December 6, 2021 at 9:13 a.m.
Hodag wrestlers drop opener, finish 4th in John Roberts Scramble
Hodag wrestlers drop opener, finish 4th in John Roberts Scramble
Things got off to a shaky start against an experienced Crandon team, as Rhinelander fell 57-21 Thursday in a home dual meet. But the Hodags picked things up on Saturday, taking championships in two weight classes and placing fourth overall in the 17-team John Roberts Scramble in Antigo.
With a new voice shouting instructions in the corner, and the limited number of matches the team had last year due to restrictions put in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Arneson said there was a steep learning curve for everyone including himself.
"That's part of the learning curve with having a new head coach, having a new voice yelling at the student-athletes," he said following Thursday's home match. "We'll get that figured out. When I scream, hopefully, they'll start doing. Hopefully they'll start doing (beforehand) so I don't have to scream. But we're still a young team and all we're going to do is work on keep getting better at wrestling."
Already on Saturday, some of that progress appeared to be made as the Hodags were the highest-placing of the three Great Northern Conference schools in the field.
"The nerves, the jitters, I think those were all gone after Thursday," Arneson said. "The fight that we had was night and day compared to Thursday, which means we're getting ready to grow and get better at wrestling."
Crandon 57, Rhinelander 21
Arneson's debut as coach did not go the way the Hodags hoped. Rhinelander won only two of the 11 contested bouts on the night as they fell to the Cardinals 57-21 Thursday in a non-conference dual.
Crandon scored eight pins, a forfeit win and a decision on the night. The Hodags had two forfeit wins, a pin and a decision.
"Crandon, they have a really solid team. They don't have a lot of numbers, but they can fill the weight classes and they showed they were the better team tonight," Arneson said. "We have a lot of young wrestlers - freshmen, sophomores - in our starting lineup right now. Kudos to them because they're just going to keep getting more mat time and I think the only way you can get better at wrestling is to actually wrestle. I think we're just going to grow exponentially throughout the season."
Crandon worked around Gavin Ostermann at 195 pounds, giving the Hodag senior a forfeit win, in order to get a match against Joe Fugle at 220. Fugle made the most of the chance, earning a 6-1 decision over Silas Denee.
"Joe did an awesome job of getting a big win there. He came in and had about six matches last year, because he was injured. He came out and got a good win against a very explosive wrestler," Arneson said.
Owen Kurtz followed by pinning Connor Lawrence in the second period at heavyweight, bringing Rhinelander within 27-15 in the dual.
"Owen at heavyweight, he's just going to keep on getting better," Arneson noted. "In eighth grade that kid that he wrestled tonight used to beat up on him. Last year, we finally beat him. Those two are going to be battling for the next three years. They're coming to our home tournament so, hopefully, we get another look at these guys."
Freshman Aiden Ostermann earned a forfeit win for Rhinelander at 113.
Senior Cole Lehman was the only Hodag to go the distance in defeat, dropping a 6-0 decision to Cole Shepard at 152.
4th in Antigo
Things went better on Saturday for the Hodags as they finished fourth overall, only 13 points out of second.
Kurtz and Aiden Ostermann won their weight classes for Rhinelander and eight of the 12 wrestlers the Hodags used on Saturday walked away with top-five finishes.
But Arneson said the biggest takeaway from the meet was mat time - something that was a scarce commodity during last year's condensed season.
"Most kids ended up getting five matches, or as close to that as possible," he said. "That was awesome. We got mat time. That what our students have missed out on the last two years. Being able to get five good matches in for 12 of our athletes was awesome to see.
"We racked up a lot of good wins. We had a lot more fight from our athletes today and I'm just super proud of them for how they went out there and competed."
Kurtz rolled through his bracket at heavyweight, pinning four of his five opponents. The sophomore used a last-second escape to earn a 4-3 decision over Menominee Indian's Asenex Turney to help win his pool and advance to the championship match, where he stopped Marathon's Logan Werner in 1 minute, 13 seconds.
"His opponent in the finals, he had a really good move he hit on every single kid he wrestled to end up making the finals," Arneson said. "We scouted him out. We told Owen what he needed to do. He almost got Owen in it, but Owen started thinking and wrestling and just started doing what he's used to, being good on top and putting both shoulders into the mat."
Aiden Ostermann made short work of a small bracket at 113 for the title. He pinned the two other wrestlers in his bracket, stopping Lakeland's Justin Funmaker in 49 seconds and Shiocton's Lexi Riehl in 2:36.
Arneson said Aiden Ostermann, who received a forfeit win on Thursday, fought through some jitters to win his first varsity matches.
"He went out and did the stuff that we practiced during practice and I think he's starting to believe in himself even more," Arneson said. "When we get 100% comfortable and confident in the weight class that we're in, I think he's going to excel a ton this year. I'm super proud of him, the way he competed for the first time this year."
Gavin Ostermann finished second at 195 pounds. He pinned all four of his opponents in the first period in pool play to advance to the championship match, where he fell to Marathon's Carter Grewe by a 4-1 decision. Arneson was still pleased with the effort considering that the elder Ostermann had not wrestled a high school match in more than two years, after swimming for the Hodags as a sophomore and a junior.
"Having 1,000 days off from wrestling your last match to going and wrestling five in one day, I was happy and proud of how he competed and how positive he was, being a leader on our team," Arneson said.
Kyle Wiese was third for the Hodags at 120 and Fugle finished fourth for Rhinelander at 220. The Hodags got fifth-place finishes from Tanner Schmidt (132), Lehman (152) and Cayden Neri (160). Lehman and Neri both went 4-1 on the day and lost in the second round to the eventual champions in their weight classes. Both rolled through the consolation brackets after that to wrestle back to fifth.
Shiocton won the meet with 361 points. The Hodags finished just behind Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes and Cameron in the team standings. Lakeland was fifth and host Antigo finished 11th.
Next up, the team travels to Laona tonight for a match hosted by the Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes co-op.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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