By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

EAU CLAIRE – Marshfield senior Mitch Hertel and junior Josh Lang qualified for next week’s state tournament after finishing second at the WIAA Division 1 individual wrestling sectional Saturday at Eau Claire North High School.

The top two finishers in each weight class at the sectional qualified for the 2015 WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison on Feb. 26-28.

Hertel suffered his first loss of the season, falling 7-5 to Sawyer Massie (41-3) of Hudson in the championship match at 160 pounds. Hertel (26-1) was forced into a second-place wrestleback and defeated Caleb Neumann of New Richmond 9-4 to earn a spot at state. Hertel will be making his third trip to state.

Lang (29-5) lost to undefeated Mason Stokke (40-0) of Menomonie in the 195-pound championship match and also had to come back with a wrestleback. Lang pinned Wausau East’s Alex Stine in 3:33 to grab a slot in the state tournament for the first time in his career.

Marshfield had five other wrestlers compete at the sectional after finishing in the top three at last week’s regional, however, none reached the semifinals. Anthony Kanable (126 pounds), Jeremy Brost (152), Brandon Cramer (220), Nic Humphrey (285) and Devon Klement (145) were eliminated early.

Brackets for the state tournament will be announced Sunday.

(Hub City Times Sports Reporter Paul Lecker is also the publisher of MarshfieldAreaSports.com.)

2015 WIAA Division 1 Individual Wrestling Sectional
Feb. 21, at Eau Claire North High School
(Note: top two finishers qualify for WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament in Madison, Feb. 26-28. If the winner of the third-place match had not already wrestled the second-place finisher, the two took part in a wrestleback to determine the true second-place finisher).
106 pounds
Championship: Mason Phillips (Eau Claire North) def. Brady Koontz (Stevens Point) 9-4.
Second-place wrestleback: Koontz (SP) def. Drew Klabon (Hudson) 9-3.
Third place: Klabon (HUD) pinned Joey Ford (Menomonie) in 4:21.
113 pounds
Championship: Dylan Koontz (Stevens Point) pinned Jacob Anderson (Hudson) in 5:44.
Third place: Manning Denk (D.C. Everest) pinned Frank Lor (Wausau West) in 3:37.
120 pounds
Championship: Devon Schultz (Merrill) def. Chance Bailey (Stevens Point) 7-3.
Third place: Tyler Deacon (Eau Claire North) def. Dylan Kadlec (Menomonie) 6-0.
126 pounds
Championship: Hayden Schlough (Menomonie) def. Jacob DeMeyer (Rhinelander) 3-0.
Third place: Bryce Younger (New Richmond) def. Ryan Ponick (Chippewa Falls) 8-3.
132 pounds
Championship: Scott Arneson (Merrill) won by major dec. over Matt Koski (Hudson) 16-6.
Second-place wrestleback: Koski (Hudson) pinned Nolan White (D.C. Everest) in 0:45.
Third place: White (D.C. Everest) def. Seth Leavens (New Richmond) 8-4.
138 pounds
Championship: Yuri Bronson (Hudson) won by major dec. over Justin Peterson (Eau Claire North) 10-2.
Second-place wrestleback: Peterson (Eau Claire North) def. Tyler Hall (Stevens Point) 7-4.
Third place: Hall (Stevens Point) def. Hunter Welch (Merrill) 6-4, OT.
145 pounds
Championship: Joe Ziolkowski (D.C. Everest) def. Logan Schlough (Menomonie) 3-1, OT.
Second-place wrestleback: Schlough (Menomonie) pinned Alex Reas (Rhinelander) in 5:36.
Third place: Reas (Rhinelander) pinned Dakota Kelz (Stevens Point) in 3:23.
152 pounds
Championship: Fritz Schierl (Stevens Point) def. Derek Dowd (New Richmond) by injury default.
Third place: Michael Phillips (Wausau West) def. Tracy Jensen (Eau Claire Memorial) 6-2.
160 pounds
Championship: Sawyer Massie (Hudson) def. Mitch Hertel (Marshfield) 7-5.
Second-place wrestleback: Hertel (Marshfield) def. Caleb Newmann (New Richmond) 9-4.
Third place: Neumann (New Richmond) def. Joey Roth (Stevens Point) by forfeit.
170 pounds
Championship: Mason Reinhardt (Merrill) won by major dec. over Dylan Anderson (Hudson) 12-1.
Third place: Ross Kennelly (Superior) def. John Keifer (New Richmond) 11-5.
182 pounds
Championship: Hunter Dahlby (Eau Claire North) def. Josh Waddell (Menomonie) 3-2, OT.
Third place: Othayun Smith (Eau Claire Memorial) pinned Trent Goplin (Hudson) in 3:05.
195 pounds
Championship: Mason Stokke (Menomonie) def. Josh Lang (Marshfield) 7-0.
Second-place wrestleback: Lang (Marshfield) pinned Alex Stine (Wausau East) in 3:33.
Third place: Stine (Wausau East) def. Matthew Williamson (River Falls) 8-1.
220 pounds
Championship: Max Gierke (Hudson) def. Noel Winch (Stevens Point) 12-8.
Third place: Austen Hakes (River Falls) def. Berkley Corvino (D.C. Everest) 16-10.
285 pounds
Championship: Isac Schindler (Hudson) pinned Nathan Tessmer (Wausau West) in 3:08.
Third place: issac Nuutinen (Menomonie) pinned David Hennessey (River Falls) in 5:13.