Wrestling: Lindner advances on girls’ side, Hodag boys take 14th

The opening round of the WIAA tournament series for boys’ and girls’ wrestling took place over the weekend.

The Rhinelander High School boys saw their season come to an end in a new-look tournament format as they finished 14th in a 16-team sectional in Antigo on Saturday. The Hodag girls were fourth on Friday night in a regional at Merrill, with junior Cassidy Lindner winning a regional title and advancing to the sectional round of the WIAA girls’ tournament. 

Lindner wins girls regional title

Lindner controlled both of her matches Friday night as she claimed the title at 120 pounds.

Lindner improved to 48-5 on the season as she pinned Lakeland’s Jazmine Chapman in the semifinals and stopped Merrill’s Kendell Klug 1:13 into the championship bout. 

“It was a good night for Rhinelander girls’ wrestling,” coach Caleb Radtke said. “Obviously, Cassidy being the champ … another good performance from her tonight. She handled Klug very well in the finals. She really wrestled well.”

The top two finishers in each weight class moved on to a sectional at D.C. Everest on Friday, Feb. 20. The Hodags came close in two other weight classes, but had to settle for third-place finishes. 

Junior Skylar Leitl (17-34) split her matches on Friday at 152, finishing one win away from sectionals. She was pinned late in the second period by Tomahawk’s Alena Cerkes in the second-place match. Leitl pinned Somerr Ridgeway of Laona/Wabeno/Three Lakes in the quarterfinals before getting stopped by regional champion Olivia Hofrichter of Antigo in the semifinals. Leitl edged Merrill’s Emillianna Garcia by decision, 8-6, to earn a shot at Cerkes in the second-place match.

“Skylar put together a really nice day. She was in the wrestleback match to go, and she at least put herself in a spot to make sectionals. It was some of the best wrestling we’ve seen out of her, which was exciting,” Radtke said.

Freshman Katie Hazelton (19-22) lost her only match of the night at 132, getting pinned by Lakeland’s Moriah Louis in the first round. With only three wrestlers in the bracket, Hazelton needed Louis to win the championship match over Merrill’s Adison Clark to have a chance at a wrestleback, but Louis lost and, by rule, automatically advanced based on her win over Hazelton earlier in the night. 

Senior Nevaeh Anderson (10-18) lost both of her matches and finished fourth at 145. It was a similar story for sophomore Miranda Daab (8-36) at 235.

“Obviously Nevaeh’s a senior, so we’re going to be sad to see her go. But I’m glad she came out. I think she had a lot of fun this season. She was a good part of the team,” Radtke said. “Katie had a good season. Unfortunately, just wasn’t able to wrestle on next weekend. Two pretty good girls in her bracket. And then Miranda, another good season out of her. Hopefully we can put a little bit of work in this off season with these girls and be ready to go again for next year and see some improvement.”

Attention now turns to the sectional tournament as Lindner looks to be Rhinelander’s first state qualifier on the girls’ side since Abby Swanson in 2023. Lindner was a match away from the state tournament last year, finishing third at sectionals.

“I think as long as Cassidy wrestles well, takes care of business, I think she can beat any girl,” Radtke said. “I have a lot of confidence in her. I think she’s come a long way this season, and I’m really excited to see what next Friday holds.”

Three get out of opening round for RHS boys

    Rhinelander’s Anthony Boldt looks to take down Freedom’s Logan Peterson during a WIAA Division 2 sectional wrestling tournament in Antigo Saturday, Feb. 14. Boldt finished fifth at 150 pounds, the best individual final for the Hodags as they placed 14th in the sectional. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Three of the 10 wrestlers the Hodag boys sent on to the mat on Saturday got through the opening round and ended up placing in a new tournament format that combined the individual pre-state portion of the boys’ wrestling tournament into one weekend. 

That was akin to qualifying for sectionals in the old format where four regional qualifiers advanced to sectionals the following weekend. 

