January 31, 2020 at 1:52 p.m.
Antigo beats Rhinelander 48-27 in third-place GNC battle
Antigo beats Rhinelander 48-27 in third-place GNC battle
The Hodags won only three of the 11 contested bouts and fell to the Red Robins 48-27 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Both teams were 2-2 in conference duals heading into Thursday's finale. Antigo moved into third outright with the win while Rhinelander will enter next Saturday's GNC meet in Medford in fourth position.
"They wrestled well. We wrestled well. It was a good dual," Hodag coach Paul Ellenbecker said. "They're just a little better than us, have a few more seniors than us. I was pretty impressed with how both teams wrestled. It was a fun dual to watch, entertaining dual, back-and-forth matches, close matches, some upsets and that's why you come to the duals."
The Hodags trailed 33-15 with five bouts remaining, but some of their best wrestlers yet to compete. However the team's hopes at a dual meet win were essentially dashed when Josh Heuss stunned Walker Hartman with a four-point move in the final seconds of the third period to defeat Hartman 7-5 in the 170-pound bout. Tied 3-3 late, Hartman hit a takedown to take the lead and tried to put Huess to his back, but Huess was able to gain control and put Hartman to his back instead for the stunning result.
"That's what happens when a kid's overmatched, he wants to keep the match close and, at the end, if he can hit points (great)," Ellenbecker said. "Walker hit a beautiful headlock, but (Heuss) rolled through, perfect timing on it, and did a good job countering the move. His four-point move at the end, he hit a Gramby after Walker got a takedown. Very smart, defensive wrestling on his part. He executed his plan and Walker's fine. He'll be OK. It's a good match for him to know that you always better be ready to go. If you're better than the kid, push the tempo, get some stallings, help yourself out."
A forfeit win by Connor Lund at 182 and a pin by Trevor Knapp at 195 got the Hodags within 36-27, but Antigo clinched the dual as Nick Roller, ranked No. 6 in Division 2 at 220 pounds, needed only 20 seconds to pin David Schramke.
A forfeit win for Tanner Schmidt at 106 and a pin by Tim Fox at 113 gave Rhinelander a quick 12-0 lead in the dual, but it was pretty much all Antigo from there. Hugh Wiese (knee) was out of the lineup for the Hodags and without his usual 120-pounder, Ellenbecker said his ability to play with the lineup to get the best matchups was limited.
"We knew we were kind of in trouble right away when Hugh Wiese was out with an injury," he said. "That kind of set us back and gave them points that we potentially could have had. We knew it would be a close match. They had everybody in the lineup tonight, which definitely helped them and hurt us."
Antigo won the next four matches to take a 21-12 lead. Rhinelander's closest call game at 126 where Cole Lehman rallied back from down 6-0 in the third period against Sam Hoffman, hitting a five-point move to close within 6-5. He allowed Hoffman to escape, and tried to go for the match-tying takedown, but Hoffman got the takedown in the final seconds instead to beat Lehman, 9-5.
"Cole Lehman lost his match, but he had a chance with the kid on his back to get a pin," Ellenbecker said. "Cole's been sick all week and to go out there and compete like he did, them guys deserve a lot of credit, them new kids. They're doing the best they can and we're getting better, and that's all you can ask."
Rhinelander briefly stopped the run with a wild win at 145 pounds. Cayden Neri found himself trailing Robbie Hagerty 9-4 in the third period. A couple of takedown/escape exchanges cut the lead to 11-8 before Neri hit a takedown and was awarded a penalty point for stalling by Hagerty to tie the match at 11 and send the match to overtime. Neither wrestler scored in the sudden victory session, but Neri took control with an escape and a takedown in the first overtime session and went on to win, 19-12.
"He just goes. The whole time he's always wrestling hard, and always gives himself a chance," Ellenbecker said. "He just wrestles like a wild animal out there the whole time and Cayden, you just hope he comes out on top at the end, but his heart and effort can't be questioned. Just awesome effort by Cayden in that match."
Rhinelander also appeared to be in position to take the heavyweight class as Ben Sinclair led Talik Bussey 6-0 in the second period but Bussey, weighing roughly 90 pounds more than Sinclair who was wrestling up a weight class, got a takedown and pin with 44 seconds remaining in the second period.
"Usually you get the kid on their back you're going to get the pin at heavyweight. Ben didn't finish him. He had him, looked like he was going to pin him, but give credit to the kid," Ellenbecker said. "He's almost 100 pounds more than Ben. Ben wants to wrestle them big guys and he got a chance to tonight, and he's going to learn from it and he'll get better from it. Who knows, he might get a rematch at the conference tournament."
The Hodags honored their three seniors - Lund, Knapp and Schramke prior to the match, the last at home this season for Rhinelander.
"Our seniors, it was awesome for those guys to stick around this year. It would have been easy for them, knowing that we're rebuilding this year, to mail it in, but they didn't do that and we appreciate all their efforts," Ellenbecker said.
A handful of Rhinelander wrestlers traveled to North Branch, Minn. for a seven-team invite on Friday night in an event that was a late addition to the team calendar. The team returns to action next Saturday in Medford where it will still have a chance to catch Antigo for third in the conference should it finish ahead of the Robins at the conference meet.
"We're going to get better from this and we have a chance to finish ahead of them at conference, which is going to be our goal," Ellenbecker said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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