Phillips High School senior Ethan Upson was among five team wrestlers who competed at the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 3 Regional Boys Wrestling meet at Edgar on Feb. 17, and emerged the champion of his 165 pound weight class to move on to the WIAA State Tournament this Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 23-25 at the Kohl Center of UW-Madison.
Phillips placed 10th among the 22 teams competing at Edgar High School. Chequamegon was in a five-way tie for 18th.
In the 165 class, Upson was first, followed by Jack Ross of Unity, Jack Owens of Cumberland, and Reed Mccain of Marathon. Upson started the bracket with a win by fall at 2:53 over Will Standaert of Glenwood City. He then won a 10-0 major decision over Owens, and then won the first place match by fall over Ross at 2:23.
“Ethan has been getting better every time he steps on the mat,” said Phillips wrestling coach Tim Brown. “He did not allow any of the wrestlers in his three matches to score a point.”
In round one Upson took his opponent Standaert down and came close to a first period pin, Brown said. In the second period he reversed him with a switch and turned him twice before getting the pin.
In the semifinal match, Upson faced Owens, an opponent he had lost to just six weeks prior. Upson scored a takedown towards the end of the first period to go up 2-0. He struck again going up 4-0 after two periods, and scored 6 more in the third to win 10-0.
In the finals match, Upson met up with Ross, the same finals wrestler from Unity as last weekend in regionals. He scored a fireman’s carry takedown and controlled the rest of first period. In the second period, Ross chose neutral and Upson blocked the takedown down attempt, followed with a head throw, and used that leverage to earn the fall.
In the girls tournament Phillips junior Journee Woods was attempting to earn her second trip to the state tournament but placed third in the 114 pound class and did not qualify. Tessa York of Cadott was first, and Shelby Garcia of Bruce was second.
“In the girls bracket, you need to place first to move on, Journee finished third,” Brown said.
Woods was in a close match most of the way through, Brown said. She was able to pull within two in the third period but couldn’t score the points needed after that and ended up losing by decision 6-12.
In the boys 126 class, Wyatt Unser of Glenwood City was first, followed by Zade Grassel of Auburndale, Aaron Knetter of Stratford and JJ Adomaitis of Phillips was fourth.
JJ Adomaitis won his first match by 14-0 major decision over Monte Lodahl of Cadott. He then lost a 5-0 decision to Zade Grassel of Auburndale, and won by fall over Phoenix Heise of Osceola at 3:10. He lost the third place match to Knetter by 7-2 decision.
A dominating 14-0 major decision win was a great start, Brown said. Adomaitis finished the match scoring 7 points in the third period.
The last time these two wrestled it was an overtime win for JJ, Brown said.
In the semifinals Adomaitis came close to scoring several times but couldn’t quite finish and lost by decision. In the consolation match Adomaitis pinned a very good senior.
In the 144 class Colton Weiler of Auburndale was first, followed by Briar Naglosky of Shell Lake, Cayden Paulson of Clear Lake and Daniel Adomaitis of Phillips. Adomaitis lost the third place match by a 6-3 decision to Paulson.
Adomaitis was battling illness all week while looking ahead to competing in a solid weight class, Brown said. He scored 2 points with a first period takedown against Derek Vesely, of Marathon. Vesely came back with 2 points in the second period, and a third period escape and a takedown earned Adomaitis a 5-3 win. In the semifinal Adomaitis faced the No. 1 state ranked Weiler, and while he kept the match close through 2 periods, Weiler won by technical fall at 6 minutes.
In the consolation round Adomaitis was even 0-0 after one period against Conner Carlson of Cameron, when he scored 3 points in a near fall in the second, and 4 more points in the third for a 7-2 win. In the third place match against Cayden Paulson of Clear Lake that would decide who would move on to state, Adomaitis found himself down 0-4 after the first period and came back with 3 points in the second. He put Paulson on his back but couldn’t hold him there and could not get him turned in the third period to end up on the short end of a 6-3 decision.
“Daniel has worked hard and had a great season and is the fourth Logger wrestler to earn 40 wins in one season,” Brown said. “He has an outstanding 40-7 record, but unfortunately, he was sick at the worst possible time. Fighting through four full matches eventually wears anyone down.”
In the boys 132 class, Gabe Gerber of Ladysmith was first, followed by Swayne Stencil of Marathon, Mathias Kaiser of Stratford and Tanner Bandoli of Shell Lake.
Phillips wrestler Jason McMillan qualified for regionals in the 132 class. He lost his first match by fall at 1:20 to Stencil. He lost his next match by fall at 2:51 to Bandoli to end his bracket competition.
McMillan lost to Stencil who was an eventual state qualifier, Brown said. In the consolation round McMillan fell behind 0-2 in the first period and fought a stronger second period but was eventually taken down and pinned.
“Jason is a senior who has been just a fun guy to coach and have in the practice room, a really good kid,” Brown said.
In other action without area athletes placing:
106 pound class: Braden Johnson of Cumberland won first place, followed by Blake Underwood of Marathon, Roman Schmidt of Stratford and Luke Moen of Turtle Lake/Clayton.
113 class: Kaleb Lodahl of Cadott was first, followed by Colin Cournoyer of Stratford, Derek Godard of Auburndale and Landon Obermueller of Glenwood City.
120 class: Trenton Cournoyer of Stratford was first, followed by Cale Quaintance of Marathon, Ronan Garcia of Bruce and Noah Hile of Cumberland
138 class: Dawson Johnson of Cumberland was first, followed by Trevor Gilbertson of Clear Lake, Dylan Dodson of Marathon and Sam Schmitt of Spring Valley/Elmwood.
150 class: Mitchell McGee of Glenwood City was first, followed by Logan Peterson of Cumberland, Kaleb Krummel of Stratford and Brandon Wright of Turtle Lake/Clayton.
157 class: Tyler Sunday of Clear Lake was first, followed by Troy Duellman of Cornell/Gilman/Lake Holcombe, Wyatt Malsin of Auburndale and Harrison Ruppel of Cumberland.
175 class: Carter Lueck of Stratford was first, followed by Brock Naessen of Shell Lake, Caden Kingston of Cadott and DauTre Allen of Cumberland.
185 class: Jack Chafer of Cumberland was first, followed by Jack Lazar of Ladysmith, Harrison Graveen of Edgar and Drew Gage of Stratford.
190 class: Matthew Roach of Ladysmith was first, followed by Noah Lucio of Stratford, Lucas Stahnke of Edgar and Gabe Erickson of Cumberland.
215 class: Axel Tegels of Cadott was first, followed by Zach Hellendrung of Boyceville, Taydyn Angell of Cornell/Gilman/Lake Holcombe and Walker Weis of Stratford.
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