State Wrestling Recap — Cadott's Spaeth, Stanley-Boyd/Owen-Withee's Brenner win state titles

MADISON — Cadott’s Brady Spaeth and Stanley-Boyd/Owen-Withee’s Blaine Brenner will wrestle for state championships on Saturday night after advancing with wins in their respective semifinals at the WIAA Individual Wrestling Championship Tournament on Friday at the Kohl Center.

Spaeth (45-0) advanced to the finals for the second year in a row with a 12-5 decision victory over Coleman’s Tyler Blanchard in Division 3 at 160 pounds. Spaeth will face Random Lake’s Grayson Bandenbush (44-2) for the championship.

Brenner (46-2) dominated his semifinal victory over Viroqua’s Cale Anderson, earning a 12-0 major decision win at 106. Brenner will meet Winneconne’s Caleb Meunier (48-2) for the title.

Cadott’s Nelson Wahl fell in his matchup at 145 pounds as Coleman’s Jake Baldwin defeated the sophomore by a 10-7 decision.

Spaeth and Brenner both earned byes into their respective quarterfinals as sectional champions. Spaeth earned a 9-3 decision win over Fennimore’s Maguire Fitzgerald in his opening match while Brenner quickly pinned Little Chute’s Logan Verboomen in 1:04.

Wahl opened the tournament on Thursday with a pinfall victory against Ithaca/Weston’s Monty Jennings in 3:42 before pinning Southern Door’s Grant Englebert in 4:35 to move on to the semifinals.

Two other Cadott wrestlers will also compete for place on Saturday as James Pfeiffer and Ethan Tegels are still alive in the consolation bracket.

Pfeiffer (44-2) overcame a semifinal loss at 170 at the hands of unbeaten Ryan Neu of Dodgeland by earning a 4-2 decision win against Saint Croix Falls’ Austin McCurdy. Pfeiffer started his tournament on Thursday with a 9-1 major decision win over Lancaster’s Dustin Wolf in the opening round.

Tegels (40-6) earned a 4-2 decision win over Shell Lake’s Carter Lawrence in their consolation matchup at 182. Tegels pinned Cedar Grove-Belgium’s Ben Anzia in 1:27 in the first round before falling by pinfall in the quarterfinals to Weyauwega-Fremont’s Tyler Wetzel.

Stanley-Boyd/Owen-Withee’s Sean Hassemer won his first match at 285 on Thursday before falling twice on Friday. Hassemer (27-12) won a tight 2-1 decision against Catholic Central’s Sergio Carini to start his tournament before being pinned by Mauston’s Dom Meurett in the quarterfinals and losing a 3-1 decision to Omro’s Mitchell Potratz.

Cornell/Gilman’s Sam Pickerign earned a bye to the Division 3 quarterfinals at 132, but was defeated in both of his Friday matches. Pickerign (20-4) lost a 7-5 decision to Weyauwega-Fremont’s Justin Kempf in the quarters and by pinfall to Mineral Point’s Caden Carey in the consolation bracket.

Bloomer/Colfax’s Mitchel Harmon won his opening match in Division 2 at 138 on Thursday before falling in both of his Friday matchups. Harmon (33-4) started his weekend with a 5-2 decision win against Freedom’s Reece Manteuffel to advance to the quarterfinals. There he fell by an 11-3 major decision against Prairie du Chien’s Traeton Saint and then lost via pinfall to Nekoosa/Assumption/Port Edwards’ Craig Elsen.

Cadott’s Kaleb Sonnentag and Gavin Tegels fell in their Thursday opening matches. Sonnentag (26-20) lost a 9-6 decision to Stratford’s Manny Drexler and Gavin Tegels (34-12) fell by 13-5 major decision to Edgar’s William Raatz. Cornell/Gilman’s Spencer Kraus (36-7) was defeated by 7-4 decision in his opening round match at 160 against Stratford’s Devin Dennee. Bloomer/Colfax’s Sawyer Best (29-5) was defeated in his Thursday opener at 132 by Lomira’s Alex Gundrum in a 12-4 major decision.

Girls Basketball

Clear Lake 60, McDonell 50

At Clear Lake, the Macks led at halftime but fell in a Division 5 regional quarterfinal matchup to the Warriors.

Maggie Craker led McDonell (11-13) with 18 points. Abby Wampler scored 12, Hannah Sykora added nine and Jessica Eisenreich finished with eight for the Macks, who carried a 28-25 advantage into halftime.

