February 13, 2023 at 8:59 a.m.
Kurtz wins regional title for Hodag wrestlers
Kurtz wins regional title for Hodag wrestlers
Kurtz won both of his matches on Saturday as he took the bracket in the 285-pound weight class at a WIAA Division 1 regional in Merrill. That earned him a ticket to next weekend's sectional round in Shawano.
He's the only Hodag boy who will advance to the sectional round, however. Rhinelander had a quartet of individual fifth-place finishes as it took eighth in the eight-team event that featured most of the Wisconsin Valley Conference plus GNC runner-up Lakeland.
"This is the difficult part of the season because they've been training for so long and busting their you-know-whats to try to make it one more week," Hodag coach Scottie Arneson said. "Owen was the only one that was able to do that today, but with different outcomes come different circumstances and we're going to be better because of it."
Kurtz, who didn't begin his competition season until the end of December due to a lingering shoulder injury from football, improved to 20-6 on the year as he knocked off D.C. Everest's Oscar Latendresse in the semifinals by an 8-4 decision and then controlled Wisconsin Rapids' Tanner Gormanson in the championship, winning by 12-3 major decision.
"Owen wrestled his best day. This weekend he really opened up and let it fly," Arneson said. "It looked like he was having fun out there. He was asking questions before his matches ... and, at the end of the day, he just wants to be good in everything he does - academics, football and I'm sure it's the same in baseball. I think next weekend will be a good weekend for him and, if all the chips fall in the right place, he'll be down in Madison the following Thursday."
Sophomore Aiden Ostermann, a regional champion last year, was one of four Hodags who narrowly missed moving on, as only the top four in each bracket advanced.
Ostermann (24-16) was reversed and pinned in a semifinal loss to Merrill's Jon Hart and then lost back-to-back matches to Wisconsin Rapids' Jacob Bender and D.C. Everest Tyler Modjewski to fall out of the top four.
"It obviously wasn't what I think he expected from today. In the semifinals we were winning and I don't think there was a soul in the entire place that didn't think that we deserved to get a pin called and we ended up getting flopped over and I'll leave it at that," Arneson said, contending that Ostermann had Hart pinned before fortunes reversed. "But he wasn't himself after taking that loss in the semifinals. I know he's disappointed but he's going to come back stronger than ever."
Logan Schwinger (19-18) finished fifth at 170. He had to wrestle from the consolation bracket after losing his first match. He pinned Lakeland's Tommy Howard to make it back to the fourth-place match, but then fell to Merrill's Brian Ball, ending Schwinger's season.
"I really think he wrestled well enough today to make it to the sectional tournament, but there were different obstacles in front of us and it sounds redundant, but he keeps getting better every single time," Arneson said. "To go from maybe 10% wins last year to .500 in one year at the same weight class just shows the amount of growth, care and desire to be good."
First-round losses came back to bite Dresden Klaver at 132 and Joey Evenson at 182. Both got back to fifth in their brackets only to see the opponents they lost to in the first round fall down to fourth place. By rule, they were not afforded the opportunity to avenge those first-round defeats and had to settle for fifth place.
Anthony Boldt (113) and Kyle Wiese (126) lost both of their matches on Saturday. Wiese finished 13-16 in his senior season.
"He was wrestling really hard, just out there letting it loose and that's all you can ask from a senior is going out there and trying to score as many points as you possibly can, go out there and just let it loose," Arneson said.
Kurtz will try to finish one spot better than he did last year when he reached the championship match at 285, lost there and then lost the wrestle back for second, costing him a spot at the WIAA state tournament. Only the top two finishers at sectionals on the boys' side advance to the state tournament.
In addition to Kurtz, both of Rhinelander's girls' wrestlers will be in Shawano next Saturday looking to advance to state. Only the sectional winners in each weight class on the girls' side are guaranteed a spot at the state meet at the Kohl Center in Madison beginning Feb. 23.
"We'll have three people wrestling and, hopefully, punching three tickets to the state tournament," Arneson said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.