MCDONALD'S SWNEWS4U.COM GAME OF THE WEEK (Dec. 5–Dec. 12)
PREP WRESTLING: D2 #2 Prairie du Chien 33, D3 #2 Iowa–Grant/Highland 32

By Derick Kelly, Courier Press

PdC wrestling shocks Iowa-Grant/Highland with another stunning comeback to win Dual in the Dells title

WISCONSIN DELLS — The Prairie du Chien and Iowa-Grant/Highland wrestling programs faced off against each other this past Saturday, Dec. 9 for the second time in the last eight days, as the two teams each advanced to the first place match of the 2023 Duals in the Dells Tournament at the Woodside Sports Complex Dome in Wisconsin Dells. 

The Hawks opened up the dual format tournament (formerly known as the Devils Duals) with an opening round match against the Manawa Wolves and Prairie came away with an 84-0 victory in large part thanks to the Wolves forfeiting 12 of the 14 weight classes to the Hawks. Picking up wins via pinfall in the two matches that were wrestled in the dual were Porter Kossman in 41 seconds over Manawa’s Isaiah Schuelke in the 120-pound weight class, and Blake Thiry in 21 seconds over Kaiden Law in the 285-pound weight class. With the win, Thiry became the 20th wrestler in program history to win at least 100 matches in their career.

With the win over Manawa, the Hawks moved into the championship bracket and a date with sectional rival Evansville. The Hawks came away with wins in 11 of 14 matches as they defeated the Blue Devils 57-13. Picking up wins for Prairie in the match were Kossman, Brady Baumgartner, Mason Hird, Drake Ingham, Mason Baumgartner, Jackson Perkins, Bryce Lenzendorf, Jeremiah Avery, Jack MacEachern, and Hunter Reid.

The Hawks then next faced Shiocton, the 2023 WIAA Division 3 state runner-up, in a rematch from last year’s Devils Duals semifinal round which was won by Prairie 57-13. Shiocton came out with wins via pinfall in the first two matches to take an early 12-0 lead.

Mason Hird got the Hawks going with a win via pin of Shiocton’s Jackson Young in the 132-pound match in 1:58. Ingham followed up with a 16-1 technical fall victory over Scott Daniels at 138 pounds to make the score 12-11 in favor of the Chiefs before M. Baumgartner pinned Zach  Reif in 58 seconds to give the Hawks a 17-12 lead after five matches.

Shiocton answered with two wins in a row as  Jason Jahnke defeated Perkins 5-0 at 150 pounds, before Blake Carton held off Drew Hird by a score of 3-2 as Shiocton retook the lead 18-17. The Hawks used a pin by Lenzendorf in the 165-pound match and a forfeit victory by Avery at 175 pounds to give the Hawks the lead for good at 29-18.

The Chiefs got a pinfall victory in 4:31 by Illjah Sanchez at 195 pounds over MacEachern to cut down the Hawks lead to 29-24. However, that would be the last match that Shiocton would win during the dual as PdC would collect pinfall victories from Thiry, Jack Simmons, Reid, and Brylee Brewer to earn a 53-24 victory.

The victory put Prairie Wrestling in the semifinals against Division 1 power (and the fifth 2023 state qualifying team in the last six teams that the Hawks had faced) Muskego.

The Warriors got on the scoreboard first with a win in the 126-pound as Cael Zelinski defeated B. Baumgartner via pinfall in 23 seconds. M. Hird and Ingham responded with pins in the next two matches  to give the Hawks a 12-6 lead going into the 144 pound match. The Warriors managed to tie the match up with wins via decision in the 144 and 150-pound weight classes before Prairie’s Drew Hird  earned a 3-2 win over Muskego’s Cole Reid in the 157-pound match to give the Hawks a 15-12 lead that they never relinquished. Pinfall victories by Lenzendorf and Avery  extended the score to 27-12 in Prairie’s favor before the Warriors’ Ryker Morgan defeated MacEachern 16-1 for a technical fall the make it 27-17. 

The Hawks got victories from Thiry, Simmons, Reid, and Brewer before Muskego earned one final win at 120-pounds to make the final score 49-23 in favor of Prairie.