Maddie Rosen scored 18 for Clear Lake (15-7), who advances to play top-seeded Clayton in the regional finals.

Boys Basketball

Lake Holcombe 91, Prairie Farm 76

At Prairie Farm, the Chieftains closed the regular season with a nonconference win over the Panthers.

Kaden Kinney scored 23 points and was one of five players to finish in double figures for the Chieftains (13-8). Kaden Crank added 18, Josh Jones and Brock Flater each had 13 and Colton Minnick scored 11.

Jack Glaser had 39 points for Prairie Farm (3-14).

Lake Holcombe opens the Division 5 playoffs on Tuesday at Gilman.

Stanley-Boyd 52, Ladysmith 44

At Ladysmith, the Orioles beat the Lumberjacks in a nonconference game.

Tristan Harris had 15 points to lead Stanley-Boyd (6-16). LJ Schmelzer and Noah Gillingham added 14 and 12 points, respectively, in the victory.

Peyton Rogers led all scorers with 17 points for the Lumberjacks (4-18).

Stanley-Boyd opens the Division 4 playoffs at Durand on Tuesday.

MADISON — Blaine Brenner simply dominated.

Even on the state’s biggest prep wrestling stage.

The Stanley-Boyd/Owen-Withee sophomore captured the Division 2 state championship at 106 pounds on Saturday at the WIAA Individual State Wrestling Championship Tournament with a first-round pinfall victory over Winneconne’s Caleb Meunier.

Brenner is the fourth state champion in Stanley-Boyd history and the first for the Orioles since Jon Lechleitner won the second of his back-to-back state titles at 140 pounds in 2005.

“He was a hammer the whole time,” Stanley-Boyd/Owen-Withee coach Greg Burzynski said of Brenner. “He was very focused. Just focused the whole time and knew what he wanted to do. He didn’t have a point scored on him in the whole tournament, so that’s pretty impressive.”

Brenner (47-2) scored two pinfall wins and a major decision victory during his three matches at state. He opened the weekend on Friday with a pinfall win in 1:04 over Little Chute’s Logan Verboomen in the quarterfinals. The sophomore then earned a 12-0 major decision victory in the semis against Viroqua’s Cale Anderson to set up Saturday’s championship appearance where Brenner needed just 1:21 to pin Meunier (48-3).

“Everything just fell into place and when it happened I didn’t rush it, I just settled in and made everything work,” Brenner said of the state-winning pinfall.”

Overall Brenner won his last 28 matches of the season on his way to the title. His last defeat came by pinfall to Lancaster’s Remington Bontreger at the Bi-State Classic over the Christmas break in La Crosse. Brenner won his last four matches of that tournament, including a pinfall victory over Viroqua’s Anderson to take third and was unbeaten the rest of the way.

“It’s just a feeling of excitement right away,” Brenner said on winning the title.

The sophomore entered the state tournament as the top-ranked grappler in his weight class, according to the pre-state rankings from Wisconsin Wrestling Online. Brenner beat the second (Anderson), third (Meunier) and fifth (Verboomen) ranked wrestlers on his way to the championship. Brenner was making his second trip to state after falling in the opening round by 7-5 decision to eventual state champion Tommy Larson of East Troy last season at 106 pounds.

“He’s good but he’s good because he puts so much time in,” Burzynski said of Brenner. “He wrestles here, he wrestles club, he wrestles all summer long. Yeah he was a hammer and didn’t get a point scored on him because he works for it and that’s really good to see all the hard work and hours he’s put in is paying off.”

Senior Sean Hassemer was eliminated from competition at 285 pounds on Friday after posting a 1-2 record. Hassemer (27-12) won his opener by a 2-1 decision over Catholic Central’s Sergio Carini on Thursday before falling by pinfall and decision in his two Friday matches.

“He ended up really turning it on this year and probably the last third of the season realizing ‘I’m not bad, I can probably do this, I can win matches and keep in matches with good kids’,” Burzynski said of Hassemer. “He just realized his potential and with a lot of kids it just takes that.”

MADISON — Like father, like son.

Both are now state champions.

Cadott junior Brady Spaeth capped an unbeaten season with a Division 3 state championship at 160 pounds on Saturday with a 9-4 victory over Random Lake’s Grayson Vandenbush at the WIAA Individual State Wrestling Championship Tournament at the Kohl Center.

Spaeth (46-0) became the 11th state champion in school history, joining his dad and Cadott head coach Josh Spaeth who won the championship at 130 in 1997. He is also the first Cadott wrestler to win a title since Roy Monroe’s title at 145 in 2011.

