January 10, 2022 at 10:15 a.m.
Wrestling: Short-handed RHS falls to Medford
Hodags take 11th in Bluejay Challenge
Wrestling: Short-handed RHS falls to Medford
The Hodags had only eight wrestlers in the lineup on Thursday night as they fell to Medford 52-21 in a GNC dual at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. The Hodags were down one more to seven on Saturday, but still managed a middle-of-the-pack finish, taking 11th in the 20-team Bluejay Challenge in Merrill.
"A couple of flu bugs running around on our team right now," Rhinelander coach Scottie Arneson said. "Hopefully we'll get some of those missing faces back and we'll be able to start putting together a more full and complete team out on the mats for some dual meets coming up.
"The people that ended up going, competed and represented our community did a pretty good job. We had some good things happen. There are still things to improve on and things we can look at and say, 'hey, we did this things really well.'"
Medford 52, Rhinelander 21
The holes in Rhinelander's lineup were essentially the difference on Thursday night in a home loss to Medford.
Medford received five forfeit wins from the Hodags, giving the Raiders 30 free points in a dual they won by 31. Both teams forfeited at 160 pounds.
"If we're not giving up those points, we're winning just as many matches as they are," Arneson. "But, filling the lineup is something that we need to aim to do. Right now we're not able to do that. With time, we'll be able to fill weight classes as much as we can. With injuries and everything else that's going on right now, we're a little short-handed."
Rhinelander won three of the seven contested bouts on the evening. Brothers Gavin and Aiden Ostermann each earned pins for the Hodags and Joe Fugle won a decision at 220. Owen Kurtz received a forfeit win for Rhinelander at 285.
Fugle's match was the most closely-contested of the evening. Tied at 2 following two periods, Fugle put Medford's Braxton Weissmiller to his back for three near fall points in the third period and then held on the rest of the way for a 5-2 decision.
Arneson pointed to an exchange at the end of the second period as the key to the match. Trailing 1-0, Weissmiller took Fugle down with 10 seconds left in the period, but Fugle was able to escape with four seconds left to tie the match at the end of the period.
"That's the biggest thing we're trying to instill in our wrestlers, if there's time left on the clock, there's time left to score," Arneson said. "That's something he took advantage of and that's the difference between them choosing neutral or going underneath. Because we scored, they chose underneath and that's how we ended up getting the win."
Gavin Ostermann, who cut weight to get down to 182, made short work of Medford's Tripp Reamer, pinning him in 30 seconds. Aiden Ostermann disposed of Medford's Nick Malchow with one second remaining in the first period.
"Aiden's getting to his leg attacks really good," Arneson noted. "I actually never taught him the pinning combination that he used (Thursday). I was just kind of yelling it at him during the match and he understood what I was screaming to him out on the mat. That's how he ended up getting the fall. Being a coachable student-athlete is what we've been preaching and it ended up paying off for Aiden."
Even Wilkens (145), Wyatt Johnson (195), Paxton Rothmeier (132) and Gage Lociwicz (138) earned pins for Medford. Owen Higgins took an 11-3 major decision over Rhinelander's Kyle Wiese at 120.
Bluejay Challenge
Gavin Ostermann (20-2) led the charge for the Hodags on Saturday, winning the 182-pound bracket in Merrill.
Ostermann, honorable mention in Division 1 at 195 pounds in the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online rankings, rolled through his preliminary matches with a pair of pins and then stopped Wausau West's Nathan LaRue in the second period of the semifinal match. The Hodag senior then knocked off Boyceville's Tyler Dormanen, the fourth-ranked 182-pounder in D3, 10-7 in the championship match.
"We had some blood time and made some mid-match adjustments in the finals match, which ended us helping us out in the long run," Arneson said of Gavin Ostermann's performance. "He went out there and executed the plan of attack, which was to go out there, score points and fight his butt off. That's exactly what he did. There's still things to improve on, but he's doing a good job. We're scored from the front headlock position. We're scoring from on top and we're imposing our strength onto our opponents and, typically, getting our hand raised at the end of matches."
Owen Kurtz (18-4) pinned his way into the championship bracket at 285, but ran into some tough competition once there. Edgar's Waylon Wirkus (No. 7, D3-285) defeated Kurtz 8-3 in the semifinals and then Kurtz was pinned by Nekoosa's James Schaefbauer (No. 4, D2-285) in the third-place match.
Aiden Ostermann (13-2) went 4-1 on the day at 106. He lost his third match of the day to drop into the consolation bracket but, from there, earned an overtime victory and a major decision to wrestle back to fifth.
Cole Lehman finished seventh for the Hodags at 152. Robert Schramke (132) and Joe Fugle (220) each placed eighth in their brackets and Reid Schultz was 13th at 195.
Handrick Hammer dual ahead
The Hodags head to Lakeland this Thursday night for the fourth annual Handrick Hammer dual against the Thunderbirds, who placed 16th at Saturday's meet in Merrill.
Rhinelander is 3-0 in the series, which honors the memory of former Rhinelander and Lakeland assistant wrestling coach Tom Handrick, who passed away unexpectedly in 2018.
It will be Arneson's first time skippering the Hodags in the rivalry match but Arneson said he, like so many in the Wisconsin wrestling community, knew Handrick personally and knows what's at stake on Thursday.
"Personally, he'd stay down with us at (the) Freestyle and Greco state (tournaments), so this hammer that I'm actually looking at right now in the trophy case, it means a lot to me," he said. "He did a lot for myself and my family, so I'm going to do whatever I can do every single time we wrestle for that hammer to bring it back home in Rhinelander."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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