This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MADISON – Two Stratford wrestlers will go for gold Saturday night and three others are guaranteed a medal after participating at the 2014 WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament at the Kohl Center on Friday.
Stratford’s Alex Heiden and Dondrick Tackes both won their Division 3 semifinal matches and will wrestle in the championship matches on Saturday night.
Heiden (41-5) defeated Jon Mudlaff of Random Lake 6-4 in the semifinals on Friday night and will take on Kyle Mezera (45-2) of Lancaster in the D-3 126-pound championship. Earlier Friday, Heiden defeated Tyler Berg of Spring Valley/Elmwood 5-3 in the quarterfinals.
Tackes (34-1) won a major decision over David Steinhorst of Kewaunee 17-4 in a 195-pound semifinal and will battle Nick Klein (40-10) or Random Lake in a Division 3 championship match Saturday. Tackes pinned Mitch Lien of Clear Lake in 2:53 in the quarterfinals.
Three other Stratford wrestlers lost semifinal matches on Friday night and will are left to battle for third place.
Sam Wenzel (35-11) lost 6-4 to Josh Depies of Random Lake at 106 pounds. Wenzel will take on a familiar foe, Dylan Altmann (23-11) of Auburndale in a consolation semifinal on Saturday morning.
Altmann was pinned by Austin Wolfe of Boyceville in 1:24 in the 106-pound quarterfinals, while Wenzel pinned Nick Burns of La Crosse Aquinas in 1:38 in another quarterfinal Friday morning.
Anthony Gliniecki of Stratford suffered just his third loss of the season, falling to Garrett Siolka of Bonduel 9-5 in a 113-pound D-3 semifinal. Gliniecki will take on Jordan Blanchard (37-7) of Coleman in a consolation semifinal Saturday. Gliniecki reached the semifinals with a pin of Alec Potter of Laconia in 2:41.
Kamren Bornbach also lost a semifinal match for Stratford, losing to Dalton Lunde (44-1) of Royall 12-6. Bornbach defeated Greg Wenzel of Cedar Grove-Belgium 5-1 in a 182-pound quarterfinal earlier in the day.
Bornbach will face Henry Fielding (39-1) of Shiocton in a consolation match Saturday afternoon.
Earlier Friday, Auburndale’s Wyatt Weiler (34-7) lost his 152-pound quarterfinal to Cole Fritsch of New Holstein 12-2 and was eliminated later Friday, losing a consolation match to Brandon Tousey of Oconto 4-2 in overtime.
Check back Saturday for updates on the area wrestlers at the state tournament.