“It makes it twice as good,” Brady Spaeth said of winning the title and joining his dad as a state champion. “You have somebody you can share that same thing with that not many people can.”

The junior made his move in the third period with a reversal and nearfall in the first 32 seconds to turn a 2-2 tie firmly in his advantage.

“We knew it was going to be that way, that guy is a very defensive wrestler,” Josh Spaeth said of the win. “His brother wrestled (Boyceville’s four-time state champion) Brock Schlough in a one-point match. They just like to tie guys up and keep things close and we knew that was the intention. We just had to stay patient and when you get a good shot, take it.”

Spaeth was wrestling in the state finals for the second year in a row. As a sophomore he fell to Schlough by pinfall at 152 pounds. But on Saturday evening he made the one last step up the podium to the top as a state champion. He finished third as a freshman at 138.

Even though the Cadott junior ended the season unbeaten, the season was not without challenges for him and his family. Brady Spaeth wrestled the majority of the season with a torn meniscus while Josh had stents put in his heart early on in the season.

“It’s like running a race with hurdles,” Brady Spaeth said. “You’ve got to make it over every one of those obstacles to get that last goal.”

The junior reached the finals with a pair of decision victories on Friday, defeating Fennimore’s Maquire Fitzgerald by a 9-3 decision in the quarterfinals before a 12-5 decision win against Coleman’s Tyler Blanchard in the semifinals. Spaeth entered state as the top-ranked wrestler at 160 according to the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online state poll and backed it up on the mat, capping his run to the title by beating the second-ranked senior Vandenbush.

Brady Spaeth’s only two losses in his first three state tournament appearances came against four-time state champions — Stratford’s Jeremy Schoenherr in 2017 and Schlough a season ago.

Both Spaeths were quick to credit teammates and their family for helping the junior reach the top of the podium.

Spaeth was one of four Cadott wrestlers to finish on the podium on Saturday as James Pfeiffer and Ethan Tegels brought home fourth-place finishes and Nelson Wahl finished sixth.

Pfeiffer (45-3) opened his day with a 4-2 sudden victory over Blair Taylor’s Logan Shramek in the consolation semifinals at 170, avenging a loss to Schramek from the sectional championship match. Pfeiffer fell to Dodgeland’s Ryan Neu by pinfall in 4:16 in the third-place match. Neu defeated Pfeiffer earlier in the weekend on Friday’s quarterfinals.

“I’ll be honest with you, my heart is broken for James Pfeiffer,” Josh Spaeth said. “This title Brady won is just as much his as it is Brady’s. Those guys have been practice partners since they’ve been in kindergarten. Those guys come to the room and they bring it every day, they work hard. It was heartbreaking for James, he had a tight, close loss and a very tough bracket this weekend.”

Saturday’s performance capped Pfeiffer’s strong career with his fourth podium finish. Pfeiffer was third at 160 pounds last season, second at 152 pounds as a sophomore and was sixth at 152 as a freshman. Pfeiffer ends his career with the Hornets as the program’s career leader in pins and among leaders in all-time wins.

“I’m extremely proud of James, he had one of the most successful careers in Cadott history,” Josh Spaeth said.

Tegels (41-7) started his Saturday at 182 with a 7-5 sudden victory over Boscobel’s Chase Beiborn before falling to Bonduel’s Isaac Banker by pinfall in 4:09 for third place. Tegels was barely a .500 wrestler as a freshman before earning a sectional appearance as a sophomore. His junior season saw a big jump and his coach is already looking forward to what he can do next season.

“He just keeps getting better year in and year out,” Josh Spaeth said. “We’re looking for big things out of him next year, too.”

Wahl (30-9) fell in his first match of the day at 145 to Stratford’s Mavrick Licciardi by 11-8 decision before being bested for fifth place by Southern Door’s Grant Englebert in a 3-1 decision. Wahl defeated Englebert by pinfall on Friday in the quarterfinals.

Wahl initially was unsure if he was going to wrestle this season, but he came out and his coach said he got better as the year went on.

“For him to come through and make the state tournament, then make the state semifinals and he brought it, he wrestled hard,” coach Spaeth said. “He was in every match.”

Cadott sent a large contingent of fans down to Madison for the tournament and coach Spaeth said that support helped the team.

“It’s about the team,” coach Spaeth said. “Brady’s success wouldn’t be there without his teammates. We had a huge, huge crowd down here this year with 80-100 people. A whole town, a whole school supporting these guys.”