January 8, 2018 at 1:38 p.m.
RHS/NPHS skiers sweep 'Frostbite' Invite
RHS/NPHS skiers sweep 'Frostbite' Invite
The Hodags took first place overall in the boys' and girls' ski competitions in their home invite Saturday at Ski Brule.
The event was playfully dubbed the "Frostbite" Invitational due to the sub-zero temperatures that delayed the start of the meet by roughly an hour. Once the sun came out and the mercury rose, the Hodag skiers stood out in a field that included several other Northern Conference schools.
While not quite what he's seen out of his team in training runs at Ski Brule, RHS/NPHS coach Rod Olson said he was pleased with how the team competed.
"There's a lot that goes on in a race that you have to deal with mentally," he said. "The closer we can get their training runs to their race runs, the better we will be. It's probably more mental what we've got to face the next month than getting more turns in."
Senior McKenzie Imm opened the 2018 season strong, sweeping all three races to win the individual girls' skiing crown, dominating all three races. She posted a 5.6-second win in slalom (46.96 seconds), won Super G by 1.89 seconds (30.95) and giant slalom by 1.65 seconds (34.52) in her first high school race since injuring her knee prior to the slalom competition at last year's state meet in La Crosse.
"It doesn't seem like we have anything mentally to worry about with her. She's definitely got a barn cat mentality and went for it all day long," Olson said.
Cayla Fritz finished fourth overall for the Hodags, highlighted by a runner-up finish in giant slalom (36.17). She finished fifth in both slalom and Super G.
"Cayla skied an excellent GS. Slalom, we had a breakthrough just a few weeks ago on getting over the top of the gate," Olson noted. "She overcommitted on a couple of turns before the headwall and kind of lost her rhythm a little bit, but she had a much improved run."
Tori Roberts finished seventh overall for the Hodags, Haley Seefeldt was eighth and Alexis Pyrchalla finished 10th.
The Hodags edged Ashwabay by 16 points for the overall title, thanks largely to a strong showing in giant slalom. The Hodags were only one point better than Ashwabay in the slalom, and two points better in Super G, but took four of the top eight spots in GS to beat Ashwabay by 13 points.
Wausau West, without its full compliment of skiers, finished third and Olson said he expects it will be a battle between Rhinelander, Ashwabay and Wausau West all season in the Northern Conference.
"If we're going to win conference, it's going to come to our third, fourth and fifth-seed skiers," he said. "Wausau West, their top girl wasn't here. I think it will be between their two top girls, Ashwabay's two top girls and our two top girls. Those third, fourth and fifth seeds, whoever has the talent there's going to take conference."
Rhinelander's new alliance with Northland Pines paid dividends in boys' skiing. Despite a rough showing in slalom, the Hodags still scored a comfortable 41-point victory over Ashwabay in the team standings.
Northland Pines freshman Ty Springer was in contention for the overall title after winning Super G and taking second in GS, but a fall shortly before the finish in slalom relegated him to seventh in the event and second overall, six points behind Wausau East's Max Sprichenger.
"(Springer has) always raced for himself - not meaning that he's being selfish, but in USSA and junior high the team thing didn't matter. Now the team thing matters," Olson said. "For his own run, and the team score, we've got to get him to finish, throttle back and not be 110 percent, just 100 percent."
It was a similar story for Hodag senior Breyden Luebke, who was third in Super G and fourth in GS, but broke a pole in slalom, finished 17th in the race and seventh overall.
"Breyden lost his rhythm. He got upset during the course and that hurt him. What kind of took the boys out of a good team score was those slalom runs," Olson said.
Patrick Stemper, another freshman from Northland Pines, finished eighth overall. Junior Daniel Ritchie, in his first year of competitive downhill skiing, was 10th. Luke Fritz finished 15th and Miles Wentworth was 20th.
Rhinelander had only three snowboarders compete on Saturday. On the girls' side defending Northern Conference champ Kaiya Shrader finished third overall, edged out by Ashland's Alphia Korpella and Roz Larson. Shrader finished second in both slalom and GS, and was fourth in boardercross.
"Kayia's not moving as much as she was," Olson said. "She was moving around on the board much more as younger person. We've been working on her with that. Boardercross, she said she had a real tough time getting through the banked turns. I'm just going to give her free time to just go over (to the boardercross run in practice) and work on that."
Bailey Schwab was seventh for the RHS boys' snowboard team while Kylie White was 11th for the Hodag girls.
The scheduled Northern Conference opener for today at Indianhead Mountain in Wakefield, Mich. has been postponed. Olson said the conference is hoping to make up the race either Jan. 25 or 26. The conference season will now begin Jan. 22 at Christie Mountain in Bruce.
NOTE: The Hodag skiers also won the Olson Memorial competition, a mixed-doubles event, that combines a team's fastest boys and girls times in Super G. The team of Imm and Springer took first with a combined time of 61.32 seconds, followed by the Hodag pairing of Luebke and Cayla Fritz (64.54). Ashwabay's Emma Thiel and Matt Kouba finished third (64.70). Ashland swept the top three spots in the Olson Memorial snowboarding competition, which combined the fastest times in boardercross.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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