RHS boys’ wresters take 15th in opener at Antigo

The Rhinelander High School wrestling team had four wrestlers make the top flight in their weight classes as it came home 15th Saturday, Dec. 6 in the 18-team John Roberts Invite in Antigo.

The Hodags were led by a trio of seventh-place finishes from Ivan Loka, Anthony Boldt and Shayden Hylleberg. Coach Scottie Arneson said he and the Hodag coach staff weren’t exactly sure what to expect from a young squad in its first match of the season, but said it was a good baseline for the start of the year. 

“We kind of set the expectations fairly low this year with the inexperience that we do have. But when we were talking on the bus ride home, I think we were actually pretty impressed with the fight and the grit that the athletes showed today,” Arneson said. “We competed really hard today and won some matches that we shouldn’t have, most likely. And we definitely lost our fair share of ones that were winnable. But the entire team already responded to their growth goals after the tournament was over. And that’s just going to lead us into next week with Merrill.”

Hylleberg, a junior with little varsity action under his belt, stood out on Saturday, winning both of his preliminary matches to get in the top bracket in a 12-wrestler field. He started his day with the fastest match of the entire tournament — needing only 9 seconds to pin Lakeland’s Nolan Peterson. From there Hylleberg earned a 5-3 decision over Laona/Wabeno/

Three Lakes’ Sawyer Christianson to close out pool play. After a major decision and a loss by pin, Hylleberg met Christianson again in the seventh-place match, which he won 7-2.

“We saw the most aggression out of Shayden that we’ve seen. He found some different moves and stuff that are working for him right now. So hopefully we continue to build on that,” Arneson said. “For him to finish seventh, I know that that’s the highest he’s finished in a tournament so far in high school. So that was really awesome for him.”

Rhinelander other seventh-place finishers were returning from last year’s varsity lineup. Loka went 2-2 on the day at 132 pounds. The junior pinned Hayward’s Kyle Block to make the championship bracket and then stopped Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes’ Jayse Demerath in just 49 seconds in the seventh-place bout. 

“Ivan, he did a really nice job with his first match. He was down a couple points and just was gritty and didn’t give up, even if he was down by three or four points at. He’s a gamer,” Arneson said

It was a similar story for Boldt, a senior, at 157. He got a pin to make the championship bracket and, following a pair of losses, beat Rosholt’s Bryce Wierzba 14-7 in the seventh-place match. 

Junior Hoyt Dantoin finished eighth out of 18 wresters at 138 pounds. He pinned Hayward’s Shane Randall to make the championship bracket before dropping three straight bouts.

Junior Avrom Barr dropped his opening match at 144 to eventual third-place finisher Lawson Mitchell of Pulaski, which relegated him into the consolation bracket. From there Barr recorded a pair of pins and a 9-7 decision over Lakeland’s Orlando Retana to take the consolation bracket and finish ninth in class. 

“Avrom, he did a really nice job just staying disciplined. I still think he does some silly things, but it’s another unorthodox style. He doesn’t look very strong because he’s that runner-body type, but he’s got nice long levers and it pays a off for him. He continues to put himself in good positions,” Arneson said.

Michael Tredupp was 10th at 126 for the Hodags, Jeffree Dupree was 13th at 165, Brayden Barnhill was 17th at 150 and Asher Melvin took 18th at 190. 

The Hodags had four non-scoring entries who were in a bracket with at least one of their teammates. Gage Anderson led that group, taking 1th at 157. Freshman Elias Puza was 12th at 165, Weston Kibler was 14th at 132 and Noah Leisure as 20th at 157. 

“I know Gage’s second match of the day, he ended up losing, and that he goes, ‘I definitely put myself in some positions that I could have won. I just needed to capitalize.’ And then that wrestler (Antigo’s Michael Hofrichter) went back and went all the way and took fourth place,” Arneson noted. “The difference in that bracket from 11th to fourth place was finishing positions.” 

The Hodags opened Great Northern Conference dual meet play at home against Merrill on Thursday in a match that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Visit RiverNewsOnline.com for a recap of that match and read a full report in the Tuesday, Dec. 16 edition of the River News. 

Rhinelander will be back in action, with both its boys’ and girls’ squads, in the Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes Invite Saturday, hosted at the Forest County Potawatomi Center in Crandon. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].