Iowa-Grant/Highland opened up the first place match with victories in each of the first seven matches. However, the first five of those seven victories were kept to major decisions (4 team points each) as opposed to technical fall (5 points) or pin fall (6 points) to make the score 32-0 in favor of the Panthers.

With no room for error, Prairie Wrestling got things going when Jeremiah Avery bumped up to 190-pounds to face I-G/H’s Gavin Hinderman, who had pinned MacEachern in last week’s dual meet at Iowa-Grant. Avery made the move pay off as he defeated Hinderman 8-2 to give the Hawks their first win of the meet and made the score 32-3.

The Hawks’ comeback attempt was now on as Prairie earned pin fall victories by Thiry, Simmons, and Reid, and a forfeit victory  by Brewer to make the score 32-27 with two matches to go.

In a rematch at 120 pounds between Kossman and I-G/H’s Lucas Christiansen (a match that Christiansen won last week via fall in 1:21), Kossman overcame a 3-0 deficit in the first period to earn a 4-3 victory thanks to two penalties on Christianson in the final 40 seconds of the match. Kossman’s victory made the score 32-30 with the last match of the dual remaining.

Brady Baumgartner took on Max Kelley at 126-pounds to wrap up the meet and tournament with the winner of the match determining the champion. Baumgartner scored an early takedown in the first period and held a 2-0 into the second period when Kelley tied it up with a takedown of his own early in the period. The score remained tied 2-2 up until 15 seconds remaining in the period when Kelley picked up a three-point near fall over Baumgartner to take a 5-2 lead before Baumgartner reversed it and got a near fall of his own with just 4 seconds left in the period to retake the lead 6-5.

Baumgartner opened up the third period with an escape and a takedown to extend his lead to 9-5 with 1:40 left in the match before he was hit with two stalling penalties that gave Kelley two points and made the score 9-7 with 27 seconds left. Kelley was able to reverse Baumgartner with 14 seconds left to tie the match up and send it to overtime tied 9-9.

Overtime began with the next points by either wrestler determining the match, the dual meet, and the tournament championship. Baumgartner managed to take down Kelley in overtime to claim a 11-9 victory, and seal a 33-32 dual victory and the 2023 Duals in the Dells Tournament Championship. To the best of my knowledge, the 32-point comeback victory is not just the largest come from behind victory in Prairie Wrestling, but is also the largest comeback win in Prairie du Chien High School history.

Next up for Prairie Wrestling is a meet at Holmen on Thursday before returning home on Friday, Dec. 15 to host Caledonia/Houston (MN) in their home opener.

2023 Duals in the Dells
(from Saturday, Dec. 9 @ Woodside Wiconsin Dells Center Done)
Championship — Prairie du Chien 33, Iowa–Grant/Highland 32.
Semifinals — Prairie du Chien 49, Muskego 23; Iowa–Grant/Highland 34, Freedom 31.
Championship Match
Prairie du Chien 33,  Iowa–Grant/Highland 32
132: Hunter Stevens (IGH) over Mason Hird (PdC) Maj 12–0. 138: Elliott Biba (IGH) over Drake Ingham (PdC) Maj 22–13. 144: Brock Hinderman (IGH) over Mason Baumgartner (PdC) Maj 8–0. 150: Jackson McGuire (IGH) over Jackson Perkins (PdC) Maj 12–0. 157: Tyson Imhoff (IGH) over Drew Hird (PdC) Maj 10–1. 165: Jaxon Busse (IGH) over Bryce Lenzendorf (PdC) Inj 0:10. 175: Emmerson Moen (IGH) over Stanislav Kulchytskyy (PdC) Fall 1:03. 190: Jeremiah Avery (PdC) over Gavin Hinderman (IGH) Dec 8–2. 215: Blake Thiry (PdC) over Bode Brokopp (IGH) Fall 1:19. 285: Jack Simmons (PdC) over Bronson Mchone (IGH) Fall 5:19. 106: Hunter Reid (PdC) over Aiden Silvers (IGH) Fall 0:32. 113: Brylee Brewer (PdC) won by forfeit. 120: Porter Kossman (PdC) over Lucas Christiansen (IGH) Dec 4-3. 126: Brady Baumgartner (PdC) over Max Kelley (IGH) SV-1 11–9.