Hodag wrestlers advance four from regionals

The Rhinelander High School wrestling team started postseason play over the weekend and moved four of its wrestlers one step closer to competing at the Kohl Center in Madison later this month. 

Rhinelander had two wrestlers — sophomore Cassidy Lindner and junior Mya Swanson — advance from the first-ever WIAA girls’ wrestling regional tournament in Wausau Friday night. The Hodag boys also advanced two wrestlers — seniors Logan Schwinger and Reid Schultz — from Saturday’s Division 2 regional in Hayward.

Boys’ regionals

Both Schwinger and Schultz scored runner-up finishes in their brackets to move on to next Saturday’s sectional round in Amery. They were the only of Rhinelander’s 10 wrestlers on Saturday to make it into the placement rounds as the Hodags finished 11th in the 13-team regional.

“Definitely wasn’t our best wrestling,” coach Scottie Arneson said. “I kind of figured that two would be the worst day that we could have in the aspect of sectional qualifiers and that’s exactly what we had. I thought five would’ve been almost a perfect day with who was at what weight classes, but two’s what we got. Hopefully we can get those two guys a little bit better so that they can punch their ticket to the state tournament.”

Schwinger reached a milestone Saturday, picking up his 100th career victory, en route to a runner-up finish in the 190-pound bracket. Schwinger (38-11) got the milestone win in his semifinal match, stopping Tomahawk’s Kaiden Kapellusch 2:44 into the second period. Arneson said that’s credit to how much Schwinger has improved in the sport after winning just eight matches as a freshman. 

“So really he did 100 wins in basically three years and that just shows the dedication and the work that he was able to put in all over the last three years, in the off-season and during the seasons,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to get our other kids that their seasons are done now to understand. A lot of them were very close to .500 wrestlers and that’s what Logan was as a sophomore. He was a .500 wrestler and he put in time in the offseason in the next year had 30 wins.” 

Schwinger lost to Hayward’s Deangelo Sardina by technical fall in the championship match, but bounced back to pin Northwestern’s Bryce Ronchi in the wrestleback to claim the runner-up spot.

Schultz (34-6), meanwhile, pinned his first two opponents on the way to the championship match at heavyweight where he faced Hayward’s Micah Butler in a rematch of the first-place bout of the Hodag Scramble back in December. 

Schultz went the full distance this time with Butler, but came up short in an 8-3 decision. Trailing 3-2 going into the third, Schultz gave up a reversal before getting an escape to make it 5-3, but was unable to score the go-ahead takedown.

“We got two really close opportunities to get takedowns and just managed to be 5 or 6 inches out of bounds, otherwise the score could’ve been a little bit different,” Arneson said.

Schultz responded to pin Northwestern’s Julius Mayberry in the final seconds of the first period in the second-place match. 

Arneson said the second-place matches were important for both Schultz and Schwinger to help their seeding in the sectional draw, where the top three finishers in the eight-man brackets will move on to state.

“Looking at the bracket next week I think that was really important for them (to finish second),” he said. “I think both of our sectional qualifiers have a really good opportunity in front of them to punch their ticket to the Kohl Center and obviously that’s always the goal. When you qualify for sectionals anything can happen. Everybody’s 0-0, we just have to take advantage of the opportunity.”

The remainder of Rhinelander’s wrestlers either lost in the first round or the quarterfinals and didn’t make it far enough through the wrestleback to get a chance to advance. Dresden Klaver (14-15) won two matches in his final high school meet, but was stopped one win away from the fifth-place match at 157. Avrom Barr (138), Anthony Boldt (144), Gage Anderson (150) and Jeffree Dupree (160) also bowed out in the consolation semifinal round. Hoyt Dantoin won his opening match at 132, but lost two straight after that while Trevor Denton (113) and Ivan Loka (126) both went 0-2 on the day.

Girls regionals

Two of the three Rhinelander girls who wrestled made it through to the sectional round as the Hodags took ninth in a 22-team field. 

“It’s an exciting time of year. The girls were definitely excited to wrestle and the results showed that,” Hodag girls’ coach Caleb Radtke said.

Lindner improved to 22-12 in her rookie year on the mat, winning three of the four matches she wrestled on Friday. She started with a pin over Wausau East’s Olivia Leary followed by another pin over Shawano’s Madelyn Moesch to reach the championship match at 120. She was pinned by Tomahawk’s Elise Gibeault there but stopped Wausau West’s Ella Fabry with six seconds left in the first period of her wrestle back match to secure the runner-up spot.

“She’s come a long ways from the start of the season,” Radtke said. “It’s probably the most progression I’ve seen out of an athlete honestly going from zero to a regional runner-up very exciting night for her. She wrestled hard.”

Swanson (22-9) went 2-1 on the evening at 126. She pinned Shawano’s Lauren Seehafer in the first round before falling to Wausau West’s Carmen Ghidorzi by 9-2 decision in the semifinal match. Swanson won her wrestleback match for third by pin over Tomahawk’s Ali Palmer to clinch a spot at sectionals but did not get a chance to wrestle for second after Ghidorzi lost in the championship match. 

“Mya had another good performance 126 is a pretty tough bracket. She wrestled her way through it,” Radtke said.

Miranda Daab went 0-2 on the night for Rhinelander, losing both of her matches by pin as she ended the year 5-16. 

For Lindner and Swanson, sectionals will take place this coming Friday night in Shawano. The top two wrestlers in each eight-girl bracket will earn a trip to the Kohl Center for the state tournament. 

“It’s going to be a tough tournament but all these girls are tough at the end of the season,” Radtke said. “I’m hoping for next weekend we can get a first-round win and then we’ll be a match away from going to state. That semifinal match, hopefully we can be in that match and be competitive, try to keep the score tight, push it right to the end and hopefully get a third-period win somehow.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].