FOR THE ANTIGO TIMES

The Antigo High School wrestling team took the mats for the first time this year, facing off with conference foe Lakeland.

Action started at Heavyweight, where Brady VandeWeerd took the mats against Esaube Brown. VandeWeerd was able to secure the early takedown and finish Brown with a pinfall in 63 seconds to put the Robins up 6-0.

Daniel Livermore made his debut with a forfeit at 106, upping the lead to 12-0.

After double forfeits at 113 and 120, Sam Bretl faced Ben Nemcek at 126 pounds. Nemcek was able to secure takedowns in each round in route to a 10-1 major decision victory. This cut the lead to 12-4.

Antigo would forfeit at 132 pounds, leading to a match between Logan Edwards and Brady Abb at 138. Abb was able to secure a takedown and nearfall in the first period, before a reversal by Edwards cut the lead to 4-2. Edwards chose to start the second period in the down position, and was able to secure an escape and takedown to take the lead 5-4. Edwards then added 3 nearfall points to increase his lead, before Abb was able to score on a reversal and win via pinfall at 3:57. This gave Lakeland their first lead, 16-12.

Ezekiel Fobes picked up a forfeit for the Robins, pushing Antigo back in front. Then at 152 pounds, Nick Radish took the mat to face Jose Retna. Radish was able to use incredible body positioning to reverse a takedown attempt and score the first points of the match. Retana was then able to escape, and secure his own takedown. Retana was able to turn Radish, and eventually earned the fall at 1:21, pushing Lakeland back ahead 22-18.

Gideon Sass was up next, facing Zane Grams at 160 pounds. Grams was able to secure a takedown and ride out in the first period to earn a 2-0 lead. Grams then was able to score on a reversal in the second period, and entered the third with a 4-0 advantage. After a Grams escape, Sass cut the lead to 5-2 with a takedown of his own. Grams was able to secure a late reversal to win the match 7-2, bumping the Lakeland lead to 25-18.

Robby Hagerty faced Jerry Goselin at 170 pounds. Goselin was able to score some takedowns and near fall points, earning a technical fall at 5:16 of the third round. Lakeland’s lead was 30-18 at this point.

At 182 pounds, Freshman Alex Schlieve faced Tommy Howard. Schlieve was able to show explosive takedowns and quality riding on top after a first period takedown. Howard chose the down position to start the second, and Schlieve was able to earn a pinfall at 2:49. This cut the lead to 30-24.

Jumping up to 195 pounds, Joshua Heuss faced Leonard Chosa. Despite giving up a sizeable amount of weight, Heuss was able to dominate the match with a first period takedown and a second period reversal before putting his opponent away by pinfall 18 seconds into the second round. This tied the team score at 30.

Unfortunately for the Robins, they had to forfeit 220, giving the win to Lakeland.

In exhibition matches following the dual, Hunter Cordova was able to control the match on the feet and on the mat, winning a 5-1 decision over Esaube Brown at heavyweight.

Ezekiel Fobes competed for the first time, dropping a match to Brady Abb by pinfall.

Jacob Dettman was able to overcome an early takedown by Tommy Howard by securing a reversal and cradle to win by pinfall at 1:19.

Joshua Heuss controlled his match against Jerry Goselin, earning a 7-3 victory on the strength of 2 takedowns and a nearfall.

The next official match for Antigo will be January 7^th at Mosinee, although a group of individuals will be competing in the USA Wrestling event on December 30^th in Wisconsin Dells.