For the City Times

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — The Wisconsin Rapids Youth Wrestling club will send 18 wrestlers to the WWF Kids Folkstyle State Championships March 25-26 in Madison.

Wrestlers competed for the opportunity to represent their programs at regionals hosted March 19-20, across the state.  Wrestlers placing in the top three of their bracket advanced to the state tournament.

“All the kids in our program work so hard throughout the year – pushing their partners in the practice room, continually improving as a group, being great teammates, and helping make each other better wrestlers,” said coach, Troy Freeman. “The result of that collective effort is getting 18 kids from our program to qualify for the state tournament. We’re fortunate to have such a wonderful group of wrestlers, coaches, families, and friends that make up our program.”

“I’m extremely proud of all the hard work and dedication these kids have put into this season,”added Coach Kevin Tritz. “We’re made it a goal to work hard as a team, which in turn has translated into individual kids having great success, too. We really do have a special group of kids and coaches this year.”

Qualifiers include: Zachary Stoflet (54), Caleb Stoflet (54), Bryce Vavrina, (54), Reed Akkerman (57), Dalton Jackson (60), Hazel Holden (65), Chad Hamel (69), Brett Bagnowski (70), Kelton Armagost (72), Wyatt Fuller (75), Jackson Freeman (76), Owen Reynolds (85), Luke Hamel (85), Deegan Armagost (88), Aspen Tritz (91), Jack Akkerman (100), Jacob Johnson (105), and Oakley Pluess (105).

The WWF Kids Folkstyle State Championships will be held March 25-26, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.

Results and live streaming video will be available on trackwrestling.com.