Hodag wrestlers take 5th in GNC tourney, finish 4th overall

The Rhinelander High School wrestling team began Saturday with visions of scoring a runner-up finish in the Great Northern Conference standings. That was far easier said than done in a conference evenly matched from top to bottom.

The Hodags didn’t have the same success in the conference tournament that they had in the duals. Rhinelander finished fifth on Saturday in Minocqua and took fourth overall in the final conference standings.

In fact, it wasn’t a good day for either team that went 3-2 in the dual meet season. Antigo finished last on Saturday while Mosinee (2-3) moved from fourth to second in the standings with a runner-up finish. Medford, which also went 2-3 in the duals, took third Saturday and moved up to third. Lakeland, which went winless in dual meet action, edged Rhinelander by two points for fourth place on the day.

“Two or three more wins probably would’ve got us in the third place today which is how close the team race was for that second-place spot today,” coach Scottie Arneson said. “I think that the conference is very balanced in the aspect of team points and where everybody’s abilities are. Now it’s how much better can we get before next week.”

Senior Reid Schultz repeated as conference champion at 285 pounds and was one of six Hodags who received all-conference honors by placing the top three on Saturday. 

Schultz mowed through the competition in his weight class, pinning the other four wrestlers he faced in the round-robin bracket. Schultz stopped all four wrestlers in the first period and needed only 4 minutes, 8 seconds of mat time combined to wrap up the title. 

“He wrestled really well. He always gets excited for himself. The heavyweights were all really big today, so him being able to horse everybody around and pin everybody in the first period was pretty awesome to see,” Arneson said. 

Logan Schwinger bumped down to 175 pounds for the tournament and scored a big victory over Antigo’s Nolan Kielcheski in his first match. Unfortunately, he ran into Medford’s Paxton Rothmeier in the second round and was pinned. That proved to be the difference as Schwinger settled for second on the day. 

Arneson said Schwinger wanted to drop down from 190 to be in a harder bracket on Saturday.

“One of Logan’s goals was to win the conference wrestler of the year and he said, ‘Well I’m not gonna win it at 190. Let’s try and win the hardest bracket.’ So that was really awesome to see,” Arneson said. “I think the 175-pound bracket was easily the hardest. Logan wrestled really well after his first match today said that was a good match for him. It was good confidence booster, and then things didn’t go quite our way in the Rothmeier match but we’ll get another shot at that one next week (at regionals).”

    Rhinelander’s Dresden Klaver prepares to pin Lakeland’s Nolan Johnson in a 157-pound match at the GNC wrestling tournament in Minocqua Saturday, Feb. 8. The pin gave Klaver third place in the weight class and all-conference recognition. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander had four other wrestlers take home third in their brackets and receive honorable mention —Avrom Barr, Anthony Boldt, Dresden Klaver and Jeffree Dupree.

Barr won three matches in a full six-man bracket at 138 to earn third place. He scored wins by pin, injury default and technical fall. 

“He stayed really disciplined in his stance and didn’t let people get through his legs,” Arneson said. “Hopefully we can minimize a few more of those mistakes and then get an extra week after next week.” 

Boldt had a pin and a technical fall as he went 2-2 in a five-man pool at 144 while Klaver pinned Lakeland’s Nolan Johnson to wrap up third at 157. While Dupree went winless on the day, he still made the podium in a 165-pound class that had only three wrestlers. 

“He showed up and worked hard every day (at practice), tried to learn as much as he could and he benefited from just showing up today,” Arneson said. “The thing we try and preach to the kids is the best ability is availability and that really showed at 165 today.”

The Hodags got fourth-place finishes from Ivan Loka (126) and Gage Anderson (150). Loka went 2-2 on his day, including a pin over the eventual conference champ, Jordan Lavin of Medford. Trevor Denton took fifth at 113 and Grady DeBay was sixth at 120.  

The Hodags will see many of the same wrestlers again next week as every GNC school except Antigo is in the field in a WIAA Division 2 regional in Hayward. 

“There’s a lot of balance seems I think we could have anywhere from zero (qualifiers), which would be a very, very bad day for us. And a really, really good day would probably be that seven or eight range to go to sectionals. I’m just looking at the matchups and where everybody will be at, and that would be like a perfect day for us.” 

Girls at Merrill

The RHS girls’ wrestling team took sixth with three participants Friday evening in the Central Wisconsin Women’s Wrestling League Finale in Merrill. 

“It was a good tournament,” Hodag girls’ coach Caleb Radtke said. “I’m really impressed with Merrill. They put it on and it was a good event, got a lot of schools there and the girls got some good matches prior to the week of regionals here. Hopefully this was a nice little tuneup for us we can head into regionals ready.”

Cassidy Lindner finished third at 120 pounds, Miranda Daab was third at 235 and Mya Swanson took fourth at 126. 

Lindner (18-11) went 3-1 on the night with a pair of pins in the preliminary round. She lost to a familiar foe, Blaynne Crawford (33-5) of Edgar in the semifinals, but bounced back with a 6-2 decision over Wausau West’s Ella Fabry in the third-place match. 

“Yeah, another really solid day from her,” Radtke said. “That Edgar girl was real tough. We battled her much better than we did when we wrestled her a month ago another really solid performance by Cassidy.

Swanson (19-8) went 1-2 in her bracket, winning her opening match by pin, but she then fell to Merrill’s Kendell Klug in the semifinal and Cameron’s Reyanna Ladd in the third-place match. 

“Just kind of piecing it together still hopefully we can figure it out coming into regionals here,” Radtke said. “Definitely got to work on some stuff this week.”

Daab lost both of her matches in a three-girl bracket, getting pinned in both matches. 

The Hodag girls will to Wausau West next Friday for WIAA regional play.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].