RHS wrestlers go 1-2 in quadrangular

The Rhinelander High School wrestling team was able to fill only seven weight classes on Tuesday as it went 1-2 in a quadrangular meet hosted by the Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes co-op.

The lack of bodies caught up with the Hodags in a close 36-30 defeat at the hands of Iron Mountain, Mich. and a 42-30 loss to Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes. The Hodags managed to down an even more short-handed Florence squad 36-11.

Illness and injury played a large factor for the Hodags, who had a big hole in the lineup in the middleweights on Tuesday. 

“Against Three Lakes, kids were competing really hard. At the end of the day, if we would have had our full lineup, I think we would have been very competitive and got two or three dual meet wins tonight,” Hodag coach Scottie Arneson said. “We had quite a few kids out of the lineup again, but the kids competed a lot harder tonight than we did last week Thursday and Saturday.”

Because of all the scratches there were only 11 contested bouts combined in the three duals for the Hodags. Owen Kurtz (215 pounds) and Reid Schultz (285) did not face any opposition on the night as they both picked up three forfeit victories. 

Rhinelander also got a three-win night from freshman Avrom Barr at 132 pounds. He recorded second-period pins over Iron Mountain’s Brandon Truney and Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes’ Zyon Branch-Pemma and also picked up a forfeit win against Florence. 

Anthony Boldt (126) picked up Rhinelander’s other contested win against Iron Mountain, earning a pin against the Mountaineer’s Hunter Baumgardner. 

“They were doing really good stuff,” Arneson said of Boldt and Barr’s wins against Iron Mountain. “We got taken down in both matches and found a way to get an escape and found a way to capitalize on where we’re good, which is on top and on our feet right now. Those two were competing really hard.”

Gavin Dotter picked up a contested victory at 190 pounds against the Laona/Wabeno co-op, stopping Worawat Thawonwan in 57 seconds. Dotter went 1-1 on the night after getting pinned in the opener against Iron Mountain.

“At 190, we competed hard. We watched the video because we had a couple of duals off between our first dual and our second dual,” Arneson said. “There was a lot of good stuff Gavin did in that first match. He just ended up stepping wrong and got fell on top of. When you’re 190 pounds, that usually just ends it.”

Maxi Singhammer lost the only contested bout in the Florence dual losing to Freyson Kelley by technical fall at 190.

The Hodags concluded the dual meet portion of their schedule with a 5-9 record. Rhinelander is 1-4 in the Great Northern and sits in fifth place in the GNC standings heading into next Saturday’s conference meet in Antigo.

“I don’t think where we will be in a couple of weeks here, competition-wise but kids are feeling pretty good right now,” Arneson said. “… We’ll hopefully be getting our whole team back here next week Saturday at the conference tournament down in Antigo and have the full show there and have an awesome day of competing.”  

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].