January 4, 2023 at 10:11 a.m.
Wrestling: Kurtz places 6th in return at Northern Badger
Swanson sisters reach podium in tournament
Wrestling: Kurtz places 6th in return at Northern Badger
Junior Owen Kurtz competed in his first matches of the season and placed sixth in the 285-pound weight class at the event.
Kurtz, who placed third at sectionals last year, had been sidelined since late September with a shoulder injury. He went 3-3 with a couple of pins in the tournament.
"We've only had four practices so we're not in very good shape right now, but there's the rest of January and the beginning of February for us to get to where we want to get to accomplish his goals for this year," Hodag wrestling coach Scottie Arneson said. "It was a good tournament for Owen because of being able to see all that high-level competition. It was definitely an eye-opener for all of us."
Kurtz was one of only two Hodag boys to make it to Day 2 of the tournament as Rhinelander placed 33rd overall in a 45-team field.
Kurtz won his first match back, needing only 50 seconds to stop Black River Falls' John Cornelius. From there, Kurtz lost to eventual tournament runner-up Brandon Sommers of Phillips in the quarterfinals to drop into the wrestleback for positions 3-12 on the second day of the tournament.
Kurtz started Day 2 with a pair of wins, pinning Cadott's Kane Mengel in the third period before beating Cornelius again, this time in a 13-6 decision. From there, Kurtz was pinned in the consolation semifinal match my Freedom's Hunter Vander Heiden and in the fifth-place match by St. Croix Falls' Kasey Johnson.
"It was a good test for him," Arneson said. "I think now he understands that when we work hard during practice, it's for getting in better shape for when we go three, four, five matches deep in a tournament, we still have that oxygen in our muscles and all that. We just have to continue getting in better shape. That's not just him. That's everybody because, come tournament time, you could have four, five matches in one day and you have to be able to win those matches late in the day because those are the ones that get us on to week 2 or 3 in tournament time."
Sophomore Aiden Ostermann was the only other Hodag to make it to the second day, bouncing back from an opening-round loss to the top seed at 120 pounds and eventual tournament champion Colton Hush of Baldwin-Woodville. Ostermann scored first-minute pins over Hayward's Dylan Miller and Black River Falls' Kuno Hanson to make it to the placement rounds.
Ostermann lost his first two matches last Friday via pin before defeating River Falls' Tucker Wicklund in a 7-0 decision for 11th place.
"He was seeded 16th and he ended up finishing 11th, as a coach, you always want your athletes to place one higher than we're they're seeded so that we can prove the seeds wrong and Aiden was five better than what the seeding committee thought that he was," Arneson said. "At the end of the day, he competed hard. His first match he had the 1-seed, who won the tournament. If we wouldn't have lost there, who knows what round we could have made it to."
Joey Evenson won two matches at 182, scoring a pin over Unity's Tanner Peterson and an 8-2 decision over Hayward's Landon Montney, but he was pinned in the second round of the consolation bracket by Glenwood City's Jackson Logghe, ending his tournament. Kyle Wiese went 1-2 at 126 and Logan Schwinger dropped both of his matches at 170.
Girls' tournament
The Northern Badger added a girls' tournament during Friday's second day of competition, and both RHS participants ended up on the podium.
Senior Abby Swanson wrestled up at 235 and knocked off Barron's Serenity Doyle for the title at that weight class. Freshman Mya Swanson recovered from an opening-round loss to take third at 132.
Mya Swanson was pinned late in the third period by eventual tournament champion Angela Zimmerman of Barron. From there, Swanson stopped Cadott's Maria Cuahua in the first period, earned a 14-3 major decision over Cadott's Shannon Burlum and edged St. Croix Falls' Paige Haaf 7-4 in the third-place match.
"She wrestled really well. Earlier in the season, she wrestled the girl who got second at this tournament (Hayward's Sam Chaon). I think she could have been right in the mix there, depending on how the bracket was seeded," Hodag girls' wrestling coach Eric Gobin said. "But it was a really good day for her. She's wrestling really well and I think she's kind of moving right along, especially as a freshman getting used to wrestling in high school."
Abby Swanson and Doyle automatically advanced to the finals as the only two participants in the combined 185- and 235-pound bracket. Swanson (8-4) pinned Doyle (0-1) at the 2:54 mark. For Swanson, the tournament was more about the experience of competing in a championship match - as she got to parade out onto the mat a wrestle under the spotlight late on the final day of the tournament, Gobin said.
"For any high school kid, you put one mat in the middle of a gym with a lot of people and put a spotlight on there, it's going to cause nerves," he said. "Anyone would be pretty nervous. She did the parade of champions where they introduce everybody. She went out and wrestled and said it wasn't too bad. I think she sees it as preparation for wrestling at some of those bigger tournaments."
The Hodags hosted their first and only home meet of the season on Thursday, taking on Medford and Mosinee in a Great Northern quadrangular that concluded after press time for today's edition. Both the Hodag boys and girls are back in action tomorrow at the Bluejay Challenge in Merrill.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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