January 17, 2022 at 8:07 a.m.
Lakeland edges Hodags for Handrick Hammer
Lakeland edges Hodags for Handrick Hammer
Lakeland's Jerome LaBarge defeated Rhinelander's Joey Evenson by a 9-4 decision in the 145-pound bout, which broke a 32-all tie and gave Lakeland a 35-32 win in Minocqua.
The Hodags, who filled 12 of 14 weight classes Thursday night, had just received a forfeit win from Robert Schramke at 32 in a dual that neither team ever led by more than six points.
"It was a fun dual, went back and forth quite a bit," Rhinelander coach Scottie Arneson said. "The kids finally got to experience a high-pressure situation coming down to the end of a dual meet, which is important, but you'd like to end up on the winning end of that."
Evenson never led in the decisive bout. LaBarge got a takedown and three near-fall points to jump out to a 5-1 lead in the first. Evenson could only muster three escape points and also received a penalty point in the third.
"Tonight, their 145-pound wrestler was a little better than ours, but we had a lot of good fight out of our wrestlers, and that's all we can ask for," Arneson said.
Though Rhinelander had only two holes in its lineup, one of them was rather sizable - literally and figuratively. Heavyweight Owen Kurtz missed the match due to illness, an absence that likely cost the Hodags 12 points. Lakeland's Esaube Brown received a forfeit win with Kurtz out of the lineup. Kurtz pinned Brown in 31 seconds in last year's meeting between the teams.
"Not having individuals in our lineup isn't an excuse," Arneson insisted afterward. "They had starters out in their lineup as well. Kudos to them."
Even with Kurtz out of the lineup, Arneson pointed to a few key moments that either cost Rhinelander points, or gave Lakeland more. Joe Fugle put Lakeland's Mikel Allen to his back twice in the third period at 220, but could not finish the pin and settled for an 11-5 decision. Conversely, Rhinelander's Dresden Klaver was down 8-2 late in the third at 132 when he was put to his back and pinned by Lakeland's Tyson Skubal with only three seconds remaining in the match.
Tanner Schmidt had Lakeland's Devon Semrad to his back three times in the 126-pound match, but could not finish the pin and instead earned a technical fall.
Rhinelander saved itself some points at 120 as Kyle Wiese, who lost to Lakeland's Ashton Bremmer by technical fall during a meet in December at Antigo, went the full six minutes and lost by decision, 8-3.
"I really think that was a match were we could have gotten bonus points and didn't," Arneson said. "Bonus points are the difference in a dual meet loss or win, just making sure we score as many team points as we can."
Cole Lehman and Gavin Ostermann each recorded pins for the Hodags. Lehman stopped Lakeland's Patrick Grams in 1:25 at 160 and Ostermann gave Rhinelander its only lead of the match, up 12-11, with a first-period pin over Tommy Howard at 182.
"We've been working (with Lehman) on some fakes at the neutral position and getting the other wrestler to react to us," Arneson said. "He was able to successfully do that. When Cole's wrestling hard, he's going to be tough to beat. It's very hard to beat a confident person.
"Gavin went out there, got a couple of good takedowns and then got a first-period fall. That's always important, never giving the opponent an opportunity to capitalize on a mistake. When you put their shoulders into the mat, the match is over, so they don't have a chance."
Aiden Ostermann also received a forfeit win for Rhinelander at 106. Lakeland filled 11 of the 14 weight classes and won six of the 10 contested bouts. Both teams forfeited at 113.
The Handrick Hammer is named for former Lakeland and Rhinelander assistant wrestling coach Tom Handrick, who passed away unexpectedly in 2018. Rhinelander won the first three installments of the trophy rivalry by nine, seven and nine points.
The Hodags dropped to 0-2 in the GNC with the loss.
"They get to keep the Tommy Handrick Hammer for 365 days, but we're going to do all we can do to make sure we beat them at the conference tournament and try to bring that hammer back home next year," Arneson said. "They've got a young team, as do we. It should be fun here over the next few years."
Rhinelander will host Tomahawk this coming Thursday in a GNC dual at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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