November 28, 2021 at 12:02 p.m.
Team preview: RHS wrestling
Hodag grapplers eager to reset with new coach
Team preview: RHS wrestling
The Hodags went 1-6-1 with a depleted lineup in a season impacted greatly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rhinelander, at its healthiest toward the end of the season, managed to finish fourth at the Great Northern Conference meet and fourth at regionals.
Coach Paul Ellenbecker stepped aside and Scottie Arneson - who Ellenbecker endorsed to fill the vacancy - takes over the program.
The No. 1 thing Arneson said he's looking forward to this year is simply some semblance of normalcy.
"We're just excited to be back on the mats for an almost normal year," he said.
The Hodags graduated two of their three sectional qualifiers from last season - Tim Fox and Hugh Wiese - along with former state qualifier Ben Sinclair. But the team brings back eight wrestlers who competed last year at the conference meet and/or in the WIAA tournament.
Among the standouts on that list is sophomore Owen Kurtz, who went 12-4 at heavyweight as a freshman and nearly won the regional title before losing in the championship match in overtime, and then the wrestleback match for second.
Kurtz, who finished second at the weight class in conference, is another year older and another year stronger.
"Everybody knows he's an athletic big guy. He's not really a big guy, he just looks big. He's at the low end of that heavyweight class," Arneson said. "We've had some conversations were we've just got to be mentally tougher than the guys we're going to wrestle, but he's going to go a long way with the coaching staff we have here and the practice partners. He's just going to get exponentially better throughout the season."
Senior Cayden Neri, conference runner-up at 160 pounds last year, returns along with junior Tanner Schmidt, who burst onto the scene by qualifying for sectionals last year at 113. Others back include Joe Fugle, Joey Evenson and Conner Jensen in the upperweights; senior Cole Lehman in the middleweights; and junior Kyle Wiese and sophomore Robert Schramke in the lightweights.
"The meat of our lineup, or the most experience, is probably those upperweights," Arneson said. "All four of our seniors are in the top six weights. If they've wrestled for as long as they tell me they have, they're definitely the most experienced and we'll be trying to draw every dual meet (to start at) 145 so we can get the momentum on our side and hopefully string together a whole bunch of wins there."
Neri, Fugle and Lehman make up three parts of Rhinelander's senior quartet. The fourth is Gavin Ostermann, who qualified for sectionals as a freshman, but then swam his sophomore and junior years, qualifying for state last year in that sport.
"He's another body in the room for our big guys to practice with and he's just as excited as everybody else," Arneson said. "If we can keep the excitement he has and pass it on to his practice partners and the younger guys, everyone's going to keep getting more and more excited."
The biggest thing working for Rhinelander this year is depth. Thirty-one athletes were listed on the initial roster, and Arneson said he's optimistic that, unlike last year, the team has the ability to fill all 14 weight classes.
"I'm still working on one weight class. We'll see where the skinfold (test, which determines the weight classes in which athletes are eligible to wrestle) takes us, but we will be able to fill more weights than not," he said. "We're going to be more experienced than we were last year, and have some additions to fill the voids we had. Those guys are picking up right where they left off last year, the guys that are here and the freshmen that we're getting in are all hungry to try to find their way into the lineup. We know we're going to have good competition in the room."
Among those on the roster are four females as the WIAA will hold its inaugural girls' state individual wrestling tournament Jan. 29 in La Crosse. Abby Swanson is the only one of the four who was on the team last year, but freshman Ashley Schmidt comes in with years of experience at the youth and middle school levels.
Arneson reiterated his long-term goal of filling all 12 weight classes the WIAA established for its inaugural girls' tournament, but said he is eager to work with those who are currently on the roster.
"With the four girls on our team, one told me she only lost two matches a couple of years ago and Abby Swanson placed at the national tournament two weeks ago in Iowa. A lot of the girls have done a lot of wrestling," he said. "We're excited to have the girls represented the way they should be in the state of Wisconsin."
Though Arneson served as an assistant coach for the Hodags last year, he said he enters the season with not much of a preconceived notion of how the GNC stands or where the Hodags will fit inside that fold. Tomahawk and Medford shared the conference title last year, while the Hodags' lone win came against Lakeland as it retained the Handrick Hammer for a third consecutive year.
"We're going to do our best to put the best team forward and wherever we matchup, we matchup, but we're going to try to win," Arneson said.
The Hodags open the season at home Thursday against Crandon and will head to Antigo this weekend for the John Roberts Duals. That's followed by a triangular at Laona/Wabeno and an invite in La Crosse the following week.
By the time the Hodags' GNC opener rolls around Dec. 16 at Mosinee, many of the varsity wrestlers on the squad will have roughly the same amount of matches under their belt they had the entire 2020-21 season.
"Just getting mat time is really important," Arneson said. "I think one of the only ways you can get better at wrestling is to actually go out there and wrestle, and we're going to get that opportunity."
Other highlights on the schedule include a one-day invitational inside the Hodag Dome Wednesday, Dec. 22 in which 28 others schools are scheduled to attend. The Hodags will look to defend the Handrick Hammer at Lakeland Jan. 13.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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