October 15, 2018 at 12:26 p.m.
Flory 4th, Hodag teams 5th at GNC cross country meet
Flory 4th, Hodag teams 5th at GNC cross country meet
The Hodag senior finished fourth Saturday, highlighting the day for the RHS cross country team as it placed fifth in both the boys' and girls' divisions as the host school for the 2018 conference race.
It was far and away Flory's best performance at conference, a result that earned him a spot on the all-conference first team. His previous best was 12th as a freshman. Health setbacks prevented him from being a factor at conference each of the last two seasons.
"Freshman year was kind of my only real shot at a conference race," Flory said. "Sophomore year I was sick and junior year, it was my first race back (from a leg injury). It feels good to get into it strong and have a good race."
Flory was the best of the rest in the boys' 5K, behind a dominant Medford squad that took the conference title on the strength of a 1-2-3 finish by Derek Rudolph, Joseph Sullivan and Ray Zirngible. Flory's time of 17 minutes, 44.7 seconds was 18.5 seconds off Rudolph's winning pace.
"Bridger was unbelievable today," Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. "I knew he would have a good race. After the Waupaca race, that was the race I thought he picked it up another level that I haven't seen him run at. He was just steel. You could see it in his face. He was relaxed. He was calm. His warmup was focused and he has never let up that gas pedal."
Flory started strong and was never outside the top five. While the Medford trio eventually separated itself from the pack, Flory fended off Tomahawk's Evan Ploeckelman for the fourth position. He also beat Tomahawk's Drew Bolder and Mosinee's Eric Kordus, who defeated Flory a week prior at the Hatchet Invite.
"I started strong, kind of got a little worried there in the second mile," Flory said. "There was a pack right behind me, but I was able to finish strong and have a good kick, so I was excited about that."
Medford's dominance of the boys' race ended Lakeland's nine-year run atop the GNC. The T-Birds finished fourth Saturday behind Medford, Mosinee at Tomahawk.
Medford's girls' edged Lakeland for the conference title for the second year in a row. Though Lakeland's Ashley Peterson and Aubrey Anderson finished 1-2 in the girls' race, Medford placed five runners inside the top 10 to beat the T-Birds by 10 points.
RHSâgirls
Aside from Flory, no RHS runner sniffed all-conference recognition Saturday. The team's next-best finisher was sophomore Abbie Henrichs, who paced the girls' squad in 26th place (22:33.2).
Behind her, sisters Audrey and Ella Schiek battled for the team's second spot. Audrey caught her older sibling with a strong kick over the final 100 meters. Both crossed the line with identical times of 23:03.2, but Audrey was awarded 30th place in a photo finish.
"Abbie Henrichs has been a stalwart up there, a sophomore girl with just so much running in front of her," Laggis said. "Ella Schiek comes to us and instantly becomes a huge impact. Then you've got her sister, Audrey, and those two battle all around the course. You notice they run together and then all of a sudden, the gloves come off and they fight each other at the end and try to beat each other."
Allison DeNamur was 33rd for the Hodags. Sage Flory, battling illness, was 34th, followed by Emma Germain in 35th and Claire Bowman in 40th.
RHS boys
The rest of the RHS boys' squad ran in a pack in the back half of the field. Jacob Weddle, Jaden Beske and JC Adams were 31st, 32nd and 33rd for the Hodags. Cal Laggis finished 36th, Daniel Goldsworthy was 39th and Levi Smith finished 41st.
M.J. Laggis called the conference race a learning experience for his young roster.
"Out of our 14 varsity runners, 12 were freshmen or sophomores," the coach said. "We've got a lot to look at here if we can keep this group together. We're very, very young and I just think they can do some great things the next few years if the keep at it and stay on the bus."
The course
Despite heavy rains early in the week that flooded portions of the RHS cross country trails, Saturday's races went off without much of a hitch. Part of the wooded trail system west of the high school was still not raceable by Saturday morning, which led to some minor course alterations, including an addition to the course behind the RHS tennis courts.
The team spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday working on the course. They used several yards of mulch, wood chips and rocks to soak up the puddles and get the get the course in shape.
"That was our best option for trying to dry out the course and, I'm going to be honest, I thought it held up incredibly well considering the parts of it that were under water. We did a lot with what we had," coach Laggis said, calling is a stressful week of race course preparation. "(Assistant) coach (Melissa) Krueger and myself, we had a ton of parent support. We had our athletic director out here shoveling chips. We had a lot of people on board helping to make it work. Without the parents, it wouldn't have happened today."
Up next
The Hodags will travel to a WIAA Division 2 sectional race at Freedom this coming Saturday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.