February 13, 2017 at 3:26 p.m.
Hodags advance seven wrestlers to sectionals
Hodags advance seven wrestlers to sectionals
The Hodags' run of three straight Great Northern Conference championships came to an end last week after the team placed second at the conference tournament, but head coach Paul Ellenbecker said immediately after the meet that their attention would turn to the individuals and the goal was to continue to advance as many wrestlers as possible.
Rhinelander did just that at the Division 1 Region 2 tournament on Saturday at Merrill High School, qualifying seven wrestlers for sectionals, with three champions, while finishing second to Marshfield as a team.
"We have some high performing individuals on this team and it showed," Ellenbecker said. "When you look at the places, we had six guys in the top two and a third. We did pretty well at the individual level and it was a lot of fun competing against the (Wisconsin) Valley (Conference). Taking second overall, I don't know what our highest regional placing was, but I'm sure placing second's the highest we've placed in regionals in 20-plus years."
After winning the conference tournament at 152 pounds, Jacob DeMeyer was back at his normal weight of 145, and he remained undefeated on the season.
DeMeyer pinned his first two opponents before defeating Bergh Diebel of Wisconsin Rapids - the ninth ranked wrestler in the state - by major decision in the finals, priming him for next week and another run to the state tournament.
"Jacob has never won a match down at the state tournament so just getting there is going to be the first thing," Ellenbecker said. "It's not going to be easy next week. He's going to have the Marshfield kid in the second round, if he makes it that far. Just to beat the kid from Rapids, who had one loss going in, and to dominate the match like he did, just shows what Jacob is capable of."
Alec Bess had a nice bounce back tournament after placing second the week before at the conference tournament.
Bess didn't need to wrestle very long to win the 160-pound bracket. In total, his two matches lasted two minutes.
In the semifinals, Bess pinned Michael Olson of Wausau West in 57 seconds, before pinning No. 10-ranked Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann of Marshfield in 1:04 in the finals.
"He really took it to the Marshfield kid, cradled him up and pinned him pretty quick and that was a quality, quality kid," Ellenbecker said. "When Alec's rolling, he can beat anybody and he was rolling this weekend. He's confident and he should be, because he's got a great opportunity to wrestle at the state tournament this year."
Alec Kurtz continued his success at 182, pinning his first two opponents before beating Jordan LaRue of Wausau West in the finals, 8-4.
Kurtz has just five losses this season and looks to advance to the state tournament next week.
"A big comeback win for Alec considering he lost to [LaRue] earlier in the year and didn't wrestle very well and beat two guys he had decent matches with earlier," Ellenbecker said. "Alec's tough. He's got to get himself going this time of the year and he's putting himself in position to make the state tournament. He did what we knew he was capable of."
Colton Krueger opted to drop a weight class for this tournament after wrestling 220 and 285 all season, in hopes of reaching the state tournament at 195.
Krueger reached the finals, but suffered his first loss of the season to D.C. Everest's Sam Stroik in 58 seconds.
The loss didn't appear to concern Ellenbecker too much and he believes Krueger can bounce back next weekend.
Reuben Guzik placed second at 113, while Tyler Olson also finished second at 120 and Eric Grulke earned a third place finish at 138 to advance to sectionals.
Ellenbecker believes that all seven of his Hodags have a crack at qualifying for the state meet.
"You win your first match and you're in a four-man bracket and two go," Ellenbecker said. "I think we put ourselves in position. The seven guys that are there all have winnable first round matches. If they win that first match, then there's four guys and two spots. From there it's 50-50. You've got to beat good wrestlers and we've beaten a lot of good wrestlers this year."
The Division 1 sectional takes place this Saturday at River Falls High School.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @SabatoNick.
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