“It was definitely interesting to see how it all played out. I was kind of curious as to how many mats we were even going to be running and how many rounds there was going to be, and that kind of thing,” Hodag boys’ coach Scottie Arneson said of the new format. “In the grand scheme of things, I think the best six teams still did end up being the six teams that are representing our sectional at the team sectional next weekend. I think this format is good for what it is. It makes for a short day for some teams and a long day for those teams who only have three wrestlers after the first round, but for those three, I think it was really good, and it was a positive thing.”

Senior Anthony Boldt had the best finish for the Hodags on the day, placing fifth in the 150-pound bracket. Boldt earned a technical fall in his opening match to make the final eight, before getting pinned by Antigo’s Michael Hofrichter in the quarterfinals. He followed with a major decision over Freedom’s Logan Peterson but his chances of a state tournament berth were officially dashed when he was pinned by Shawano’s Kody Popelka in the consolation semifinals. Boldt was awarded fifth when Hofrichter bowed out due to medical forfeit prior to their rematch. 

Arneson said Boldt (21-14) came on during the final month of the regular season and ended his career on a high note.

“I think him finishing fifth is a good representation of how he’s competed the last four years and how he’s represented Rhinelander wrestling,” he said. “It was a positive thing for him. After he lost in the wrestleback rounds to see if he was going for third or fifth, he came off the mat crying, which means he cares, and those are the types of moments that you want as a coach. You’d rather have him finish up down at the Kohl Center, but for how inexperienced Tony really is at the sport of wrestling for him to be fifth at the sectional and knowing that there was probably a little more there to give in the last four years, it’s just a good thing. You always want those kids to have positive memories from, from the sport of wrestling, and Tony certainly does.”

Heavyweight Brock Sternitzky came home seventh on the day, earning his spot in the top eight with a pin over Antigo’s Nolan Lucht in the second period of the opening round. Sternitzky (12-10) was pinned in the next two rounds before receiving a forfeit in the seventh-place match over Marinette’s Angelo Bijeau.

“Beating a guy three times like he did to the Antigo guy, that’s a difficult thing to do. I’m glad he was able to do it to get a little bit more mat time. Then he just ran into some absolute hammers,” Arneson said. “Brock went out there and didn’t back down to anybody and was disappointed after he lost, but was that itching to go out there for the seventh-place match. The other kid ended up not being able to wrestle that last one, and you could see it that he wanted to go out there and wrestle, and that’s all we can hope for at the end of the season.” 

    Rhinelander’s Ivan Loka, top, grapples with Tomahawk’s Dane Islo during a WIAA Division 2 sectional wrestling tournament in Antigo Saturday, Feb. 14. Loka finished eight at 132 pounds. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Ivan Loka (27-16) wound up eighth at 132. He earned a pin in the final seconds of his opening round match over Tomahawk’s Dane Islo before dropping his final three matches with two technical falls and a major decision. The fact that the seventh-place match was a rematch of the previous week’s GNC championship match between Loka and Merrill’s Brett Suchocki underscored the overall depth of the bracket.

“That bracket was what was loaded up today. I think the if that bracket gets wrestled eight times, there’s at least five different champions and probably 10 variations of state qualifiers,” Arneson said. “Ivan competed hard. I think he’s disappointed on how the season ended, but that just means that he’s going to be itching for more, and he’s already asking if we can have a group of guys go to some freestyle and Greco tournaments this offseason.”

The seven others who competed for Rhinelander — Noah Monk, Michael Tredupp, Hoyt Dantoin, Avrom Barr, Noah Leisure, Gage Anderson and Dawson Schase — had their first-round matches end either by pin or technical fall. That made for a long day of spectating, but Arneson said the team used the opportunity to learn from the early-evening matches that determined which individuals would qualify for the state tournament.

“They were truly invested in trying to watch and figure out what the high-end guys in the area are doing,” Arneson said, noting the team will continue to practice through the end of the WIAA state tournament. “I think the practices will be light the next two weeks, focused on different positions that we need to get better at. But at the same time, hopefully they can take  those habits that they’re seeing those championship-level guys doing, and it just carries forward. 

“Hopefully next year we can get more than three into the top eight and hopefully have somebody punch their way to the state tournament. I think we have that kind of caliber of kid on our team that’ll be returning. Now it’s just trying to figure out which kids are gonna try and get better and which kids are gonna try and stay the same.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].