his preliminary match Thursday night against Trent Rebedew of Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah/Howards Grove which moved him into the quarter finals Friday. In a grueling match that took three overtimes to complete, he defeated Cody Yauch of Two Rivers 7-4. With the score tied at 4-4 after the three regulation periods, a one minute overtime was employed. Neither wrestler scored and it went to a 30 second overtime, where neither scored again. Simonson finally took control in the next 30 second period when he scored on an escape then added a takedown for the three point win. Yauch was dealing with some bleeding issues off and on and had to take several injury timeouts throughout the match to deal with it, which resulted in Simonson having to wait around for the match to resume.

“My assistant coaches and I did a lot of discussing during those timeouts to try and figure out the best way for Brady to score a point,” head coach Jim Poirier said. “Brady just wore his opponent out mentally, and by being so aggressive, he wore him out physically, too”.

Next up was the semi-final match against East Troy’s Gabe Braam. Simonson used a strong second period to score points and ended up with a 9-1 major decision to put himself in the finals for Saturday night. That match was against Hunter Marko of Amery who he had lost to a week earlier in the sectional meet by a score of 5-3. Marko was on a mission to become the 14th wrestler in state history to win four straight championships and he did just that with a 9-1 win.

“I knew it was going to be hard to beat him but I was wrestling pretty good at this point,” Simonson said. “We are both very aggressive but he executed his moves perfectly,” he added.

Simonson’s second place finish was the highest for any Colfax wrestler in the school’s history. Jerry Marko (no one seems to know if there is any relation to Hunter) competed at state in 1977 and 1979 and placed sixth in the ‘79 tournament when there were no divisions, and in 1993, Travis Anderson, wrestling with the Colfax-Elk Mound co-op finished third in  Division 3 at 140 pounds. (That same week the Colfax school board voted to discontinue the wrestling program.)

Speaking in front of a group of around 100 people who greeted him in the school cafeteria after being escorted partway back to Colfax by two local firetrucks, Simonson commented:

“It felt good standing up there on the podium,” Simonson. “I have put a lot of hours into getting to state and I wanted a state championship but I did my best and lost to a good wrestler. It was great to have the support I had all year from friends, family and the community,” he added.

Coach Poirier, who has worked with Simonson since he was a seventh grader, was pleased with his finish and his career.

“Brady has won over 150 matches in his high school years and had a great work ethic,” he said. “He showed all the younger kids what it is like to be on the big stage so hopefully that will strengthen our program.”

Simonson ended the season with a 42-4 record, with two of those losses to Marko.