January 18, 2021 at 8:18 a.m.
RHS wrestlers drop two in Tomahawk
Fox scores 100th career win for RHS
RHS wrestlers drop two in Tomahawk
The Hodags lost to the Raiders 51-27 in the first match before falling to Antigo, 54-22.
The highlight of the night came in the opening match against Medford as Rhinelander senior Tim Fox pinned Medford's Itsael Medina Fuentes to record his 100th career victory.
"In one of these asterisk years it makes it really tough for a senior like Timmy to even get seven wins (to reach 100) and he got that," Rhinelander coach Paul Ellenbecker said. "It's kind of a big deal for him to get that magic number. It was the highlight of our night tonight. It was really cool to see him get that and it was special for our team to see that, and for Tim and his family to reach the 100-win marker."
Hugh Wiese added a decision for Rhinelander at 132 over Elijah Mahner pounds to get Rhinelander within 18-15 in the dual against conference-leading Medford, but the Raiders ran five straight classes in the middleweights - including three Rhinelander forfeits - to take control of the match.
"Hugh won a decision against a good kid. It was nice for Hugh," Ellenbecker said. "He wrestled really well again. He's down to weight. He's getting there. He wrestled really well tonight, very confident, looks strong and is ready for the next season starting this week, hopefully, if we have a conference tournament."
In addition to Fox, Rhinelander got pins from Owen Kurtz (285) and Ben Sinclair (220) in the match while Kaeden Pillar picked up a forfeit win at 182.
"Our kids that are more experienced did a pretty good job against Medford," Ellenbecker said. "Ben pinned a senior to kind of get back on track after last week's loss against Tomahawk. It was a big match for him to do that and just a good night for him. He wrestled a couple of exhibitions and won them too."
The Hodags fell in an early 18-0 hole and the Robins worked around seniors Fox and Sinclair, forfeiting to the two at 126 and 220, respectively. Rhinelander won only two contested bouts in the match as Cayden Neri earned a 13-1 major decision over Robert Hagerty at 160 and Kurtz scored a first-period pin over Hunter Cordova in the heavyweight bout.
"It was bad matchups from the start," Ellenbecker said. "Where they didn't have guys, we had our experienced guys and where we had our inexperienced guys, they had a little more experienced guys. Antigo, they had a really nice lineup tonight. They had everybody down on weight and we were giving up weight in every class pretty much just trying to fill holes. That's kind of the problem with these dual meets when you're hurting for numbers."
The loss dropped Rhinelander into a tie with Mosinee for fifth in the conference standings, as all six GNC schools were able to complete the dual meet portion of the schedule last Thursday.
On Friday, the Hodags and the rest of the GNC learned that it would be able to hold a conference meet, as the WIAA Sports Medical Advisory and the board of control approved an increase to six teams gathering for wrestling competitions during the period of Jan. 17-23. The Hodag Dome was already selected as the location for the conference meet, pending the limit increase by the WIAA.
"Next week, if we have a conference tournament, I like our chances for individuals to do pretty well there," Ellenbecker said Thursday prior to the WIAA's announcement.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.