Lindner takes title at Hodag Scramble

Rhinelander junior Cassidy Lindner added another bullet point to her quickly-expanding wrestling résumé on Friday — Hodag Scramble champion.

Lindner went 5-0 on the day and topped a 19-wrestler bracket at 126 pounds to capture the title in the large invite hosted at the Hodag Dome. Lindner’s title helped the Hodags place ninth out of 22 teams in the girls’ division. Rhinelander finished 21st of 25 teams on the boys’ side.

Lindner improved to 15-1 on the season, earning three pins and a pair of decisions on the day. She downed Merrill’s Kendall Klug 14-10 in the championship match to claim the title.

It was Lindner’s third first-place finish in four meets on the season. She has not lost since the championship match of the season-opening Antigo Invite back on Dec. 5.

“We had a lot of tough matches against some people that I’ve gone against before. Definitely wasn’t easy, but I’m glad I was able to take home the win in Rhinelander,” Lindner said afterward. 

Lindner cruised through the preliminary rounds with a trio of second-period pins to make her way into the semifinals. She took control with a first-period takedown and held on for a 3-1 decision over Plymouth’s Valerie Mathisen to make the championship match. 

After giving up the opening takedown against Klug, Lindner got a reversal and back points to take a 6-3 lead after a period. She led 6-4 going to the third, when another takedown and near fall gave her a commanding lead. 

The championship match was a rematch of last year’s third-place bout at 126, which Klug won 15-7.

“Very exciting day for Cassidy yet again,” Hodag girls’ wrestling coach Caleb Radtke said. “Big confidence booster for her beating a girl from Merrill that she had previously been beaten by last year — badly beaten last year. I think it’s a huge confidence boost for her. She can see the improvements she’s made over the last year.” 

Lindner’s title was the biggest highlight for either side on the day, apart from hosting 47 teams across 12 mats in the Hodag Dome.

“When we can have the two teams in Rhinelander, and a few supportive community members, coming together to put all the mats down, that’s the hardest part about running a tournament like this. But at the end of the day, when we’re able to get 50 programs in one location on really a school day, I think we’re the only city in the state that can really do that,” Hodag boys’ wrestling coach Scottie Arneson said. “Us being able to put this on, we heard nothing but good things from other coaches today, and I truly believe that it’ll only grow.”

The Hodag girls got top six finishes from five of their six wrestlers. Miranda Daab earned her first two wins of the season at 235, recording a pair of pins that earned her a spot in the semifinals, where she eventually took fourth.

    Rhinelander’s Nevaeh Anderson looks to throw Elcho’s Faith Mary DePillo during the girls’ fifth-place match at 165 pounds of the Hodag Scramble wrestling invite in the Hodag Dome Friday, Dec. 19. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Nevaeh Anderson was fifth at 165 pounds while Katie Hazelton and Skylar Leitl were sixth at 132 and 152, respectively.

“Huge day from Miranda today. Two wins, and she just wrestled tough, just would not give up, would not get pinned, kept fighting through, and at the end, she got her hand raised in both of them,” Radtke said. “Nevaeh,Skyler and Katie had some pretty good days. They each got a couple of wins each. And I think they’re excited, excited to compete again down in Shiocton in two weeks.”

On the boys’ side, Rhinelander had eight wrestlers compete in the varsity division and another five wrestle JV. Three made the championship bracket for the Hodag boys, led by Ivan Loka, who came home seventh at 132. He beat teammate Weston Kibler to make the final eight and, after a pair of losses, pinned Laconia’s Thane Glewen in the seventh-place match.

    Rhinelander’s Ivan Loka looks to escape from Northwestern’s Owen Claflin during a boys’ 132-pound match at the Hodag Scramble wrestling invite in the Hodag Dome Friday, Dec. 19. Loka finished seventh in his class, the top varsity finish of the day for the Hodag boys. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

“He made the championship pool and found himself a win in the seventh-place match because of staying disciplined and being focused for an entire match,” Arneson said. “I believe that is the first time he has made a championship pool at a scramble, which tells you he’s starting to do the little things right.”

Gage Anderson avenged a loss earlier in the season to Tomahawk’s Mason Towle to make the top eight at 157. He dropped his final three matches to finish eight on the day. Michael Tredupp added an eighth-place finish at 126. 

Avrom Barr finished 10th at 144, Kibler finished 11th at 132, Shauden Hylleberg was 14th at 285, Noah Leisure took 16th at 157 and Jeffree Dupree was 17th at 165.

“We had a lot of good fight. We had a lot of sickness this last week, so I would say that the endurance factor wasn’t really there for us today,” Arneson said. “Third period rolled around, and we ended up losing a couple in the third period, but we still got two-thirds of the season left with January and February coming up and we’ll get those lungs back.”

GNC teams Merrill and Tomahawk finished 1-2 in the girls’ division on Friday. Merrill was the runner-up behind Marathon in the boys’ division while Tomahawk finished fifth. 

Both Hodag teams will be idle over the holiday break, electing this year not to participate in the Northern Badger Classic in River Falls. Arneson said, especially on the boys’ side, practice time over the holiday will serve the squad better in the long run.

“Northern Badger, I think is a really good experience for experienced teams and right now we don’t, we don’t have that,” he said. “So taking really four days of between travel and practice and trying to get our guys to buy into that right now, we just decided that it wasn’t going to be the best thing for our team. What we need is mat time. If we go over there, some of our kids would maybe lose two matches in a row and then sit around for two days where we could practice for two hours each day, and they’re gonna get their mat time, and we can build our community a little bit more.”

The Hodag boys won’t wrestle again until Jan. 8 when they host Tomahawk in a GNC dual. The Hodag girls, meanwhile, will jump back into action Saturday, Jan. 3 at the 32-team Shiocton Invite.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].