Wrestling: Hodag girls take fifth in Bluejay Challenge

MERRILL — With only three wrestlers, the Hodag girls’ team still managed to finish in the top five Saturday in the 23-team Bluejay Challenge in Merrill.

Cassidy Lindner, Mya Swanson and Miranda Daab placed second, third and fourth, respectively, in their weight classes while winning multiple matches on the day. The four teams that finished ahead of Rhinelander all had at least twice as many wrestlers competing on Saturday.

“I’d say that’s our best day of wrestling on the season so far,” Hodag girls’ wrestling coach Caleb Radtke said. “Really excited with the performances today. I hope we can keep the ball rolling and roll it right into conference, regionals, sectionals and, hopefully, state.”

Lindner (13-7) went 4-1 on the day with four pins in the 120-pound weight class. She was stopped in the fourth-round by Edgar’s Blaynne Crawford, but bounced back with a hard-fought victory over Wisconsin Rapids’ Ella Nyquist to secure the runner-up spot. Trailing 5-2 after two periods, Lindner got an escape and a takedown to move ahead 6-5 in the match. She already had one near-fall in the bank before successfully putting both of Nyquist’s shoulders to the mat with 34 seconds left in the match. 

“Yeah, I mean she’s down three points going into the third. She really showed some true grit on that, came back firing in the third period there, and racking up points on the board and ultimately ended up getting the fall,” Radtke said.

Swanson (16-5) went 2-1 in pool play at 126 pounds. She scored first-period pins over Nekoosa’s Jadlyn Moravec and Taylor Hein of Athens before getting stopped by eventual champion Makenna Herrmann of Abbotsford/Colby early in the third period. After taking second in her pool, Swanson won her crossover match over Wisconsin Rapids’ Isabelle Brockman by pin to secure third place on the day.

“Mya, we’re piecing it together,” Radtke said. “I feel like every tournament since beginning of the year has been better. Today was another example of that. That Abby/Colby girl is tough. We lost to her earlier in the year, and it looked a lot worse than it did today. Mya fought hard in that match and I was much happier with the fight in that match as compared to earlier this year.”

    Rhinelander’s Miranda Daab puts Nekoosa’s Sierra Eklund in a headlock during the Bluejay Challenge wrestling tournament in Merrill Saturday, Jan. 11. Daab won that match and finished fourth in the 235-pound weight class. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Daab also went 2-1 in pool play and used a second-period pin over Nekoosa’s Sierra Eklund to secure a spot in the third-place match, where she lost to Eklund’s teammate, Lexie Stoflet. 

“She put together a really nice day again. She ran into a couple of tough girls but battle battled all day long and she never gave up and I collected two pins on the day, which is that’s a good day,” Radtke said.

The Hodag girls are not scheduled to wrestle again, collectively, until the Marshfield Invite Feb. 1, though Radtke indicated he would attempt to get some exhibition matches for the three during upcoming dual meets for the Hodag boys. 

Schwinger wins 190-pound title in Valders

While the Hodag girls were in Merrill, the Hodag boys traveled to Valders for an invite on Saturday. They finished 11th in an 18-team field, with a squad of only nine wrestlers. 

Senior Logan Schwinger had a dominating day for the Hodags, winning all five of his matches by pin as he took the title at 190 pounds. Schwinger (20-8) needed only 5 minutes, 18 seconds combined — less time than one full regulation match — to stop his five opponents. He scored first-period pins over his first four opponents and then stopped Sheboygan South’s Daniel Fenske 15 seconds into the second period of the championship match. 

Schwinger was the Hodags’ highest finisher on the day. Hoyt Dantoin went winless at 132 pounds as he took seventh. Gavin Dotter took eighth at 215. After winning his first match, he was pinned in the second round and then medically forfeited from the remainder of his bouts. Anthony Boldt (144) and Dresden Klaver (157) were ninth in their respective brackets. Trevor Denton (113) and Gage Anderson (150) each placed 11th with Augustus Porter (144) and Shayden Hylleberg (215) each took 12th. 

The Hodag boys will return to action Thursday night in Mosinee as they take part in a GNC quadrangular meet. Rhinelander will wrestle Mosinee and Tomahawk during the event. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].