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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – A short-handed Stevens Point Area Senior High squad made a move that possibly changed the outcome of its wrestling match with Marshfield.
Having to forfeit four matches, Stevens Point moved up its lineup and six of the final seven matches to outlast the Tigers 45-27 in a Wisconsin Valley Conference dual meet Thursday night at The Boson Company Fieldhouse at Marshfield High School.
Tristan Wilson earned a first-period pin at 285 pounds for Marshfield and the Tigers won the next four matches by forfeit to take a 24-12 lead. From there, SPASH decided to tinker with its normal lineup and move 126-pounder Joey Roth up to 138, and subsequently bumping the rest of its wrestlers up a weight.
Kolten Pope won by pin at 132, Roth followed with a pin at 138 and the Panthers won six of the final seven matches to take the dual meet and improve to 3-1 in the conference. Marshfield is now 1-4.
“They came in here with not a full team and moved all their guys up,” Marshfield coach Don Lang said. “They had two solid guys at 132 and slid the entire team up all the way up to 195 and we didn’t have an answer for that. It was a really good move on their part.”
Mitch Hertel won at 152 pounds for the Tigers’ only other win in a match that was wrestled.
Wilson, one of four Marshfield seniors to wrestle on Senior Night, dominated Spencer Shirek in the 285-poundmatch. He earned a takedown 49 seconds into the match and turned Shirek for a pin 41 seconds later to improve to 22-3 this season.
Other seniors Luke Mahoney won by forfeit at 126 and Phil Maquire lost the final match of the dual, getting pinning by Billy Duffert in 2:17.
The final senior wrestling on Thursday, Carsten Lovstad, was losing 7-5 with 35 seconds left in the 145-pound match when he and Stevens Point’s Fritz Schierl bumped heads as they dove in to make a move at the same time. Lovstad left with concussion symptoms and Schierl won by injury default.
“I really feel bad for Carsten,” Lang said. “He’s been improving so much this year. He goes out in every match and really goes after guys. He was having one of the matches of his life against a really good kid from Point, Fritz Schierl. For that to happen to the end of the third period, that was truly unfortunate.”
Marshfield will compete at the Freedom Invitational on Saturday and will wrap up its Wisconsin Valley Conference dual schedule next Thursday at Wausau East.
Stevens Point 45, Marshfield 27
195: Mitch Mallek (SP) pinned Cesar Ortega in 3:23.
220: Quinton Peters (SP) won by forfeit.
285: Tristan Wilson (M) pinned Spencer Shirek in 1:28.
106: Noah Gerdes (M) won by forfeit.
113: Double forfeit.
120: Anthony Kanable (M) won by forfeit.
126: Luke Mahoney (M) won by forfeit.
132: Kolten Pope (SP) pinned Devon Klement in 4:50.
138: Joey Roth (SP) pinned Trevor Smith in 2:44.
145: Fritz Schierl (SP) won by injury default over Carsten Lovstad.
152: Mitch Hertel (M) def. Dakota Kelz 9-1.
160: Tyler Engle (SP) def. Josh Lang 9-8.
170: Nate Engle (SP) pinned Jeremy Brost in 0:56.
182: Billy Duffert (SP) pinned Phil Maguire in 2:17.