March 8, 2017 at 4:54 p.m.
RHS Alpine ski team hands out awards
RHS Alpine ski team hands out awards
Of the group one athlete earned his fourth varsity letter, senior skier Duncan Seidel, who earned one of the team's most valuable player awards.
Girls' skier McKenzie Imm, boys' snowboarder Colin White and girls' snowboarder Kaiya Shrader earned the MVP awards in their respective disciplines.
Seidel finished second in the Northern Conference this season going toe-to-toe Ashland's Wyatt O'Bey and Wausau West's Jack Eder who finished 1-2 at the WIARA state championships last month in La Crosse. Seidel finished 16th in the field of 150 skiers.
"At a bunch of different times this year, Duncan beat the guy that ended up first," coach Rod Olson said during the banquet. "The other thing, and we needed some more races, but each race the gap got closer and closer and closer in only a five-meet season. We were really happy with the improvement and scoring 16th overall at state. That is very difficult to do. To get a top 20 at state is very difficult. You have to be in that elite group pretty much both days and you can't fall. You can't have a hiccup."
Imm, a junior transfer from Tomahawk, finished fourth in the Northern Conference this year, the best result by a Rhinelander girls' skier since Sam Mahner finished runner-up in the conference in 2010. Her state meet appearance was cut short due to a knee injury suffered during inspection for the slalom competition.
"(She had) some definite improvements over the course of the year and some gutsy performances at state and throughout the season," Olson noted.
White, last year's state champion, finished second in the Northern Conference and 13th at state this year following a spill in boarder giant slalom. Shrader, Rhinelander's only girls' snowboarder, won the Northern Conference title but did not compete at state after sustaining an injury in the final race of the regular season.
In addition to the MVP awards, the team also handed out most improved awards in three of the four disciplines.
Breyden Luebke won the most improved award in boys' skiing, jumping from 18th in the conference standings last year to ninth this year. Senior Brandon Carlson won the award in boys' snowboard, placing fifth in the Northern Conference and 26th at state in only his third season in the sport.
"He really climbed in the results, a quick jump over a short period of time," Olson said. "We taught him how to snowboard and he ended up fifth in conference and his first two runs in state this year were both top 10s."
Haley Seefeldt won the most improved award in girls' skiing, a tough call according to Olson due the improvement the team made as a whole.
"We had to look at who technically did well, who didn't have tears in their eyes in the start, who's skiing really changed the most," he said. "It changed throughout the year. It was difficult throughout the year because there was definitely improvement. This year the coaches had to get together. We couldn't use black and white (data) so we did it by technically watching some video and seeing who was skiing much different."
Additionally, the Hodags recognized their captains for the 2017 season: Seidel, White, Shrader and Cayla Fritz.
Rhinelander finished tied for second in girls' skiing and third in boys' skiing during the 2017 season despite missing three weeks of practice immediately before the start of competition due to whooping cough.
"We got through it, but it hurt us overall for the season," Olson said. "We had a low amount of development. We really only had about three or four (on hill) practices during the year. It was very difficult for us."
Team disputing White's runner-up finish in snowboarding
During the banquet Olson said the Hodags have lodged an appeal with the Northern Conference over the final boys' snowboarding individual results where Ashland's Owen Czapiga was awarded the conference title over White. Both boarders finished with four points in the Northern Conference's point system, which uses an athlete's best three races to determine the conference championship.
"We're still fighting it our over some interpretation in the constitution over how the tiebreaker should have happened," Olson said. "As of right now, there is confusion over if the last meet means the last meet they can compare or the last meet of the year. We are readily arguing over that. I'm sure we will win because Colin was faster by two-tenths of a second over the next guy during the course of the season."
According to the conference constitution, "In the case of a tie, the placing of the individuals involved in the other League meets will determine final League standings."
The issue is both boarder accumulated the exact same results over the five-meet season with two firsts, a second and two thirds to their credit. Czapiga finished ahead of White in three of the five races this season, but White's cumulative time in the five races was 0.22 seconds faster than Czapiga's.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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