January 27, 2020 at 12:32 p.m.
RHS wrestlers finish sixth at Lumberjack Invite
RHS wrestlers finish sixth at Lumberjack Invite
The Hodags had nine wrestlers place in the top six of their respective weight classes in the 16-team Wausau East Lumberjack Invite Saturday in Wausau, which put the team in sixth place overall.
"As far as the wrestling goes, we had some kids step up and have some of their better days of the year, which got me excited," Ellenbecker said. "We won some good, close matches and we, as a whole, continued to move forward. That's all I can ask this year. I'm really proud of what we accomplished. We didn't have any champions, but it was a total team effort. That was the big thing to take out of it, that and mat time for our newer guys. Our more experienced kids all got good matches before the conference tournament and regionals."
The Hodags had a pair of runner-up finishes in the tournament from two of its ranked wrestlers. Walker Hartman and Trevor Knapp, both honorable mention in Division 1, got to the finals of the 170- and 195-pound weight classes, respectively.
Hartman recorded a pair of pins in pool play and then beat Stevens Point's Brett Johnson 10-0 to reach the finals at 170, where he fell to Tomah's Marques Fritsche by 5-1 decision.
"Walker has just been kind of plugging along all year. The kid that beat him for first place I think was a 40-win kid last year, state qualifier from Tomah. He's just coming back off an injury and a very solid kid," Ellenbecker said. "Walker has got to get a little bit more offense and once he does, he's wrestled the best kids in the state all year and he's right with them."
Knapp recorded three falls and a major decision on his way to the championship match where he ran into Brillion's Sam Galoff (No. 8, D3, 195) and was pinned in the second period.
"Trevor's getting so close. He hasn't won a tournament yet, but he's right there. I think he gets a little nervous before his finals match and I think he could have wrestled a little better, but he just kind of rushed things and forced things," Ellenbecker said. "Just being in the finals though, that's good experience for him for down the road because he's probably going to be there again come regionals and sectionals. He's got a good chance to."
Rhinelander's third ranked wrestler, Tim Fox, finished fifth in a loaded 113-pound bracket. In pool play, Fox lost by 4-2 decision to Winneconne's Ayden Hart (No. 5, D2, 113) and was pinned by the top-ranked 113-pounder in Division 1, Stevens Point's Justin Groshek. Fox wrestled back through the consolation bracket to earn a fifth-place finish.
"You don't find that many brackets that have that small of numbers but that many quality kids," Ellenbecker said. "That was his pool, three ranked guys in the same pool. That's how it works sometimes and you've got to continue to get better from it ... I'm proud of how he finished up."
Ben Sinclair won all three of his matches in pool play before getting pinned twice in the championship bracket to finish fourth at 220. Hugh Wiese (120) and Connor Lund (182) added fifth-place finishes for the Hodags while Tanner Schmidt (106), Cayden Neri (145) and David Schramke (285) all finished sixth in their brackets.
"Tanner Schmidt hurdled up a little bit," Ellenbecker noted. "He stepped his game up and wrestled the best he has all year at 106. He's a kid that had some bad habits over the years and starting to get rid of some of them. He's not quite there, physically, yet but he's learning how to wrestle and he had a couple of nice wins."
Rhinelander is back in action Thursday at home against Antigo. The winner of that match will sit third in the GNC heading into the conference tournament Feb. 8 in Medford.
"It would be really big for our program to knock off Antigo and send our seniors out the right way," Ellenbecker said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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