HOLMEN — The Holmen High School boys wrestling is a formidable one when it comes to dual meets.
But to get a chance to line up against another team again, the Vikings needed a big tournament performance in Saturday’s WIAA Division 1 regional at the Bernie L. Ferry Fieldhouse.
Rex Lancaster, Nathan Henderson, Turner Campbell and Noah Henderson led the way with individual titles as Holmen wrestled its way to 250.5 points and a team championship. West Salem/Bangor was second (240.5), and both will compete in team sectional semifinals Tuesday at Hudson.
The Vikings will match up with New Richmond and the Catbirds with Menomonie. The winners of those duals then compete for the championship and chance to compete at the team state tournament at the UW Field House in Madison on March 7-8.
“I thought our guys did great,” Holmen coach Justin Lancaster said. “Regionals are tough because you never know when a team is going to have a big win or big loss. Those can really determine the outcome of everything.”
But the four individual titles and eight other qualifying performances for next weekend’s Eau Claire North individual sectional put the Vikings on top of the team standings. West Salem/Bangor had three bracket winners and matched the Vikings with 13 individual qualifiers for the sectional.
“Our upper weights really had to step up,” Catbirds coach Josh Brewer said. “We knew we had the depth to get the majority of our guys through (to the individual sectional), but we had to capitalize at 215, 285 and some other places to get through as a team.”
Mason Chambers, Trevor Arentz and Miles Olson all won brackets for West Salem/Bangor, which held off third-place Marshfield (234) for the team sectional spot.
Holmen’s victory was highlighted by Lancaster at 106 pounds. The freshman marched to the title bout with a pair of technical falls before pulling off a huge 12-8 victory over West Salem/Bangor’s Teghan Moore to win the bracket.
Lancaster (39-4), ranked fifth by Wisconsin Grappler, came back from a 6-1 deficit to beat the third-ranked Moore (45-3).
“It started off tough because I gave up two takedowns early,” Lancaster said. “I just had to stick to my stuff and not let him keep getting his offense. I just had to continue wrestling through all positions.”
Third-ranked Nathan Henderson (35-4), also a freshman, pinned his way through the 120 bracket. He finished his day by pinning Sparta’s Pearce Mathison (30-17) in 1 minute, 23 seconds.
Second-ranked Turner Campbell (30-2), a senior, pinned his semifinal opponent before recording a 10-2 major decision over Marshfield’s Jon Sternweis (23-4) to win at 126.
Noah Henderson (33-10), a junior, won at 138 with a semifinal pin and 5-0 victory over West Salem/Bangor’s Jarett Plomedahl (30-17).
Holmen also received second-place finishes from Brock Needham (28-10, 132 pounds), AJ Alesch (16-6, 150), Colin Griffin (28-12, 157), Jonathon Lamprich (33-7, 165) and Abraham Henderson (19-8, 175).
Nolan Knapmiller (18-10, 144) and Jagger Jepson (8-6, 285) were third and Jin Xiong (10-8, 113) and Conner Degner (11-25, 215) fourth to round out the Vikings’ individual sectional qualifiers.
Those performances mean Holmen can go back to the dual focus it enjoys.
“We have a lot of depth that we can throw at people,” said Justin Lancaster, whose team last qualified for state in 2022. “We have a lot of pieces to our puzzle that we can add in where we need them.”
The Catbirds put six wrestlers in the finals, and half of them won.
The biggest finals matchup came when senior Trevor Arentz (44-8) won his 215-pond semifinal to earn a shot at Logan/Central fifth-ranked senior Jayden Delao (30-4) at 190. Arentz won that match when Delao was disqualified when the official determined that he slammed Arentz after a whistle for a stop to the action.
Junior Mason Chambers (36-11) won at 144 with a pair of pins and finished Marshfield’s Easton Ledden (34-12) at 4:32 in the final.
Senior Miles Olson (38-14) won at 215 with three pins. He took care of Marshfield’s Mason Frick (24-10) in 1:52 to win the bracket in his longest match of the day.
West Salem/Bangor also received second-place finishes from Moore at 106, Gavin Loging (26-19, 120), Plomedahl at 138 and Kaiden Stello (30-13, 285).
Jackson Roesler (33-7, 126), Justice Elam (30-13, 150) and Caden Anderson (37-14, 175) placed third and Peyton King (3-6, 132), Nick Griffin (25-14, 157) and Evan Smith (30-12, 165) fourth. King had one victory before the regional and won his quarterfinal bout.
“He went out there and won a huge match for us right away, and I think that made a hiuge difference in the team scores,” Brewer said of King. “He’s had less than 10 matches this year, but he’s a firecracker, and I know he can wrestle with anybody.”
LOGAN/CENTRAL: The city co-op will have three competitors at Eau Claire North’s sectional, and it is led by Delao, who came back from his championship loss to win a 15-0 technical fall over Eau Claire Memorial’s Maxwell Luis-Kohn (38-11) and put an exclamation point on a runner-up finish.
Delao also pinned his semifinal opponent to qualify for the title bout against Arentz.
Calvin Arentz (33-14, 165) finished third and Collin Wilson (24-19, 285) fourth for Logan/Central.
ONALASKA/LUTHER: The Hilltoppers received a third-place performance from Grady Dunnum (26-13, 215) to get their only sectional qualifier.
