March 23, 2012 at 4:30 p.m.
Youth Sports Roundup: March 24, 2012
Youth wrestlers ready for state
Youth Sports Roundup: March 24, 2012
Cole Price, Dante Steinmetz, Tyler Olson, Jacob DeMeyer, Payton Hartman, Alex Kurtz and Kayia Shrader are representing the club.
"We have two first timers the rest are very seasoned," coach Mark Steinmetz said. "Those kids can go down there and hopefully place, which is always our goal. If we win state championships, that's great, but everything has to line up right for that."
Price and Shrader are the first time qualifiers. Price, a second grader, took first place in the boys' 2003-2004, 45 pound weight class. Shrader, a sixth grader, qualified with a runner-up finish in the girls' 1997-1999, 125-pound class.
The rest all have plenty of experience down in Madison. Dante Steinmetz, a fifth grader wrestling at 67 pounds, is a former state champion and four-time regional champion. Hartman, a seventh grader wrestling at 95 pounds, is making her third straight trip to state and looking for her third state championship. Kurtz, a sixth grader, wrestles at 125 pounds this year. He is making his fourth trip to Madison and looks to improve upon a third place finish last year. Olson, 75 pounds, and DeMeyer, 85 pounds, are both sixth graders making their fourth trip to state. Both finished fifth at state in 2010.
Competition began Friday evening and wraps up today.
"Our goal is just to win two matches, whether it's the first two or the first and the third," Mark Steinmetz said. "If you win your first two, you are a guaranteed placewinner. If you lose, you've got to wrestle back and it gets tough. It's a hard adjustment for those kids to wrestle Friday night, have a layover and wrestle again Saturday in the same tournament.
"As a team, four or five of these kids could easily place. Things have to go well and get good matchups. You never know what sort of matchup you will get down there."
The state tournament is the final meet of the season for the Rhinelander Wrestling Club, which had strong participation again this year.
"We had about 80 kids from kindergarten to eighth grade in the club this year," Steinmetz said. "Season highlights include taking third at Stratford. We competed [well] at basically every tournament, but that is the only one we placed at as a team. We wrestled 21 kids at regionals this year, that's a record number for us. Eleven of them placed in the top-four and seven of them are going to state. It's been a great year again."
Visit www.rivernewsonline.com and River News Sports on Facebook this weekend for results from the tournament. A recap of the meet will be published in next Saturday's Youth Sports Roundup page.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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