Kewaskum’s Wrestling Season Ends in Team State Heartbreaker

Unable to force a different outcome than last year, the Kewaskum boys’ wrestling team lost the semifinal dual to the eventual Division 2 champions, Saint Croix Falls, at the WIAA Team State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday morning, March 8 at the UW-Fieldhouse in Madison.
In 2024, Kewaskum lost to Luxemburg-Casco in the semifinal of their first appearance at Team State, then Luxemburg-Casco beat Saint Croix Falls to win Division 2.
Saint Croix Falls returned the same as Kewaskum, each ready for redemption, but Saint Croix Falls proved to be tougher than the Indians.
To “try and stretch out our talent,” Kewaskum bumped some wrestlers up in weight like Scoles, who kicked off the semifinal dual at 165 with a win by fall in 2:29.
From there, Kewaskum was quickly overpowered and lost the next seven matches.

Brent Krejcarek got the team back on track when he won by an 11-8 decision at 126.
Another match was lost following Krejcarek’s win, but Jack Brucker (138), Brayden Loehr (144), Ethan Immel (150), and Kage Weseman (157) won the final four matches. However, it was too little, too late for Kewaskum who lost 43-32.
Head Coach Scott Rhoads, who has now completed 10 seasons coaching for Kewaskum, said, “Everything went to plan; we just had a couple of matches that didn’t really go the way we expected them to.”
Individual State Reflection
Rhoads said “it was awesome” to have two individuals, junior Ethan Immel and sophomore Bryston Scoles, make it to the finals this year. “That doesn’t happen all the time,” he added.
While Scoles lost his championship match, Rhoads said it shouldn’t be underrated. “That was a returning state champion (Owen Seffrood); both of them were undefeated. It was an amazing match.”
Immel became the state champion in Division 2 at 138.
Rhoads was overall impressed and said they had phenomenal seasons, with only one loss each. He is also grateful to have them returning next season, including the other four young qualifiers (Loehr, Weseman, Eli Ogi, and Heimerman).
Looking Ahead
Kewaskum will only be saying farewell to one senior and that is Brent Krejcarek. He finished his last season with a 17-10 record at 126, fighting through some knee issues this year.
Rhoads mentioned there are already rumblings amongst the wrestling community that because most of the team is returning there are high hopes for them to be state champions next year. They had already repeated many of the same accomplishments this season as last season.
He is also expecting a good group of eighth graders that may make it a 30-35 person team.
“The same way I talk to my team, we aren’t going to get too far ahead of ourselves with thinking we are going to be state champions because we have a lot of work to do between now and then.
Rhoads’ final thoughts are “you really can’t ask for more” in terms of the last two seasons and how successfully they have played out. “It is unbelievable news and history made for Kewaskum to be doing what they are doing.”