January 5, 2018 at 2:01 p.m.
Wrestling: 'Sluggish' Hodags fend off Lakeland
Wrestling: 'Sluggish' Hodags fend off Lakeland
The Hodags won only five of the 12 contested bouts, and needed the benefit of a pair of forfeit victories to get by Lakeland 42-30 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Those forfeits, worth six points each, proved to be the difference in the dual. All five matches Rhinelander won were via the pin, but the Hodags lost four decisions and were pinned in three other matches.
"(Lakeland) came out, competed and got after us and we didn't," Ellenbecker said. "I don't know, it might be a hangover (from the Northern Badger). We didn't have a good week of practice. I think we overlooked them a bit, truthfully. All week long it was really sluggish and we've got a lot of kids who have a long ways to go, obviously."
Rhinelander trailed 21-18 with six bouts remaining until going on an 18-0 run that ultimately decided the match.
Sophomore Hunter Greyhair needed only 19 seconds to stop Henry Evenhouse at 182 pounds, Alec Kurtz received a forfeit at 195 and Colton Krueger pinned Noah Wingo in 46 seconds at 220 to give Rhinelander a 36-21 lead. A second-period pin by Tim Fox two matches later at 106 clinched the dual for Rhinelander.
"Hunter is an explosive athlete that is coming into his own," Ellenbecker said of Greyhair, whose match turned the tied for the Hodags.
Rhinelander's only other wins on the evening came via second-period pins by seniors Tyler Olson (132) and Jacob DeMeyer (160).
After Rhinelander's Isabella Anderson took a forfeit win at 120, the feature match of the night opened the dual at 126 pounds. Lakeland's Dejay Nordrum, ranked seventh in Division 2 in the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online rankings, battled Rhinelander's Reuben Guzik, who bumped up a weight class after receiving honorable mention in D1 at 120. Nordrum led most of the way, and got a pair of third-period takedowns, to secure a 10-5 decision.
"I was a little disappointed with Reuben's movement," Ellenbecker said. "He didn't wrestle with the same intensity. He looked slow. He looked stagnant. He's usually a better wrestler on his feet, but he didn't sprawl. He didn't wrestle a good match tonight."
None of the close matches went Rhinelander's way. Eric Grulke was taken down late in the 145-pound bout and eventually lost to Jason Hilgart in overtime, 9-7. Trevor Knapp fell to Delsin Fleming 5-2 in the heavyweight bout and Walker Hartman didn't have enough offense to beat Lakeland's Jack Scandin at 138, falling 10-3.
"We weren't very aggressive," Ellenbecker said. "All the guys who should have won did. All the matches that should have been contested, we didn't put up a fight and Lakeland took it to us tonight."
Alex Monk, Scott Fox and Will Swanson were all pinned for Rhinelander.
The Hodags are trying to regain the conference crown after losing it to Medford last season. The Raiders cleared a big hurdle on Thursday, with a 40-21 home win over Antigo. Rhinelander lost to both Medford and Antigo in dual meets last year and Ellenbecker warned his team the pattern could repeat itself.
"We've got to work harder in practice and start getting our average Joes wrestling average to above average," he said. "Right now, it looks a lot like last year's team that fell apart without our big dogs winning. I thought we were better than that, but we are how we wrestle and we didn't look good tonight and we didn't do a good job. Hopefully we're better than that the rest of year."
The Hodags will host Mosinee in another GNC dual Tuesday at the Miazga Gym.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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