Joe Petherbridge and St. Croix Falls tied up the competition to win another wrestling sectional final on Saturday. – Courtesy photo
MEDFORD – A state runner-up finish could be followed with a state title for the St. Croix Falls boys wrestling team.
After finishing second last year to Luxemburg-Casco in the WIAA Division 2 state finals, the Saints earned a return trip to Madison by winning the team sectional at Medford on Saturday. They defeated Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm 75-5 in the semifinal then topped St. Croix Central 36-26 in the final.
“When you talk about dual meets, it’s all about the bottom seven of our lineup and it decides how you do in the tournament,” St. Croix Falls coach Joe Raygor said. “I think we are built for this sort of tournament. We’re built the right way.”
The Saints showed their dominance in the lopsided win over Chetek-Weyerhaeuser/Prairie Farm. Kaiden Hahn, 113, Carter Ridgeway, 120, Miles Kelly, 126, Jack Ryan, 138, Connor Weber, 150, Drake Petersen, 165, Joe Petherbridge, 215, and Logan Bockman, 285, earned wins by pin for St. Croix Falls while Isaac Briggs, 144, and Griffin Marko, 175, won by technical fall.
The sectional final was more challenging but still ended as a St. Croix Falls win.
Ridgeway and Petersen had wins by pin; Hahn, Marko and Petherbridge won by decision while Dominic Viebrock, 132, won by major decision and Briggs won by technical fall. Bockman added a win by disqualification.
The Saints join Coleman, Fennimore and Kewaskum at the team state final scheduled for March 8. Raygor and the Saints are at least somewhat familiar with those teams and know they won’t encounter the same team from last year’s state finals.
“We’ve seen Fennimore at the team state finals in the last five years, Coleman is always a perennial powerhouse and I think Kewaskum was at a tournament with us,” Raygor said. “Luxemburg-Casco got moved up a division and that was one of the best teams I’ve ever seen. They had nine kids place at the state tournament last year and I don’t think there’s a team that strong this year.”
The Saints also continued their streak of making every sectional final since 2017. They will learn which team they have in the state semifinal after this weekend’s WIAA individual state finals.
