Monthly Archives: February 2011

A poem to inspire our high school athletes

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Poetry and sports rarely connect. But for all the athletes who are pushing themselves to their limits in this time of high school playoff action, there is one poem that may help you to find that inner strength you long to find.
We present Rudyard Kipling’s stirring poem, “If.”

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

St. Croix County becomes a wrestling hotbed on Saturday

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St. Croix County will become the hotbed of high school wrestling for western Wisconsin on Saturday.
Three WIAA regional tournaments will be held in St. Croix County on Saturday. New Richmond will be the site for a Division 1 regional tournament and Somerset and St. Croix Central will both host Division 2 regional meets on Saturday.
New Richmond can finally host larger tournaments because of the new gym at the high school, which has a much larger capacity than the old gym. Teams competing in the New Richmond regional include Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire Memorial, Eau Claire North, Hudson, Menomonie, New Richmond, River Falls and Superior. Quarterfinals are slated to begin at 10 a.m. Wrestling will take place on three mats, leaving room for more than 1,500 spectators.
Somerset has built a reputation for well-run tournaments and that’s a main reason Somerset hosts a regional or sectional meet almost every year. Teams competing in the Somerset meet include Amery, Luck/Frederic/Grantsburg, Osceola, St. Croix Falls, Somerset and Unity. The first session of wrestling in the regional is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
St. Croix Central moved up to Division 2 this year and it received a regional tournament right away. The teams competing in this regional are St. Croix Central, Ellsworth, Black River Falls, Baldwin-Woodville, Prescott, Melrose-Mindoro/G-E-T and Durand. Wrestling in the St. Croix Central regional is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class of the Division 1 regional will advance to the Marshfield Division 1 sectional meet on the following Saturday. The top two wrestlers in each class at St. Croix Central and Somerset will qualify for the Amery Division 2 sectional meet on Saturday, Feb. 19.
The team champion from the New Richmond regional will advance to the Division 1 team sectional meet, which will be held on Tuesday, Feb.15 in Chippewa Falls. The team champions from Somerset and St. Croix Central will take part in the Division 2 team sectional meet, which will be wrestled at Baldwin-Woodville on Tuesday, Feb. 15.

Previewing Saturday’s Middle Border Conference wrestling tournament

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When the 2011 Middle Border Conference Wrestling Tournament is held on Saturday, Ellsworth will again be the favorite to win the title.
There’s no surprise there. For the past quarter century, Ellsworth has been the closest thing to a lock that anyone could expect to win a conference title.
While it appears Ellsworth will win another MBC title, great weight class battles should abound in this year’s conference tournament.
There will be at least one state-ranked wrestler in every weight class, unless there are large shifts made from the patterns used by the MBC wrestling coaches this season. While that wouldn’t be a surprise, this is wrestling after all, it appears that most of the weight classes should have excellent competition.
The lightweight classes are no light weights this year. Both the 103- and 112-pound classes could have four or more ranked wrestlers, depending upon shifts made by coaches.
Here is a projection, based by weight class, on how the Middle Border Conference tournament will stack up.

103 pounds
The lowest weight class is loaded with talented. Ellsworth freshman Jens Lantz is ranked second in Division 2. Prescott’s Josh Farr is ranked sixth in D2 and Amery’s Keenan Luke is ranked tenth. New Richmond freshman Shane Blackman is ranked 13th in Division 1. Lantz beat Farr 2-1 when they wrestled earlier this season. Don’t be surprised to see them meet again in the finals, though Blackman is capable of getting there too.

112 pounds
Defending state champion Chad Bartschenfeld of Amery leads the class where four more state-ranked wrestlers could compete. Bartschenfeld is ranked first in Division 1, with Osceola’s John Olson ranked sixth, Somerset’s Bobby LeRoy ranked ninth and Ellsworth’s Brent Stockwell ranked 12th. This may be where Ellsworth’s depth comes into play. Ellsworth may move Brad Cain into the 112-pound class and have Stockwell bump up to 119.
Bartschenfeld is a lock for the title match. Olson and LeRoy will likely have another close battle to be the other finalist.

119 pounds
There are two ranked wrestlers in the conference at 119 pounds. Amery’s Connor Friese is ranked eighth and Osceola’s Mitch Dulon is ranked tenth. Don’t be surprised if Stockwell wrestles here for the conference tournament and don’t be surprised to see him in the finals.

125 pounds
Ellsworth’s Roarke Langer and Amery’s Kyle Larson area prohibited favorites to reach the finals. Langer is ranked second in Division 2 and Larson is ranked ninth.

130 pounds
Expect Baldwin-Woodville’s Zac Weyer to move down to 130 for the tournament. He’s ranked first in Division 1 at 135 pounds. His main competition will come from New Richmond’s Abe Anderson and Amery’s Mitch Nichols. Nichols is ranked eighth in Division 2 and Anderson is an honorable mention choice in Division 1.

135 pounds
With Weyer moving to 130, Somerset sophomore Gabe Flandrick becomes the favorite at 135 pounds. He’s ranked third in Division 2. Ellsworth’s Dan Langer has been coming on strong and had a good chance of reaching the finals.

140 pounds
The competition gets thick here, with three ranked wrestlers and several other quality kids. Baldwin-Woodville’s Tyler Weyer has to go in as the favorite. He’s ranked third in Division 2. Durand’s Andrew Hartman is ranked fifth and Ellsworth’s D.J. Yarwood is ranked sixth, based mostly off Hartman’s recent 6-5 win over Yarwood. Amery’s Eddie Benitez and New Richmond’s Jason Staples add depth to this class, though Staples may bump to to 135 to avoid this logjam.

145 pounds
Amery’s Gabe Paulson and New Richmond’s look like favorites to reach the finals here. Paulson is ranked second in Division 3 and Gartner is ranked 14th in Division 1.

152 pounds and 160 pounds
You can almost lump these two classes together, because Ellsworth’s Levi Keusel and Tanner Eggenberger are solid favorites in these classes. Their best competition will come from Amery’s Jared Nelson, who has missed a large part of the season but has been back in action the past few weeks. Somerset senior Trevor Bushinger could also be a factor at 152 pounds. New Richmond’s Tanner Turany is also 6-1 in MBC duals. He’s wrestled anywhere from 140 to 152, so he’ll likely be in contention too. Prescott’s Matt Pechacek could also be a contender in one of these classes.

171 pounds
Your best bet for the finals at 171 pounds is Ellsworth’s Noah McLay and Somerset’s Haydon Dvorak. New Richmond’s Grant Nelson is 6-1 in MBC duals, with his only loss coming against McLay, so he’s a threat too.

189 pounds
Ellsworth’s Parker Hines and New Richmond’s Cody Chouinard appear on a collision course to meet in the 189-pound finals. Hines is ranked fifth in Division 2. Chouinard is ranked 13th in Division 1 and has tearing up opponents lately.

215 pounds
Ellsworth’s Zach Reister is the only ranked wrestler in this class. He draws honorable mention ranking in Division 2. The best bet to face Reister in the finals is New Richmond senior Jorden Aufderhar.

285 pounds
The most clear-cut favorite in the conference is New Richmond senior Joel Neumann at 285 pounds. He’s ranked fourth in Division 1 and three of his four losses this season are against wrestlers who are ranked first in the three state divisions.