G/M wrestlers advance to team state at B-W sectional
Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro held off a late rally from Medford in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association team sectional final to advance to state competition last Tuesday.
G/M started the evening with a win over sectional host Baldwin-Woodville. The Titans then took a 35-6 lead that held up despite Medford taking the remaining five classes.
Team seeding for state competition will be announced Saturday after seeding meetings take place, and division two state competition will take place in Madison on Saturday, March 7.
B-W team sectional - Tuesday night’s sectional semifinal against B-W began with G/M taking a commanding lead, winning eight of the first nine classes.
Daniel Slattery (152) began the match with a 15-9 win over Sam Crowley, which Jaden Anderson (160) followed with an 8-0 win over Bode LaGrander to make it 7-0 G/M. Hunter Andersen (170) won 11-1 over Max Ramberg to follow before B-W earned their first win of the match on a Blaine Guthrie (182) pin to cut their deficit to 11-6.
Bryce Burns (195), Justin Gappa (220) and Trevor Daffinson made quick work of the next three classes as they pinned Dylan Hanson, Mason Baribeau and Adam Malstrom respectively to push the lead to 29-6.
Carson Koss (106) kept the momentum going for the Titans with an 8-3 win over Cole Braasch before Tanner Andersen (113) won 11-7 over Tyler Fink to make it 35-6. B-W took the following three classes on a 10-0 win by Hunter Bonte (120), pin by Austin Schmidt (126) and 16-1 tech fall win by Jordan Bonte to pull within 35-21, but their lack of pins all but sealed the win for G/M. Sam Johnson (138) and Bryce Blaken (145) finished the match strong for G/M with a 5-4 win over Hunter Gartman and a pin of Logan Gordon respectively to wrap up the 44-21 win to advance the Titans to the final with Medford.
G/M began with an early double-digit lead in the final against Medford as well, taking the first four classes. Jaden Anderson won 7-4 over Emett Grunwald, before Hunter Andersen took a 15-2 win over Hayden Johnson. The Titans then made it 19-0 as Jacob Summers (182) pinned Clay Bowe and Burns took a forfeit victory.
Medford got on the board with a pair of narrowly contested decisions, as Dalton Krug (220) won 7-5 and Jake Rau (285) won 6-5 to give their team their first six points. G/M took the next three classes, as Koss won 12-3 over Ty Sova, Tanner Andersen pinned Matthew Gebert and David Hiles pinned Blake Schilling to increase the lead to 35-6.
Those would be the last wins for the Titans however, as Medford nearly made things interesting over the final five classes. Needing pins the rest of the way to steal a one-point victory, Medford got the first as Eric Rehbein (126) earned a six-point tally. The Tigers got one more pin from Zeke Sigmund (145) three classes later, but the math was already not in their favor as an 11-2 win by Carson Church (132) and an 8-3 win by Dane Higgins (138) left them with one class to make up a 35-25 deficit. Jake Brunner (152) wrapped up the match with an 8-2 win for the Tigers, sealing a 35-28 victory for G/M to advance as sectional champions.
