October 16, 2017 at 12:56 p.m.
Rhinelander struggles at GNC meet
Rhinelander struggles at GNC meet
Rhinelander finished only 13 points out of third in the girls' race, edged out by Mosinee and Tomahawk. The Hodag boys, meanwhile, got a boost from Bridger Flory's return, but were still eight points behind Mosinee for fifth and 18 markers behind fourth-place Tomahawk.
"It's a good conference and strong running teams, no doubt about it," coach M.J. Laggis said afterward. "A big part of (our struggles) is that the field today is absolutely very, very good."
Rhinelander senior Alayna Franson fell short in her bid to repeat at Great Northern
Conference champion, beaten for the second week in a row by Lakeland's Ashley Peterson. Peterson, a sophomore, set a blistering time of 19 minute, 8.8 seconds. Franson clocked in at 19:31.6, trimming the nearly 40-second gap she had at the Hatchet Invite the previous weekend in Tomahawk, but Peterson led wire-to-wire.
"I thought Alayna laid down a really nice race, 19:30. It was her and Ashley right to the end and Ashley won. I think Alayna ran really well and she set the table for a good sectional next week," Laggis said.
Franson was Rhinelander's lone all-conference runner, although the Hodags had several near misses. Anna Struzl finished 16th on the girls' side (21:06.6), while Daniel Ritchie (17:36.0), Markus Johnson (17:49.0) and Bridger Flory (17:51.8) finished 15th, 16th and 17th, respectively in the boys' race. The top 14 finishers received all-conference honors.
Saturday marked the first race of the season for Flory, a junior who spent the better part of two months rehabbing from an off-season lower leg injury. Flory was Rhinelander's No. 1 runner most of last year and Laggis said he ran well Saturday, considering the circumstances.
"We had him on the bike. We had him doing short runs. He was in the pool, on his own bike, strength training and doing everything he could to come back," Laggis said. "He got back to run today. That, in itself, is a great victory and he ran a really good race considering all he went through rehab-wise."
Abbie Henrichs was 26th for the Hodags girls (22:11.8). Val Dalka finished 31st (22:30.4), Claire Bowman was 39th (23:42.0), Jenna Younker was 40th (24:10.3) and Allie Fugle finished 43rd (24:53.9).
In the boys' race, JC Adams (18:58.8) and Jacob Weddle (19:00.0) finished together in 35th and 36th as Rhinelander's fourth and fifth finishers. Abe Laggis was 39th (19:15.6) and Mathew Herman finished 44th (20:09.5).
The Hodags travel to Waupaca this coming Saturday for a WIAA Division 2 sectional. The rest of the GNC will be there as well, along with several other teams from the northeastern part of the state.
"We really want to make sure that Alayna is ready and has a great race," Laggis said. "We want to see how well Anna can compete. She wasn't that far off (of qualifying for the WIAA state meet) last year. On the boys' side, you just want to drop time and work and see if one of those guys can somehow sneak in the mix."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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