February 17, 2017 at 2:51 p.m.
Hodag middle schoolers compete in state Nordic meet
Hodag middle schoolers compete in state Nordic meet
By By Jim Wood-
Saturday's race was an interval start using skate technique with each athlete going out individually with 15 seconds between each skier. Sunday's race was a pursuit style classic race that seeded each skier based on their skate time from the Saturday race. The fastest combined time from the two days of racing is the winner.
This format provides an exciting and challenging two-day race for the skiers. Not only do they have to be competent in both Nordic styles of skiing, but they race the clock one day and on the second day they are chasing the skier that was seconds faster from the first day's race.
Rhinelander middle school had 14 skiers in the competition racing against 12 other middle school teams from the state of Wisconsin. The Rhinelander boys' team placed seventh out of 12 teams and the girls team placed ninth out of 12 teams.
Individually Zach Goodrich (8th grade) was the fastest middle school boy for Rhinelander, placing 27th out of 86 competitors. Anna Wood (7th grade) was the fastest middle school girl, placing 36th out of 81 skiers.
Other skiers placing: boys; Jacques Tulowitzky (29th), Kyle Morien (31st), Ryan Morien (70th), Finn Tulowitzky (85th) Travis White (72nd)
Girls; Megan Lester (42nd), Grace Kern (43rd), Juliana Smith (52nd), Gwyneth Lowry (55th), Abbey Henrichs (64th), McKenna Nash (68th), Aubrey Younker (71st)
This was a great race for the Rhinelander middle school Nordic ski team. My goal as a coach is to prepare these kids for competition at the high school level. The 2016-17 season is the third year our program has been in place and we were able to race 14 athletes that were prepared for this level of competition. I was really pleased to see a number of these young skiers finishing in the top half of the competition.
At the state championship race, all middle school grades compete against each other and there is no age group awards. It is winner take all. Rhinelander had athletes in grades 5 through 8 compete. I am so proud of the hard work these young kids have put in since the start of our season in November. Nordic skiing is a challenging endurance sport that takes commitment and hours of training to build the skills to compete at this level. The future looks bright for Rhinelander Nordic skiing.
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