By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – Stratford senior heavyweight Indy Spindler has rolled through the majority of his matches this season and all along it looked like he would finally make it to his first state tournament.
Suddenly on Saturday at the Division 3 sectional meet at Osseo-Fairchild he found himself in a precarious position.
Spindler trailed Nate Lund of Flambeau 10-1 during the second period of his 285-pound semifinal match and things didn’t look good.
“I knew I was wrestling bad,” Spindler said.
Quickly his fortunes changed. Spindler was able to gain a reversal and in less than a minute pinned Lund with 32 seconds left in the period to move on to the finals and clinch a spot this week’s WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament in Madison.
Spindler lost to undefeated Matt Wyss of Boyceville, but earned a pin in a second-place wrestleback to improve to 40-4 heading into his preliminary match against Marawood Conference-rival Kyle Krohn (32-9) of Pittsville on Thursday night at the Kohl Center.
“He landed on his belly and kind of looked at me. He shakes his head and stepped it up a notch. He reversed him on his back and pinned him in less than a minute after that,” Stratford co-coach Joe Schwabe said of Spindler’s comeback. “He was maybe a little tight, trying some new things. It’s probably not the time to try something new at this point, so he went back to what got him here.”
Despite beating Krohn this season, Spindler isn’t about to take anything for granted in his first trip to the state meet.
“I’ve already wrestled Kyle Krohn this year so I know what to expect there – big, tough kid,” Spindler said. “There’s going to be more matches that go out of the first period, more tough matches. It’s alright to be in a close match, you don’t always have to go for a pin. A win’s a win. I’ve been working hard all season, staying in shape, so hopefully we can pull off some wins.”
If Spindler wins, he will face Rance Nofsinger of Brookwood, who is 42-1 this season. Spindler does get the unusual bonus of going against a wrestler in the first round he has wrestled before, but is also taking on the task of going against the unknown in stride.
“Everybody wrestles. It’s wrestling, it’s not like they have a different wrestling than we have wrestling,” Spindler said. “You know what you like to do. The more years you put in, the more fluidity you have. It’s all what you feel, what you’re going to do. If you don’t make mistakes and you keep the match close, you always have a chance of winning it.”
Spindler has pinned the majority of his opponents this year, but he knows the state tournament will be a different kind of animal. When the best of the best converge in Madison, he said he will have to use his strength and quickness to win.
“In heavyweights, there’s a lot of throwers. If he wants to throw you, you have to stay lower than he is, keep your balance,” Spindler said. “You have to be quick and fast on your feet. The top heavyweights in the state are quick on their feet. You don’t see too many out there that are just these huge muscleheads that can throw people around because there is some quick guy out there that will counter that and beat them.”
Follow coverage of Spindler’s matches, as well as the other area wrestlers, throughout the tournament at MarshfieldAreaSports.com.
Paul Lecker can be reached by e-mail at paul@marshfieldareasports.com.
