December 27, 2021 at 8:29 a.m.
Hodag grapplers take fourth in home scramble
Hodag grapplers take fourth in home scramble
The Hodags placed five wrestlers in the top three of their respective weight classes and finished fourth overall in the inaugural Hodag Scramble at the Hodag Dome.
Rhinelander finished behind Crandon, Northwestern and Shawano in the 17-team event. The Hodags were only two points behind Shawano for third and 20.5 points behind Northwestern for the runner-up spot.
"We were battling anywhere from second to fourth all day. At the end, I think those other teams got the matchups that they wanted to pull ahead in points," Hodag coach Scottie Arneson said. "Shawano's a very solid team in our division and a team we really want to compete with. We were within two points. In reality, that's one win. If we could have snuck one of those one-point matches out that we ended up being on the short end of, we're in third place. Realistically, two or three wins out of second and bringing home a trophy."
Sophomore Owen Kurtz improved to 15-2 on the season and won his second tournament of the year, pinning his way to the championship in the 285-pound weight class. Kurtz's longest match ended up being his first, as it took him until midway through the third period to stop Shawano's Brady Glysch.
Kurtz defeated Crandon's Connor Lawrence for the third time this season in the semifinals and then stopped Phillips' Brandon Sommers in the finals.
"He had a tough first match where the guy knew we were probably a little bit better than him," Arneson noted. "He tried staying away as long as possible. We capitalized on one his mistakes and put too much pressure on him, got him tired and wore him down by the end of the match. I think that's what Owen's really going to show people. He's got a good gas tank. It doesn't matter if you're there in the first minute or the fifth, sixth, or if we have to go an overtime minute. We're going to keep on battling and try to put the shoulder blades into the mat."
Gavin Ostermann, who received honorable mention at 195 pounds in the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online Division 1 individual rankings, wrestled up at 220 on Wednesday. Ostermann pinned his way to the finals before getting stopped by Wittenberg-Birnamwood's David Gauderman, the third-ranked 220-pounder in D3, in the championship match.
Arneson said he bumped Ostermann up a class to get some challenging matchups, like the one he faced in the finals.
"We're an undersized 195-pounder wrestling up at 220," he said. "The guy I wanted him to wrestle against and get pushed a little bit was better than us today. That was that finals match, but he's riding each and every match out. He's got a good gas tank to make it six minutes."
Kyle Wiese took the runner-up spot at 120 where he twice ran into top-ranked (D3) Treyton Ackman of Spencer/Columbus Catholic. Ackman pinned Wiese both in the preliminary rounds and in the championship match.
"Kyle Wiese had an awesome day, I couldn't be more proud of him," Arneson said. "The Spencer guy (Ackman), I've coached that kid in freestyle and Greco in the summer. He's ranked No. 1 in the state for a reason. He's a good competitor. Today, he was better than us twice."
Wiese also avenged an early-season loss to Crandon's Eian Wilson during the tournament.
"(Kyle) got in a roll-around match with a guy he lost to in the opening dual meet," Arneson said. "We ended up pinning him. He got off the mat smiling, shaking his head, because he knows he could have done better in the match, but we're starting to fall in the right place. Sometimes, you've just got to fall in the right place and you're going to end up being successful."
Freshman Aiden Ostermann (106) and senior Cole Lehman (152) both wound up third in their weight classes.
Aiden Ostermann pulled out a couple of close victories in the championship bracket, defeating Shawano's Brady Stomberg 7-6 in the quarterfinals and Northwestern's Logan Jones 6-4 in the third-place match.
"He's starting to figure out what wrestling six minutes means instead of the four minutes that you wrestle in middle school," Arneson said. "He's still a freshman. We're excited to see where he can get in the next four years ... He showed some good stuff and showed some stuff that tells us he's still a freshman. He's going to be fun to watch the next four years, I can tell you that."
Lehman bounced back from a lost to Crandon's Cole Shepherd in the semifinals with a technical fall victory over Mark Jarman in the third-place bout.
"He's starting to be more offensive, just starting to fire off shots, getting to the legs," Arneson said. "I can't be more proud of him. He's come a long ways already this year."
Tanner Schmidt (126) and Sean Bowman (138) added sixth-place finishes for the Hodags. Dresden Klaver was eighth at 138. Joe Fugle took ninth at 195. Joey Evenson and Carson McGeshick took 11th and 12th at 145. Logan Schwinger added a 12th-place finish at 170, Dominic Thorstenson was 14th at 285 and Reid Schultz won the auxiliary bracket at 195.
The event drew 171 wrestlers to the Hodag Dome. The Hodags hope to turn the tournament into an annual event. Last year was supposed to be the maiden voyage for the event, but limitations on the number of teams that could gather due to COVID-19 protocols forced Rhinelander to host a dual meet against Lena over the holidays instead.
"All and all I think it was a great day and a success, not only for Hodag wrestling, but all the smaller communities that came to the invite today. I'm happy with how things turned out," Arneson said.
Rhinelander is back in action this Wednesday and Thursday at the Northern Badger Invite in River Falls. It's the last part of a busy early-season schedule that Arneson hopes will have his team prepared for Great Northern Conference action and the stretch run of the 2021-22 season.
"As a coaching staff, we'd like to see our hand getting raised every single time, but mat time is what we're getting right now in December," he said. "We've wrestled a ton of matches. After next week in River Falls, we're going to have two-thirds of our matches wrestled before regionals. We've put a lot of matches in December so that we can focus on practicing, getting our skill set for February."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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