November 14, 2014 at 1:36 p.m.
RHS cross country team holds banquet
Four earn team awards; Franson honored for state run
RHS cross country team holds banquet
Laggis handed out a handful of individual awards at the end of the night in the categories of most dedicated and most improved. The honorees were Amelia Fehlen, Tyler Kolasa, Gracie Quinn and Robert Ritchie.
"In the past there haven't really been cross country awards," Laggis told the assembled crowd of athletes and parents. "When I started (coaching) they weren't in the equation at all. I started out with an idea this year of - even though I'm not a fan of awards in sports, I like the team concept - what's important."
In addition to the team awards, the coaching staff recognized freshman Alayna Franson's accomplishment as a state qualifier, handed out its captain's awards and awarded 18 varsity letters.
Franson's plaque was the last handed out, but perhaps the most significant. She was the first Hodag to qualify for the state cross country meet in 11 years and the first RHS girl to accomplish the feat in 13 years. She fared well in the competition, placing 49th in the field of 185 runners in Division 1.
"She was the talk of a lot of meets and for me, it was great to see her take that and not be arrogant, not let it go to her head," Laggis said. "She did awesome and (gave me) my first taste of the state tournament and it was a blast. I'm so proud of what she accomplished and her job now is to not slack off, it's to be a leader and recruit more girls to run cross country and to establish that work ethic that we're looking for."
Fehlen and Kolasa earned the team's most dedicated awards. Though where they stood in the pecking order of the roster varied, Laggis said Fehlen and Kolasa share passion for the sport.
"(Amelia) is someone who does not miss practice and does every workout," he said. "She went between JV and varsity all year long with a smile and worked as hard as she could the next day, even if she didn't qualify for the next varsity race and she'd be running JV. I just really respect her work ethic.
"(Tyler) just showed he wanted to be at practice and it's OK to be running cross country. Some kids think running cross country is (like) football or isn't this or isn't that, but he made it kind of cool to run cross country. He's a great example to a few of our freshmen who are incredibly skilled."
Quinn and Ritchie, a pair of sophomores, earned the most improved awards. The times they posted in the Great Northern Conference Meet at Minocqua Winter Park were a testament to their improvement over the course of the season. Ritchie dropped 4 minutes, 2 seconds from his time over the same 5K course during the season-opening Ted Voigt Invite. Quinn improved by 6:11.
"(Robert) literally snapped off more than five minutes and I couldn't have been more proud of his work ethic," Laggis said. "More than that, he's kind of (earned) a leadership role on our team now and I think he's got a few boys around him that can do some damage next year.
"(Gracie) dropped an incredible amount of time and just became a pillar of our team this year," he added.
The team had four captains this year - Isaac Wendt, Kirby Kuehn, Sierra Scarcelli and Hallie Wright. In addition, nine boys and nine girls raced in enough varsity meets to qualify for letters.
Kuehn, Kolasa, Ritchie, Wendt, Brad Quade, Kade Kennedy, Andy Padgett, Kurt Zuiker and Markus Johnson won letters on the boys' side. Franson, Wright, Quinn, Fehlen, Payton Hartman, Carmen Incha, Haley Klaver, Alexa Paddock and Hannah Eggers were the female letterwinners.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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