Loka, Lindner named Hodags’ most valuable wrestlers

A pair of juniors, Ivan Loka and Cassidy Lindner, took home top honors for the Rhinelander High School boys’ and girls’ wrestling teams Tuesday, March 10. The two were named the programs most valuable wrestlers during a banquet in the James Williams Middle School commons.

Lindner was the Hodags’ lone state qualifier, going 50-8 on the season as she became just the second in school history to make it to the WIAA state girls’ wrestling tournament. She also was one of the inaugural Great Northern/Wisconsin Valley Conference champions, winning the title at 120 pounds. 

Loka went 27-16 on the season, was a conference runner-up at 132 pounds and placed eight at the sectional meet. 

The two wrestlers also earned the team’s most dedicated award, which RHS boys’ coach Scottie Arneson said went hand in hand with being named most valuable.

“If you really think about it, it makes a lot of sense when people are the most dedicated, they’re usually going to be the people that are seeing more success on the mat, and in life off the mat,” he said.

The teams presented several awards during the evening. On the boys’ side, most improved honors went to Gage Anderson and Noah Monk, Michael Tredupp took home rookie of the year honors and Hoyt Dantoin snagged the Hodag award. 

    Rhinelander High School girls’ wrestling team award winners, from left to right, Katie Hazelton, Nevaeh Anderson and Cassidy Lindner, pose with their awards following the team’s banquet in the James Williams Middle School commons Tuesday, March 10. Award winners Syklar Leitl and Miranda Daab were unavailable for the photograph. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Nevaeh Anderson and Katie Hazelton took home most improved honors on the girls’ side. Skylar Leitl was the rookie of the year and Miranda Daab won the Hodag award. 

Gage Anderson, a junior, went 20-21 for the Hodags this year while Monk, a freshman, was 7-12. Tredupp, a junior, went 15-25 in his first year of competition while Dantoin was 12-18 and earned a conference runner-up at 138 pounds. 

On the girls’ side, Nevaeh Anderson finished 10-18 on the season while Hazelton was 19-22. Leitl finished 17-34 and was one win away from qualifying for sectionals at 152 pounds. Daab went 8-36 on the year. 

While most improved and rookie of the year were mainly based on accomplishments on the mat, Arneson said the Hodag award looked at intangibles off the mat. 

“These awards go off to people who show up practice every day,” he said. “Don’t complain too much, I know that wrestling’s a pretty tough sport in comparison to some of the others. So people have to show up religiously, try to have positive attitudes, especially in the practice room, where things do get intense, or heated, or difficult, we try to push everybody to their limits.”

The boys’ squad handed out a few additional awards. Class leader awards went to Gage Anderson and Loka, sophomore Noah Leisure and Monk. Leisure and junior Avrom Barr received the team’s extra mile award. 

The Hodag boys went 2-4 in conference duals and finished fifth in the GNC this year with only one senior, Anthony Boldt, on the roster. Rhinelander placed 14th at sectionals, but Arneson said, considering that most of the core group is returning for the Hodags, he expects bigger things from his team next year. 

“Hopefully next year we can fill a couple more weight classes at the end of the year and surprise couple people,” he said. “I think, next year, we can do a lot of that at the sectional tournament that will be in and hopefully our guys decide and put in a little bit of extra work in the offseason here.”

The Hodag girls were 10th in the inaugural GNC/WVC tournament but finished fourth in a 10-team regional at Merrill. With only Nevaeh Anderson graduating off that squad, and girls’ wrestling continuing to grow across the board, coach Caleb Radtke said he’s excited for the future. 

“This was the first year for girls’ wrestling that we split off the boys’ team and we started doing our own practices and I think all of our girls would say that that was a positive,” he said. “We doubled in team size from last year. Last year, we had three girls out. This year, we had six. I think hopefully we can just keep this momentum going. Like I said, I think there’s a lot of growth, and I think I think girls wrestling as a whole is going to keep moving forward, especially in Rhinelander here. So it’s exciting to see what can keep coming.”

Freelance reporter Bob Mainhardt contributed to this report.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].