Prep report: Smith makes fourth Wisconsin state title match

Northwestern’s Ian Smith will get his chance to wrestle for a second state championship at the Wisconsin state wrestling meet, but only after coming out on top in a sudden-victory situation against Blake Thiry of Prairie du Chien on Friday night at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Smith, the top seed in Division 2, 215 pounds, found himself in a tough situation against the fifth-seeded junior in the semifinals. After a scoreless first period, the only scoring in regulation time was a single escape point both ways.

The decisive move came quickly, as Smith scored the winning takedown just 21 seconds into overtime to claim the win and a berth in his fourth consecutive state championship match.

The win put Smith into Saturday’s championship match against Chase Matthias of Two Rivers, a rematch of the match in which he won his first state championship, at 195 pounds last year, in which Smith scored a late point to win 3-2. Smith met the same wrestler, Clayton Whiting of Oconto Falls, in title bouts in 2021 and 2022.

Smith successfully navigated his first hurdle to a state championship when he prevailed in a 13-4 major decision over Teige Perkins of Richland Center.

Northwestern’s Ivan Woodhull dropped his opening match at 126 points in a 6-0 decision to Michael Bostwick of Luxemburg-Casco, who went on to lose his next match, ending Woodhull’s tournament.

In the girls tournament on Thursday, Northwestern’s Adeline Pooler was pinned in 1:27 by Killian Kiernan of Muskego, which, after Kiernan lost her subsequent match, ended Pooler’s participation.

The finals session in which Smith is to wrestle Matthias is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The Agates held the host Raiders to just 17 points in the second half and claimed a 21-point road win on Friday night in Coleraine.

Jace Roberg scored 25 in the win, while Trevor Kleive and Jace Gomez finished with 14 and 13, respectively.

For Greenway, Gage Olson scored 25, but no other Raider scored more than six.

The Grizzlies overcame a small halftime deficit and knocked off the Bluestreaks on Friday in Chisholm.

Jonah Burnett scored 26 and Louie Panicci 23 for North Woods, which outscored Chisholm 43-38 in the second half of their closely contested duel.

Lawrence Oberg scored 22 for Chisholm, which had a half-court bid at the buzzer miss the mark.

The Bombers had three scorers in double figures as they cruised to victory on Friday night at home.

Barnum was already up 42-23 at halftime when it held the Vikings to just 13 second-half points. Meanwhile, Pierce Korpela and teammates had the offensive side of things covered. Korpela scored 19, while Carlos Beckstrand scores 12 and Hayden Charboneau 11.

The sixth-seeded Spartans got themselves into too big of a hole early on, and fell to the 11th-seeded Patriots at home in a Division 1 regional tournament opener on Friday night, Feb. 23.

Full stats were not yet available.

Senior forward Izzy Witz finished with 15 points as the Rebels took over the game in the second half on their senior night.

Madeline Volk added 11 for the Rebels, who trailed 25-20 at halftime.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.