New tourney format awaits prep wrestlers this weekend

The Tri-County Area will be at the center of the this weekend's WIAA prep wrestling postseason with regional and individual sectional tournaments.

Mondovi/Eleva-Strum hosts the girls regional at Mondovi starting at 5 p.m. The first two finishers in each weight division in all regionals will qualify for one of eight sectionals in one division on Friday, February 20. The MES Region will feed into the Stevens Point Sectional. The first two finishers in each weight class in all sectionals qualify for the WIAA State Girls Individual Tournament in Madison Feb. 26-28.

The girls tourney series largely stays the same until next season when team competition is added. It's the boys tournament series where the changes during the offseason were more dramatic,
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First of all, there are no more regionals. The Saturday's Division 2 individual sectional meet at Osseo-Fairchild High School beginning at 10 a.m. determines who goes on to state and only the top two in each weight class makes at after wrestlebacks.

The top six teams in each sectional advance to team sectionals the following weekend, which for O-F Sectionals will be in Black River Falls with the champions of the seven sectionals plus one wildcard in each of the three divisions will advance to the state team tournament in La Crosse at the La Crosse Center March 6-7.

There are only seven sectionals per division, so there will be byes for the top two seeds per weight class at state Feb. 26 at the Kohl Center in Madison. At sectionals, each weight class is bracketed for 16 wrestlers, so anyone wrestling in the first round by seeding and loses, will be eliminated immediately while winners or those with first round byes get at least two matches, especially through the wrestlebacks up through eighth place.

"It's obviously going to be tougher to get to state in this format with only two going on instead of three," OFAFC head coach Jason Schulte said.

16 teams will be at Osseo-Fairchild competing and they include Adams-Friendship, Arcadia, Black River Falls/Lincoln, Ellsworth, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro, Mauston/Necedah, Mondovi/Eleva-Strum, Neillsville/Loyal/Greenwood, Nekoosa/Port Edwards, Prescott, Eau Claire Regis/Altoona, Spencer/Granton/Marshfield Columbus, Wautoma/Wild Rose, West Salem/Bangor, Wisconsin Dells and the host Tri-County Co-op of Osseo-Fairchild/Augusta/Fall Creek

Competing in the MES Regional Meet on Friday will be Arcadia, Black River Falls/Lincoln, Blair-Taylor, Cochrane-Fountain City, Durand-Arkansaw, Independence/Gilmanton, Neillsville/Loyal/Greenwood, Whitehall, OFAFC and the host Mondovi/Eleva-Strum.

Teams had the whole week to get ready for regional and sectional meets. Last week was the final one of the regular season for Tri-County Area grappling teams.

OFAFC hosted the final Dairyland Conference Duals Series last week Thursday, Feb. 5. Both teams started with Blair-Taylor. On the boys side the dual ended in a tie but due to criteria the Dragons won on total match points giving OFAFC only their second dual meet win of the season. Next the Dragons took on C-FC. They fell in the dual but were victorious in a couple of individual matches. On the girls side, OFAFC and B-T did not match up very well by weight class which resulted in OFAFC winning the dual having more wrestlers. The women also won the duals against C-FC and Independence/Gilmanton which put them second in the Dairyland Conference behind Whitehall as the conference crowned its first girls wrestling champ. Individual records for the evening were as follows: for the OFAFC boys Kouper Salter went 2-0, Sam Coach went 1-1, Henry Cash went 1-1, Noah Krueger went 1-1, Easton Hansen went 0-2. For the girls, Macey Pierre 3-0, Layne Armstrong-Baglien 3-0, Viola MacDonald 3-0 and Kinley Nelson 3-0.

Last week Mondovi/Eleva-Strum boys traveled to Boyceville for a rescheduled Dunn-St. Croix Conference meet and then hosted the Dunn-St. Croix Conference tournament on Thursday, Feb. 5 at Mondovi.

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, MES started the night against Boyceville. The Bulldogs came out of the gates hot and won 9 of the 11 matches on the night. Carter Zahara picked up a forfeit and Ethan Odegard earned a tech fall for MES. The final score was 54-11, Boyceville. The second dual of the night put MES against Glenwood City. MES wrestled with more fire in this dual and picked up four pins against the D-SC Conference Champion Hilltoppers. Those pins were earned by Tyson Greiner, Bill Jardine, Odegard, and David Nyre. The final score was 58-24 in favor of Glenwood City. The boys end the regular season with a team dual meet record of 15-8 overall.

On Thursday night Feb. 5, MES hosted the first D-SC Conference Tournament that has been held in a number of years. The boys team came into the tournament and wrestled very well, finishing in 5th place. Placing fifth for MES were Brody Brantner, Nicholas Wright, Brysen Nogle (2 pins), and David Nyre (1 pin). AJ Loscheider finished in fourth place with 2 pins. Zahara, Greiner (1 pin), Jardine (1 pin), Odegard (1 pin), and Aiden Isaacson (1 pin) all finished in second place on the night.

'The girls team won the first-ever D-SC title for girls the same night. MES scored 68 points led by individual champions Kylie Zahara at 120, Emma Pearl Jardie at 126 and Layla Risler at 145. Taking second was Kasey Poeschel at 152 and Sophia Peterson placed third at 132.

The WIAA State Boys Individual Wrestling Tournament bracket reveal show will be aired live at 11 a.m. on the same WIAA State Television Network Stations.

Karl Winter and Keegan Hewitt will serve as the hosts of the show, which will feature the announcement and first-round matchups for 14 weight classes in three boys divisions of the State Individual Wrestling Tournament. Joe Miller and Teague Fenwick will provide analysis.

There are 588 boy qualifiers entering the State Individual Wrestling Tournament scheduled for Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 26-Feb. 28 at the Kohl Center in Madison. It will be the 83rd annual boys tournament. The finals of the Individual Wrestling Tournament will be aired live on the WIAA State Television Network channels Saturday, Feb. 28 with programming to begin at 5 p.m.

Complete individual wrestling brackets with the first-round pairings are scheduled to be available on the WIAA website and on USABracketing.com following the live announcement of the brackets.

The bracket reveal shows for the boys basketball tournament series will be held Sunday, Feb. 22 on the WIAA State Television Network stations at 11 a.m., and the State Girls Individual Wrestling Tournament and the Team State Tournament will be streamed live on the Network Stations websites and on WrestleWI.com at noon.