January 24, 2022 at 9:59 a.m.
Hodag wrestlers fall to Tomahawk, take fifth in Wausau
Hodag wrestlers fall to Tomahawk, take fifth in Wausau
Rhinelander had mixed results in a pair of meets late last week, falling at home to Tomahawk 54-30 in a Great Northern Conference dual meet on Thursday night. On Saturday the team bounced back with a fifth-place finish in the 16-team Wausau East Lumberjack Invite, outplacing a couple of its WIAA regional opponents in the process.
"We've had some growing pains," coach Scottie Arneson said following Saturday's meet. "We're still trying to fight off some illnesses from winter break, trying to get the lungs back. We still haven't reached our maximum potential and we, realistically, weren't that far out of a couple of higher places as well."
Tomahawk 54, Rhinelander 30
The Hodags were not able to keep up with GNC co-leader Tomahawk on Thursday, dropping seven of the 11 contested bouts in a 54-30 loss to the Hatchets at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Tomahawk took the first two bouts of the night and never looked back, as the lead fluctuated between 12 and 18 points much of the way before the Hatchets claimed the final two matches to extend the final margin to 24 points.
"When we're getting pinned in (seven) of the weight classes, the team score looks pretty ugly and that's what happened tonight," Arneson said. "It is what it is. When we get to our back, we have to fight our butt off. Tonight their fought their butts off a little better than we did."
All four of Rhinelander's wins on contested bouts came via the pinfall. Cole Lehman stopped Braden Jones 2 minutes, 50 seconds into the 152-pound bout. Gavin Ostermann downed Ethan Trayes in 1:05 at 182, Aiden Ostermann pinned Jack Delrath in 36 seconds at 106 and Kyle Wiese needed 1:32 to pin Drew Tollefson at 120.
"Kyle's starting to believe in himself at 120," Arneson noted. "He was in a little bit of a slump at the start of the season, maybe not believing in himself, but the last few weeks we've honed in on what he does really well and we're trying to stick to those."
Owen Kurtz earned a forfeit win for Rhinelander at 285.
Thursday was Rhinelander's senior night at the Miazga Gym. Prior to the match, the team honored its three seniors - Lehman, Gavin Ostermann and Joe Fugle.
Fugle was involved in the night's longest match and had Tomahawk's Micah Arnott on his back in the third period of the 195-pound bout, but Arnott got a reversal and pinned Fugle at the 4:51 mark.
"Joe, he's wrestling hard. We got into a position where we tried doing something we're not used to doing and the Tomahawk guy capitalized on that and got to his strong positions," Arneson said. "If we would have stuck to the basics, that probably would have been a more competitive match."
Wausau East Invite
Mainly those who had success on Thursday also had the best days for Rhinelander on Saturday in Wausau. The Hodags had five top-six finishes in individual weight classes and the ended up with a fifth-place showing in the team standings.
"I was surprised when they announced team scores and we were fifth," Arneson said afterward. "I feel like we didn't necessarily wrestle all that well, so I guess that's a good problem to have, finish higher than I thought we wrestled."
Gavin Ostermann, honorable mention in Division 1 at 195 pounds in the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online rankings, got to the championship match of the 182-pound bracket on Saturday and lost to Auburndale's Sloan Welch (No. 2, 182, D3) in overtime, 5-3. Ostermann (24-3) recorded a pair of pins to reach the championship match.
"I think we tried to wrestle into that guy's game plan," Arneson said of Ostermann's match against Welch. "Our style is to go after leg attacks and they guy was a little bit longer than us and kept us away. That ended up being in the opponent's favor ... Gavin had his first overtime match in at least three years. It comes down to conditioning and knowing what's going to work when you get tired. Today, that guy fell back on his fundamentals a little better than we did, but Gavin's had an awesome season so far and I imagine he's going to continue to get better over the next four, five weeks."
Fugle was the next highest-placing Hodag, taking fourth at 220. The highlight of his day came in the quarterfinals where he hit a late five-point move to defeat Desmond Walker of Winneconne, 7-5.
"He ended up getting into the semifinals because he scored five points with eight seconds left in the match," Arneson said. "If there's time on the clock, there's always opportunity to score. We were down 5-2 with eight seconds left, got a quick reversal and near-fall points and ended up winning the match."
Kurtz (21-5) finished fifth in the heavyweight bracket. The sophomore was pinned in his first match of the day, but rallied in the consolation bracket, pinning both of his opponents there to take fifth. Lehman rode a similar path to a fifth-place finish at 152.
Aiden Ostermann was sixth at 106, Kyle Wiese was seventh at 120 and Carson McGeshick took seventh at 145. Sean Boman (138) and Logan Schwinger (160) each placed eighth on the day. Reid Schultz was ninth at 195. Tanner Schmidt (146) and Robert Schramke (132) each placed 11th.
Up next
The Hodags will wrap up conference dual meet competition with a pair of matches this week. Rhinelander (0-3) travels to Mosinee (0-3) this evening and then will grapple at Antigo (1-2) Thursday night.
It's an important week for the Hodags, who could wind up anywhere from tied for third to sixth in the GNC dual meet standings, depending on the outcome of their matches. Arneson said the team is trying to position itself for a strong stretch run at the GNC tournament Feb. 4 and the WIAA tournament, which begins the following week.
"I believe there will be some upsets in our favor at the end of the year here because our guys are going to be refusing to quit," he said. "They've bought into the culture we're trying to create and I really believe that we're going to turn some heads here at the end of the year."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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