March 22, 2017 at 1:53 p.m.
Hodag compete at Lakeland Indoor
RHS girls tie for third, boys take fourth
Hodag compete at Lakeland Indoor
The Hodags finished in the middle of the pack in the competition, tying for third out of six teams in the girls' division and placing fourth out of five teams in the boys' flight.
A handful of Hodag athletes kicked off their season last Thursday in Wisconsin Rapids but, with classes now back in session at RHS following the spring break, Tuesday's meet felt like the true start of the competition season for the Hodags.
"It's getting a start somewhere, filming them, showing them (their technique)," RHS head track coach Chris Ferge said. "A lot of athletes just don't believe it until they see it. Also we had some state champions here today that they could watch and see what a state champion looks like."
"We're kind of starting here with this meet," added Hodag girls' coach Brittany Haakenson. "We needed a starting point, so all of these times and places are something to build off of."
Familiar faces lead RHS girls
Some of Rhinelander's known commodities came to the forefront on the girls' side Tuesday.
Junior Alayna Franson placed in the top two in both of her individual events, Ellen Padgett placed second in the 55-meter dash and Lexie Rick took sixth in a loaded shot put field that included reigning D3 state champion Sydney Thompson from Mercer.
Franson led most of the way in her first individual event, the mile run, before being passed in the final lap by Lakeland freshman Aubrey Anderson.
Franson settled for second with a time of 6 minutes, 8.4 seconds and then strolled to an easy win in the 3,000 meters (12:27.79), defeating Three Lakes freshman Kortnie Volk by 14.5 seconds.
Despite running in one of the early heats of the 55, Padgett laid down a blistering time of 8.02 seconds. That stood as the top time until the final heat, when it was eclipsed by Wausau Newman's Julianne Barkholz (7.89). Rick, meanwhile, broke the 30-foot barrier in the shot (30 feet, 1 1/2 inches) to take sixth in the event. Thompson won the event going away with a new Lakeland Fieldhouse record toss of 41-3.
Lisa White finished third in the 300-meter run (53.45) and the Hodags took advantage of a light field in the hurdle events to rack up some points. Danielle Doughty placed third in both the 55 (10.86) and 300 hurdle (39.60) events. Hodag teammates Morgan Johnson and Payton Hartman scored points with fourth- and fifth-place finishes in the 300 hurdles. Gracie Quinn added a fifth-place finish in the mile.
"I felt really great about how the girls competed," Haakenson said. "We had a lot of girls who scored points even though they were really nervous because obviously today was their first meet. We only had a few in that Rapids meet last week. A really good gauge of just where they're at and what we can improve on and a real great show here."
The Hodags placed third in the first run of the 4x800 relay of the season with a time of 11:53.01. Three members of last year's sectional-qualifying team - Franson, Quinn and Hartman - were on the relay along with freshman Jade Forster. Haakenson said the fourth member of the relay team, to fill the spot vacated by Eva O'Melia's graduation, is still up in the air.
"We're not really sure who that's going to be," she said. "We have Allie Fugle and Val Dalka who were gone today, but they are going to be some of our distance runners who are going to come in and potentially compete with Jade Forster and the other three girls that ran to fill that 4x8 by conference. We want to be just as competitive as we were last year in all of these events."
Rhinelander took second in the 800 sprint medley relay with the team of Erica Jorgensen, Padgett, Samantha Siefert and Mattia Beske. The same four took fourth in the 4x160 relay. The Hodags placed second in the 4x400 with the team of Jorgensen, Kourtney Carrico, Forster and Ashley Adams.
Edgar won the meet with 122.5 points, followed by Lakeland (91). Rhinelander and Three Lakes tied for third with 81 points.
Underclassmen lead charge for RHS boys
The Hodag boys have youth, speed and depth in the sprinting department, as they proved in Tuesday's relay events - winning the 4x160 and taking second in the 4x80.
Despite a couple of choppy exchanges, the squad of sophomore Josh Francisco and freshmen Peyton Erickson, Seth Stafford and Nick Kriesel won the 4x160 (1:27.93) by nearly four seconds. The team of Francisco, Kriesel, Drake Martin and Chase Hunt were edged out for the win in the 4x80 (44.00) by 0.39 seconds.
"Our relays were unbelievable. (In the 4x80) we thought we were really close to taking first," Ferge said. "We missed a handoff at the end otherwise I think we would have had it. They looked incredible. Some of the guys look great in the 4x(160) - Josh Francisco and Seth Stafford, Peyton Erickson and Nick Kriesel - out of those groups, you're looking at them, three out of the four (in each relay) are freshmen. It's really exciting."
Though Rhinelander didn't score points in the 55, it placed five runners in the top 19, led by Francisco in seventh place (7.36).
Another freshman, Daniel Ritchie, had a strong day in the distance events, placing third in the mile run (5:17.30) and second in the 1,000 (3:06.88). Ritchie made a late push over the final 50 meters of the 1,000 to beat Lakeland's Donavin Schillinger to the line by 0.08 seconds.
"He looked great. He had great kick at the end (in the 1,000)," Ferge said. "He had to fight a guy off, get points at the end. That was very exciting. I love to see our distance runners sprinting at the end."
A.J. Kopplin took fourth in the high jump (5-4) and Rhinelander's only other points-scoring finish came with a third-place showing in the 4x400. Wausau Newman and Lakeland dominated the boys' division, taking first and second. The Hodags came in with 30 points, four points behind third-place Three Lakes.
"We had a lot of young guys today," Ferge said. "We had some guys that stayed back. We had some guys who we think might come out, might not come out. It is indoor season. I could see that the kids are a little jittery. They were excited to get the races in, get the throws in, get the jumps in. It was good, overall."
The Hodags will return to action April 4 in the Great Northern Conference Indoor Invitational at Northland Pines High School in Eagle River. Ferge said while Tuesday's meet established a baseline, there's still plenty of work to be done for his team.
"Nothing is where it needs to be, but I think the kids got a good taste of everything and they've all seen their errors on film already," he said. "We know what we have to specifically work on and we know who to put in different spots for relays and things like that. We'll be getting more people back. It's exciting. It's great to have the numbers that we have and the enthusiasm."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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