Boys’ wrestlers take 18th in Crandon

The Hodag boys’ wrestling team had a mix of varsity and JV competitors Saturday, Dec. 13 as it finished 18th out of 21 teams in the Rebel Invite hosted by the Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes co-op at the Forest County Potawatomi Community Center in Crandon.

Of the 12 wrestlers the Hodags had compete, half took part in the varsity brackets and half were in the JV brackets. 

Coach Scottie Arneson said it was a matter of trying to get as many matches as possible on Saturday for his relatively green squad. 

“Our varsity guys, I think they competed. I don’t think that we necessarily got the results that we could or should have had today, but the mat time was definitely good for us,” he said.

Junior Gage Anderson was the only place-winner for the Hodag boys’ on the varsity side, coming home sixth in the 157-pound weigh class — and that result could have been better if not for a couple of close losses during the day.

Anderson started by dropping a 3-2 decision to Tomahawk’s Mason Towle in the quarterfinals, which relegated him to the consolation bracket. Back-to-back pins in the wrestleback got Anderson onto the podium, but a penalty point for stalling ultimately proved to be the difference as he fell to Cedar Grove-Belgium’s Josh Egan 2-1 in overtime in the fifth-place match. 

“Gage today was our only varsity placer for the boys, and he went 3-2 with a guy (Towle) that was in the third-place match,” Arneson said. “We’re right there, it’s just capitalizing on positions now where we know how to score or we know how to get to. Now we gotta just end up capitalizing on those opportunities.”

In a bracket format similar to the WIAA state tournament, places were awarded to only the top six finishers. Ivan Loka and Avrom Barr both went 2-2 on the day and finished one match shy of making the podium.

Loka had a pin and a decision in his favor on the day, but lost to Wausau West’s Lee Gatzke for a spot in the fifth-place match. It was a similar story for Barr, who scored a pair of pins on the day, but was defeated by Ashwaubenon’s Tyce Allen in the consolation semifinals.

Hoyt Dantoin (138 pounds), Jeffree Dupree (165) and Shayden Hylleberg (285) all went winless on the day. 

“I truly believe that a lot of our guys are right there. I know, last weekend, Ivan pinned somebody in the first period that was in the third place match at this tournament. Our guys are right there,” Arneson noted. 

In JV action, Weston Kibler and Noah Leisure both went undefeated to win their brackets at 138 and 157, respectively. Michael Tredupp was 3-1 on the day and the runner-up at 126. Freshman Monk earned his first career high school win as he took fourth on the day. 

“With the kids that we brought, I definitely think that the experience and the mat time was certainly good for them,” Arneson said. “A lot of our younger kids stepped on the mat for their second time or their third time — especially our younger or more inexperienced kids.” 

Hodag Scramble ahead

The Hodags were back in Great Northern Conference play Thursday night at Mosinee in a match that concluded after deadline for today’s edition. Visit RiverNewsOnline.com for a recap of that match and read a full report in the Tuesday, Dec. 23 edition of the River News. 

Attention now turns to today as Rhinelander welcomes 30 other schools to the Hodag Dome for the fourth-annual Hodag Scramble. It’s the final event on the Hodags’ calendar before the start of the new year. 

“A lot of the teams that were at the tournament today, they’re like, ‘Golly, we love the, the Hodag Scramble,’” Arneson said. “It’s just an awesome opportunity for teams to get five matches during the week where they don’t have to burn up a weekend for their kids. I really hope a lot of people see that as a benefit. 

“We’re just really lucky to, to have that space that we do and be able to show it off to 30-plus teams on a school day.”

The girls’ competition is slated to begin at 9 a.m., with boys’ matches getting underway at 10 a.m. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].