Kewaskum Wrestling Team Celebrates Two State Champions

The five qualifiers from the Kewaskum State Wrestling team, Carter Heimermann, Brayden Loehr, Eli Ogi, Ethan Immel, and Bryston Scoles, traveled to the Kohl’s Center in Madison on Feb. 26-28 for the WIAA State Individual Wrestling Tournament. After three days of competing against the best wrestlers from all over the state, Immel and Scoles were both able to secure a state championship title.
Senior Ethan Immel was the number one seed for the 144lb weight class. He earned his first state championship in 2025 at 138 and placed third in 2024 at 132. He entered the tournament with a 47-1 record this season. He earned his second state championship after winning his match against Dylan Weigel from Belmont-Platteville by decision 8-6. To get to the final round, he wrestled Drayk Nolan from Chilton/Hilbert, winning by decision 12-5, and Dodgeville’s Nathan Johnson, winning by decision 5-4. Immel ended his senior year with a 55-1 record, and he will continue his wrestling career at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
Junior, Bryston Scoles, was also the number one seed for the 157lb weight class. He had a perfect 44-0 record entering the tournament. This was his third year qualifying for the tournament, earning a second-place finish last year at 150 and a 3rd place finish in 2024 at 138. Scoles beat Murphy Beyer from Freedom High School in 3:10 by tech fall to win his first state championship place. On his way to the finals, he beat Carter Melichar from Port Washington in 1:59 by fall and Mason Chambers from West Salem/Bangor in 3:29 by tech fall 22-3.
Head Coach Scott Rhoads said, “Our state weekend was electric. So many hard-fought matches right down to the end. It’s very exciting to end with 2 individual state champions. We were the only D2 team to have 2 champions this season. It was the first time since 2011, and the only time in my era as head coach. Our state qualifiers have put in a lot of time and effort to earn these accomplishments, so I’m super proud of them all.”
Reflecting on the season as a whole and the team’s accomplishments, Rhoads said, “As a team, we finished with an awesome 14-6 overall record. We were so close to winning every one of the 6, only a match win away in every one of them.” The Kewaskum Wrestling Team finished with a second-place finish in the Glacier Hills Conference. The team was close to qualifying for team state, losing at the sectional meet to Port Washington. Rhoads said, “We struggled overall to find the best version of our line-up, where some people were bumping up and down to different weights, and up to the last moment, we were finding new backups for certain weights. Port Washington was able to defeat us by 1 team point, which they earned, and they moved on to team state.”
The wrestling team has 5 seniors graduating this year: Ethan Immel, Gabe Halopka, Xane Kleinke, Brayden Loehr, and Derek Trapp. Rhoads said, “I’m proud of the team overall, and we have a lot to look forward to in the future. With 20 sophomores in our roster, and 2 returning state qualifiers/one state champion, we’ll be bringing the competition right back next season.”