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Jacob McGinnis made his name in the wrestling community a prominent one by finishing last season as a WIAA Division 1 state runner-up.

When your name is out there, things get more difficult, but the Tomah High School senior has adjusted very well.

McGinnis added to his reputation Saturday night by winning the 145-pound championship at the Bi-State Classic.

He beat Hudson’s Kyle Crain 13-9 in the finals to become his school’s first Bi-State champ since 1999, when Tyler Laudon won at 135 pounds.

“(Crain) is a really good thrower and shooter,” said McGinnis (18-1), who has similar strengths. “I just wanted to stay away from the throws. He got me with a few, but I was able to roll through them.”

McGinnis led the Timberwolves to a third-place finish in the 18-team Division 1 field.

Tomah coach Jeff Von Haden said McGinnis wrestled a smart match in the title bout.

“It was a good back-and-forth match,” Von Haden said. “Both kids made a lot of good moves, and Jacob just made a few more.”

McGinnis didn’t have a difficult match until the final. He pinned his first two opponents and then won 7-2 and 14-4 decisions in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

Betthauser runner-up

McGinnis was one of two Timberwolves who wrestled for a title. Kevin Betthauser reached the title match at 103 before losing a 9-1 decision to undefeated Dylan Kansier of North Crawford.

Kansier, last year’s 103 state champion in Division 3, controlled the match from the start and got two takedowns in the third period to seal the victory.

It was still a big tournament for Betthauser, a junior who emerged from the tournament with a 17-2 record. He scored pins in his first two bouts and then got a big 1-0 victory over La Crosse Logan’s Bill Lorenz in the semifinals. It was Lorenz’s first loss of the season.

“One of Kevin’s goals was to wrestle up on the stage for a championship,” Von Haden said.

Tomah’s next highest finisher was junior Ian Duncan, who placed sixth at 119. It was a very satisfying tournament for Duncan, who competed mostly at the jayvee level last season and didn’t wrestle at Bi-State.

“Ian put together a pretty good run Saturday by winning three matches in a row and almost had a chance to wrestle for third place,” Von Haden said.

Duncan (18-4) lost an overtime match that would have given him a shot at third place. He then lost the fifth-place match, 8-3, to Jason Raasch of Westby.

Nine from Tomah wrestled into the second day of the tournament; all but one scored a victory in at least one match.

Von Haden was very happy to see most of his wrestlers get multiple matches. The Timberwolves have wrestled just two duals since the Dec. 8 Tomah Scramble and were handed seven forfeits in the Dec. 20 match vs. Onalaska.

“It was a good meet for us to get lots of matches in and get us rolling into the January,” Von Haden said.