Team preview: RHS wrestling

The Rhinelander High School wrestling team is looking to bounce back from what was, from a team standpoint, a tough 2022-23 season. The Hodags did not win a dual meet and finished last in the Great Northern Conference. Generally speaking, injuries and an overall lack of depth hurt the team as they were unable to fill several weight classes throughout the season.

Numbers have rebounded a bit for the team, which returns eight wrestlers who have earned All-Great Northern Conference honors at some point during the career. All of that has coach Scottie Arneson hopeful that the Hodags will be able to make some noise by the end of the season.

“Our focus is getting better at wrestling,” Arneson said. “I’m not going to put out there who I think we’re capable of beating, but I think if we wrestle to our abilities we’ll shock some teams.” 

“There’s a lot of energy, which is what we haven’t had in years past. They hold themselves accountable and this team is very, very trustworthy,” he added. “They’re here on time. They’re asking questions. We have a very teachable group this year, which all the coaching staff is very, very happy about.”

Senior Owen Kurtz leads the list of returning wrestlers for Rhinelander.  Kurtz is a two-time defending conference champion at heavyweight but has been stopped one win short of the Kohl Center and the WIAA state tournament each of the last two seasons. 

The 2022-23 campaign saw Kurtz go 22-8 after missing roughly the first month of the season due to a shoulder injury. Arneson said he’s hopeful that this is the year that Kurtz finally gets over the hump and makes it to state. 

“That’s the goal, and I think we’ll find a way,” he said. “Owen, he’s taken the leadership role this year. It’s been really fun to watch I him grow in that department. I think one place he lacked was that confidence of being that leader. This year he’s taken ownership. He’s lighter on his feet. He’s more excited. He’s like, ‘You know what, it’s my last year. I might as well go and do it.’”

Rhinelander returns four other wrestlers who earned all-conference recognition last season. Three of those wrestlers — juniors Aiden Ostermann and Dresden Klaver and sophomore Cyrus Leisure — are part of what Arneson feels will be a pretty solid core of wrestlers between the 120- and 144-pound weight classes. Junior Logan Schwinger will be in the mix in the middle to upperweights after taking third in the conference at 170 last year. 

“Logan Schwinger made leaps and bounds and had a higher success rate last year,” Arneson said. “His big focus is just getting better at the sport of wrestling, which is what we preach every day. He’s really taking that on, putting the time in, in the offseason. He’s hit the weight room, and I’m thinking he’ll have a really good season again this year.”

Rhinelander also has three wrestlers on the roster who earned all-conference honors two seasons ago, but were either injured or didn’t go out for the sport last year. Junior Sean Boman is back from injury while senior Robert Schramke returns after taking a year off, and will be part of that core of wrestlers fighting for mat time in the lower-to-middleweights. 

“That’s where the meat of our team is,” Arneson said. “I think there’s eight between 120, 126, 132, 138 and 144, that are all veteran. That will be really fun to watch and see how that pans out closer to end of the year. We have a good group of kids that have put in some time this season that want to be good. We’re going to have a lot of fun in that area.”

Additionally, junior Reid Schultz is back with the team after taking a year off. He was third in the GNC at 195 as a freshman and figures to be in the mix at heavyweight this year, especially if Kurtz drops to 215. 

    In this Dec. 3, 2022 file photo, Rhinelander’s Mya Swanson looks to turn Wrightstown’s Ava Krueger during the John Roberts Scramble wrestling invite in Antigo. Swanson, a sophomore, is one of two girls’ wrestlers for the Hodags this season. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

On the girls’ side of the team, Rhinelander has two wrestlers again this season. The team replaces senior Abby Swanson, who was a two-time place winner at the WIAA girls’ state tournament. Her younger sister, sophomore Mya Swanson, returns and is joined by incoming freshman Taylor Dahlquist, who competed at the WWF Kids Folkstyle state tournament last March. 

“With Mya, she’s been around wrestling for quite a few years now. She had all the benefit of working with her sister last year and kind of growing up as well,” girls’ coach Eric Gobin said. “Taylor, she started wrestling last year, but she’s quite the athlete, and she’s picking it up really fast.”

