December 7, 2020 at 8:15 a.m.
Team preview: RHS wrestling
Team preview: RHS wrestling
The team is down on wrestlers, down on matches and trying to cobble together what it can in a very uncertain season.
"It's going to be an interesting year," Ellenbecker said. "We're just going to do the best we can and try to make it fun."
The Hodags were hoping to make a push back toward the top of the Great Northern Conference this year and were optimistic, considering three wrestlers who placed in the top three in the WIAA sectional round a season ago were set to return. But the team has been hit hard by the injury bug, lingering from the recently completed RHS football season.
The biggest loss is that of senior Walker Hartman, who was the GNC champ at 170 pounds last year and barely missed a trip to the WIAA state meet. A knee injury sustained during a football game Nov. 6 will likely cost Hartman his entire season.
"It really sucks for Walker, a kid that put everything into it and then basically have his senior year taken away," Ellenbecker said. "I don't think it was a matter of a shot at the state tournament as much as where was he going to place."
Rhinelander also lost upper weights Joe Fugle and Conner Jensen to separate hand injuries that occurred late in the football season. Ellenbecker said neither of those two are expected to be back in the lineup until sometime after the Christmas break.
Leading the charge for the Hodags this year will be the team's two returning state qualifiers - seniors Tim Fox and Ben Sinclair. Fox was 32-9 overall last year and made it to state at 113 pounds. Ellenbecker said Fox has looked strong so far in practice and has benefitted from an addition to the Hodags' coaching staff, Scotty Arneson, the son of former Rhinelander state champion and longtime Merrill head coach Scott Arneson.
"For his size and strength, he's right up there with anyone in the state," Ellenbecker said of Fox. "He's really attacking this year and doing a great job. We're fortunate enough to add another coach, a lightweight coach like coach Arneson, who's up here now working really hard with him. He's really getting better too. I really hope he's able to showcase it at a state level so that other people can see the progress and how good of a wrestler that he is. I think Timmy wants to go out on the mat and show people how good he is."
Sinclair, meanwhile, came on toward the end of last season and posted a 31-16 record before bowing out in the first round of the WIAA state tournament at 220 pounds.
"Ben trusts himself. This year, being a senior and having the confidence of making it (to state last year), he's a guy that, in a normal year, would have been probably getting close to 35-40 wins," Ellenbecker said. "It's unfortunate we won't get that many matches, but if we have regionals, sectionals, state, he's going to be right in the hunt again."
The Hodags also add a freshman with plenty of promise in Owen Kurtz, the brother of Alec Kurtz, who placed third in the state at 195 pounds in 2018. The younger Kurtz comes in with plenty of experience between the middle school and youth levels, and Ellenbecker said he has the talent to make an impact in the upper weights immediately, despite going up against kids two to three years older.
"Physically and mentally (he's ready)," Ellenbecker said. "He's one of the most coachable, humble kids that you can be around. The sky's the limit for Owen as a freshman. He's fortunate to have Ben to work with every day up here too ... Owen's got a really bright future."
The Hodags are hoping for more out of lightweight Hugh Wiese, who's entering his third year of wrestling, while Cayden Neri and Cole Lehman showed some flashes as first-year wrestlers a season ago. The challenge, Ellenbecker said, given the lack of offseason training and a shortened schedule, is his newer wrestlers lose, for the most part, a year of development.
"They're not going to get the matches. They're going to get practice, but practice only gets you so far," he said.
At this point, the Hodags have only six meets for certain on their schedule, beginning Thursday night at home against Antigo. The team has its five duals against the rest of the GNC as well as the GNC tournament Jan. 23 in Mosinee. Currently, the WIAA is stipulating that matches only be dual meets and that there be at least six days between matches. That takes away the Saturday non-conference invitationals where the teams get the majority of their matches.
Ellenbecker said there is talk among the GNC coaches of extending each individual dual meet to include a number of exhibition bouts simply to give wrestlers more matches, but details of how to accomplish that were still in the works as of press time.
"The dual meet scores are going to be what they are," he said. "In reality, we're going to have forfeits this year because of everything going on. Other schools are going to have forfeits going on. At the end of the night, if we can get Timmy Fox and some of these seniors matches, that to me is going to be the most important thing."
The WIAA is still hopeful it will hold a tournament series at the end of January and early February, should guidance regarding wrestling, considered to be one of the highest-risk sports in terms of potentially transmitting the COVID-19 virus, be eased later this winter. All wrestlers will be required to wear masks during GNC events.
"The whole thing about this year is to try to provide the best opportunity we can for the kids and know that a little less of a wrestling season is better than no wrestling season," Ellenbecker said. "We're going to keep following the safety procedures, moving forward with that."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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