June 13, 2018 at 1:01 p.m.
Team review: RHS track & field
Team review: RHS track & field
He didn't have a full coaching staff until the 11th hour, his team lost a few weeks of outdoor training due to an abnormally late spring thaw and, once the Hodags finally got outdoors, they were unable to use their track due to a construction project that started last fall and carried on through the duration of the spring season.
Yet the Hodags improved one spot to fifth in the Great Northern Conference boys' track standings, had their first sectional qualifiers in two years and first individual boys conference champions in three years.
"We're proud to the way we responded to all of that adversity," Kraemer said last month at the team's year-end banquet.
Here are five key storylines from the Hodag track season.
Training challenges
The Hodags held their first practice March 5 and their first indoor meet took place 10 days later. Thanks to Mother Nature, Rhinelander didn't get outside for a competition until May 1.
"I think we saw the inside of buildings more than we saw the outside for most of the year," Kraemer quipped. "Our players got very, very good at training indoors, getting themselves prepared with very little to prepare themselves with."
The Hodags had outdoor meets at Medford and Antigo canceled during the month of April due to the late thaw. Outdoor meets at Lakeland and Northland Pines were moved to the respective school's indoor fieldhouses due to the weather.
Even the indoor meets weren't immune from Old Man Winter. The GNC Indoor Invite at Northland Pines was postponed from April 3 to April 12 due to a snowstorm.
Compounding the issue for the Hodags was a lack of a true indoor track facility. Sprinters and hurdlers were stuck in the hallways of Rhinelander High School. High jumpers were able to move their pit indoors, but long jumpers and throwers were basically limited to competitions to get in their repetitions.
While far from ideal, Kraemer said the team banded together and played the hand it was dealt to the best of its ability.
"The kids that were in this room were hardened by what we've done," he said at the banquet. "They've also gelled because of what we had to go through as a group. We found a love for the weight room. We found a love for training inside. Even though it wasn't the best of what we could have gotten, we truly came together and gelled as a team. That's what makes me the most proud about what we able to do in our outdoor season."
Boys' squad
Rhinelander had only one senior on its boys' roster - Alex Monk - who fared well throughout the season in the hurdling events. Otherwise, it was a slew of underclassmen who carried the load for the Hodags this spring.
The Hodags were particularly strong in two areas - sprints and jumps. Not surprisingly, Rhinelander's two individual conference titles came in those events. The Hodag quartet of juniors Nick Kriesel, Josh Francisco, AJ Kopplin and Anthony Kowalski won the 4x100-meter relay at conference while sophomore Peyton Erickson took first place in the triple jump.
Kriesel, Francisco and Kopplin were a formidable trio in the individual sprints. All three placed in the top 10 in the 100 meters at conference.
Erikson had company in the triple jump with sophomore teammate Drake Martin, who finished third in the event. Francisco, Erikson and Martin all placed in the top six in the long jump and Martin added a runner-up finish in the shot put.
Rhinelander also placed two in the top six of the high jump, an event coached by first-year assistant Ryan Jacques, who didn't join the staff until the week prior to the start of practice. Calvin Schneider and Brock Lieder each cleared 5-feet, 6-inches in the event.
Girls' squad
The Hodags also had a promising high jumper on the girls' side in freshman Rebecca Lawrence. She cleared 4-8 in her first event of the season, and posted a season-best 4-10 at Northland Pines April 12 before a nagging lower leg injury hampered her progress.
She matched her personal best at conference to place fourth in the event and barely missed qualifying for sectionals with a jump of 4-8 in wet conditions during the regional meet.
Otherwise, a couple of seniors carried the load for the Hodags much of the season - Lexie Rick in the throwing events and Ellen Padgett in the sprints.
Rick placed third at conference in the shot put and fourth in the discus, recording personal bests in both events. Padgett added a sixth-place finish in the 200-meter dash at sectionals and was seventh in the 400 at conference.
Sophomore Isabella Anderson was also a factor in the sprinting events, narrowly missing the finals in both the 100 and 200 meters at conference.
Sectional appearance
Two of Rhinelander's underclassmen - Francisco and Erikson - made their first appearances to the WIAA Division 1 sectional meet last month. Francisco qualified with a third-place finish at regionals in the 100 meters while Erikson won a tiebreaker for the fourth and final qualifying spot in the triple jump.
Neither had quite enough in the tank to punch a ticket to the state meet in La Crosse. Erikson was sixth at sectionals in the triple, roughly 2 1/2 feet away from a state berth and Francisco finished seventh in the 100, 0.36 seconds outside the top three and a trip to La Crosse.
"They saw what it takes at the big stage," Kraemer said afterward. "Once you get there you see all the athletes, the way they train, the way they prepare their bodies, the way they get ready for competition and what it takes to win, that's the experience they can gain from that."
What's next
With only a handful of seniors graduating, Kraemer said he is optimistic for the future, and for good reason. Rick is Rhinelander's only all-conference performer who has graduated. That, coupled with what what Kraemer hopes will be an influx of eighth graders from a James Williams Middle School track team that performed well at its conference meet, could spell better team results moving forward.
"With all the kids we have coming up from the eighth grade and all the kids we have staying here, we are truly this close," Kraemer said at the banquet. "I want everybody in this room to know if we can grab just one person, one person we know is going to be a great athlete, we're going to reach even higher goals than we reached this season and we're going to have the most successful season we've had in a very, very long time."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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