Dahlquist is one of three incoming freshmen who made it to youth state last year, joining Weston Kibler and Gavin Snider-Dotter. 

On the competition side, there will be two notable changes for the Hodags this season. First, Rhinelander drops from being one of the smallest programs in Division 1 to one of the largest in Division 2. However, just because the Hodags dropped down a division, Arneson cautioned that that does not necessarily make Rhinelander’s postseason path easier. For starters, reigning GNC champion Medford hosts the Hodags’ 12-team regional. Additionally, only 12 wrestlers in each weight class make it to state in Division 2, as opposed to 16 in Division 1. 

“I don’t think dropping to Division 2 makes our lives any easier,” he said. “I think the sectional and the regional we go to are top-of-the-line. Statistics show from the state tournament that people that make it out of that sectional, they’re placing at the state tournament 80% of the time.”

The second change comes with a tweak of the weight classes for boys’ wrestling for the first time since 2011. The WIAA tweaked the intervals in the middle to upper weights, going from 144 pounds to 150, 157, 165, 175 and 190 this year as opposed to 145, 152, 160, 172, 185 and 195 in previous years. That, essentially, eliminated one spot in the upperweights, where the Hodags have plenty of depth.

“We would have benefitted from the old weight classes this year just because we have a lot of guys around that 190-200 range,” Arneson said. “We could have had a guy at 182 and 195. This year we’ll only be able to put one guy because of what the weight classes are.”

Once again this year, the Great Northern Conference is using a double-dual format to conduct its in-season bouts. While that provides the opportunity for more contested bouts and frees up some dates for non-conference invites, the drawback comes with the loss of home dates for Rhinelander. The Hodag Invite Dec. 21 and a dual meet against Tomahawk Jan. 18 are the only home dates on the schedule for the Hodags this year. 

As for the conference, Arneson said Medford figures to be the team to beat again this season.

“Medford returns almost all of their guys and they had nine conference champs last year,” he said. “I would imagine they’re the team everyone’s chasing. They qualified for the team sectional last year, and they’ve got a good group of kids. They put in time in the offseason. I like those guys. They’re a good staff, they’re good kids, they do the right things. They’ve put in their time, and they’re getting what they deserve right now.”

While Arneson wouldn’t put a definitive number on where he’d like to see the Hodags place in the GNC, or how the team may fare in the postseason, he said the goal for the team — both individually and collectively — will be to show improvement from last season.

“I want to see everyone competing at their best. The kids are going to get better at wrestling,” he said. “We’re going to get better. Our kids are more experienced this year, and we’re not in the juggernaut of the Valley for regionals at least.” 

The Hodags open their season Saturday with the John Roberts Scramble in Antigo, which will also be the venue for the Great Northern Conference meet on Feb. 3. Medford will host regionals Feb. 10. Sectionals for both the boys’ and girls’ qualifiers will be in Tomahawk Feb. 17. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected]. 

Date    Opponent/Event    Time

12/2    Antigo Invite (B/G)    9:30 a.m.

12/9    Laona/Wabeno Invite (B)    9:30 a.m.

12/14    vs. Mosinee, Medford (at Medford)* (B)    6:30 p.m.

12/15    Amherst Quad (B)    4:30 p.m.

12/16    Shawano Invite (G)    TBA

12/21    HODAG INVITE (B/G)    11 a.m.

12/28-29    Northern Badger at River Falls (B/G)    7 a.m.

1/6    Merrill Invite (B)    8 a.m.

1/11    vs. Antigo, Lakeland (at Tomahawk)* (B)    6:30 p.m.

1/16    at Phillips Quad (B)    5 p.m.

1/18    TOMAHAWK* (B)    7 p.m.

1/20    Wausau East Invite (B)    9:30 a.m.

1/20    Wausau West Invite (G)    TBA

1/23    at Three Lakes (B)    6 p.m.

2/3    GNC Meet at Antigo* (B/G)    10 a.m.

2/10    WIAA Regionals at Medford  (B)   10 a.m.

2/17    WIAA Sectionals at Tomahawk (B/G)    TBD

2/22    WIAA State at Madison (B/G)    TBD

* Conference meets | HOME MEETS IN CAPS

(B) Boys' meet | (G) Girls' meet | (B/G) Combined meet