Hodag wrestlers go 1-2 in Antigo Quad

The Rhinelander High School boys’ wrestling team dropped its first two matches Thursday, Jan. 29 before picking up a win over Clintonville to salvage a third-place finish in a quadrangular meet in Antigo.

Rhinelander started the night by dropping a Great Northern Conference dual to Antigo, 68-10 and then came out on the wrong end of a 54-30 decision to Waupaca. The Hodags won six of seven contested bouts against the Truckers as they closed out the evening with a 59-12 win.

“I think we left a couple matches out there (against Antigo), that would have closed the gap in the score, but right now. I think that they’re just a more well balanced team than we are,” Hodag coach Scottie Arneson said. “There’s things definitely to build on and be proud of from all the dual meets, but, overall, I think the kids — more so in the non-conference duals — were trying to outhustle their opponents. We just gotta figure out a way to capitalize on the first match of the day. That’s been a struggle for us so far this year and hopefully we can change it in the next two meets.”

Ivan Loka and Brock Sternitzky both went 3-0 on the evening and scored the Hodags’ lone points in the opener against the Red Robins. 

Loka overcame a slow start against Antigo’s Benjamin Hollister in their 132-pound bout. He trailed 6-2 after a period after surrendering a pair of takedowns. Hollister chose the bottom for the second period and Loka never let him off the mat, turning him twice for a pair of four-point nearfalls to take a 10-6 lead. Loka got a takedown early in the third and a three-point nearfall at the buzzer to secure a 16-6 major decision.

“Ivan wrestled really well. Came out slow (against Antigo), which drives me nuts, but he finds a way to stay in the matches and finds ways to win,” Arneson said. “He’s doing a really good job of staying disciplined, When he’s on top, he still tries to force some moves that I want him to get away from, but it’s been opening up different opportunities for him. Hopefully, we can minimize mistakes from here on out and capitalize on the other people’s mistakes, like he has been the majority of his matches this year.”

Sterntizky, meanwhile, made relatively short work of Antigo’s Nolan Lucht in the heavyweight match, getting a takedown 19 seconds in before pinning Lucht’s shoulder blades to the mat at the 1:06 mark.

“Brock being able to get that conference win was really good for him,” Arneson said. “He’s a kid that’s been showing up every day to practice and is finally able to get in the in the lineup. He’s been doing more winning this year than he ever has. That’s a really awesome thing.”

Loka went on to add pins in the matches against Waupaca and Clintonville, while Sternitzky received forfeit wins in both of those matches.

The Hodags were more competitive against the Comets, winning three of the nine contested matches. In addition to Loka’s third-period pin of Gabriel Estrada at 132, Rhinelander got falls from Anthony Boldt at 150 and Gage Anderson at 157. Boldt stopped Waupaca’s Brody Pate in 55 seconds while Anderson pinned Matt Schmidt 43 seconds into the third period. Sternitzky and Noah Leisure (165) picked up forfeit wins in the dual.

Arneson noted that Anderson had a nice bounceback win against Waupaca, after giving up a pin with a commanding lead in the Antigo dual.

“Gage Anderson had a good comeback win in his second match. I think he was down 10 points, so he kind of did the flip of what had happened to him in the first match, which was a good thing to see,” Arneson said.

Rhinelander breezed through the light to middle weights against the Truckers. Michael Tredupp, Loka, Hoyt Dantoin and Avrom Barr all recorded first-period pins in the matches 126, 132, 138 and 144 before Boldt earned a technical fall over Ryann Huss at 150. Anderson finished the run of six straight contested wins with a pin in 40 seconds over Clintonville’s Jackson Blashe at 157.

Leisure, Sternitzky, Juan Diego Grage (106) and Noah Monk (113) all scored uncontested wins for the Hodags.

The loss to Antigo dropped Rhinelander to 2-4 in the Great Northern Conference dual meet standings. Rhinelander will either be in a three-way tie for fourth, or alone in fifth place entering next Saturday’s GNC tournament, pending the outcome of a make-up dual between Lakeland (2-3) and Medford (1-4) this coming Thursday.

“I think our guys will be ready after five good days of practice next week and I’m really looking forward to seeing how we end up matching up with different teams in the conference and just seeing where people try and move around to win a conference title,” Arneson said. “I’m just really excited for the opportunity for our guys to go out there and compete, and hopefully we show up.

Medford will host the conference meet Saturday, Feb. 8.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].