January 25, 2019 at 1:22 p.m.
Rhinelander grapplers fall to Antigo 49-21
Rhinelander grapplers fall to Antigo 49-21
The Hodags won only five of 12 contested bouts and fell to the Antigo Red Robins 49-21 at Sheldon Fieldhouse in Antigo.
With the help of three pins and a couple of forfeit victories, Antigo raced out to a 30-0 lead through the first five weight classes and never looked back.
"Antigo, it was a step up from Tomahawk. They impressed me," coach Nathan Piasecki said. "We went into this dual thinking we could make it happen and we just didn't. They came ready to wrestle, ready to win. Some of our better guys ran into their better guys ... We just didn't pull through."
Rhinelander finally got on the board with a couple of victories in the middleweights. Walker Hartman picked up a 10-3 decision over Joshua Huess in the 152-pound match and freshman Gavin Ostermann followed with a 13-7 decision over Jovanni Castaneda at 160.
"Walker wrestled great and won handily," Piasecki said. "He had an opportunity or two to put the guy on his back and just wasn't able to do it, but he was his typical self, showed a lot of heart and won a decisive match against a pretty good wrestler. (Gavin) fought through some very hairy positions, but he's consistently come out on top in these tough predicaments."
Connor Lund picked up an overtime victory for the Hodags at 195 pounds, defeating Brady VandeWeerd 8-6 with a takedown in the first sudden victory period.
"Connor, if he can get a guy into the third, now that he's getting into shape, he's very dangerous," Piasecki said. "He showed that against Lakeland. He showed that against Mosinee. Now he's showed it against a solid wrestler from Antigo."
Alex Olson and Tim Fox both picked up pins for Rhinelander. Olson stopped Antigo's Talik Bussey 1:11 into the heavyweight matchup. Fox pinned Seth Beaber 55 seconds into the 106-pound bout to move to 5-0 in GNC duals.
"I see a big change in Tim now that he's down to weight, getting his diet dialed in. He's working extra hard," Piasecki said. "I'm starting to see the Tim Fox everyone talks about. He's becoming a different athlete right now and that's really cool."
Rhinelander lost a couple of matches that went the full six minutes. Korbin Krueger earned a 12-3 major decision over Rhinelander's Eric Grulke at 170 points while Hugh Wiese was clipped by Connor Dettman, 9-8, at 113 in the final bout of the evening.
Antigo's win, coupled with Medford 38-22 win over Tomahawk put Antigo, Medford and Tomahawk in a three-way for first place in the GNC standings heading into next Saturday's conference meet in Medford. Rhinelander, which went 2-3 in the conference duals, sits in fourth place entering the conference tournament.
"We're going to have a good, hard week of training next week and it's going to be a fun conference tournament," Piasecki said. "We're a good tournament team. I know we have horses in our lineup that are ready to break through."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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