September 19, 2018 at 1:06 p.m.
Rhinelander Northwoods mountain bikers run well again
Rhinelander Northwoods mountain bikers run well again
The team classifications flipped from the season-opening race a week earlier in Waukesha. This time around the Rhinelander Northwoods Composite squad, comprised of riders from Lakeland and Three Lakes, took the top spot in Division 2 while the Rhinelander High School team finished second in Division 1. Both teams sit second in the overall standings early on in the five-race series.
"Both clubs rode really hard and finished up there again," coach Joel Flory said. "It's just unbelievable that the Rhinelander Northwoods Composite Team is in a good position as long as everybody stays healthy and keeps racing."
The RNC team has just enough riders, four overall, to fill out a complete team score in Division 2 and all four riders are riding well so far this season.
The team has the white jersey wearers - signifying the overall state leader - in both boys the boys and girls' freshman divisions after Lakeland's Jakob Craig and Three Lakes' Megan Lester won Round 2 on Sunday.
Jakob Craig scored his second win of the season in the boys' freshman D2 category, completing an 11-mile race in 42 minutes, 24 seconds, finishing 12 seconds ahead of La Crosse Central's Therin Smith. Lester took the freshman girls' race with a time of 51:13, beating Fall Creek's Katie Kopp by 1 minute, 12 seconds. It was Lester's first win of the year after taking the runner-up spot in Waukesha.
"It was fantastic and I wouldn't expect anything else, but these kind of races are such that, physically, you can hit a wall and mechanically they can always be issues," Flory said. "We'll keep it up and hope the mechanicals never show up."
Johanna Craig, a junior from Lakeland, scored her second straight runner-up finish in the varsity girls' division, covering 21 miles in 1:06:20, roughly four minutes behind winner Lauren Lackman of Wausau. Lakeland's Grace Dorsey rounded out the Northwoods Composite group with a seventh-place finish in the 16-mile girls' JV-2 race (56:38.7).
Sophomore Hugh Wiese continued a strong start to the season for the Rhinelander High School team. Following a fifth-place finish in the opener, Wiese finished second in the D1 JV-2 race on Sunday. His time of 44:52 over 11 miles was 1:40 off the pace of Waukesha County's Paul Johannes.
"Hugh Wiese moved up and he did a super good job there in the JV2 category," Flory said. "It's not surprising, because we saw what he did last week, but he did a super good job."
RHS got top-10 finishes from all five of its female riders on Sunday. Sage Flory finished fourth in the freshman race (53:34); Gwyneth Lowry was fourth (55:47) in the JV-2 race; teammates Alexis Pyrchalla (1:17:45) and Emma Hjelle (1:20:46) were sixth and seventh in the JV race; and Jaden Olski placed 10th in JV-2 (1:11:25), making her high school cycling debut.
Bridger Flory was 15th in the varsity division (1:20:31), Freddy Wisner was 13th in D1 JV (1:09:26.2) and Kyle Siefert was 21st in the D1 freshman race (1:05:13).
In the middle school ranks, Macy Lester won for the second-straight week in the sixth-grade girls' division, covering six miles in 28:09. Jett Biolo was seventh in the eighth-grad boys' division (24:47.5), Joey Belanger was ninth in the seventh-grade boys' division (28:25.0), Helena Wisner was 17th in the sixth-grade girls' race (42:14.7) and Gavin Denis was 29th in the seventh-grade boys' race.
"Jett Biolo finished in (seventh) place and did a really nice job," Joel Flory noted. "Joey Belanger had a different start order than he was supposed to and still managed to finish ninth. He had to pass probably 50 riders. All the kids are putting out good effort and, in years to come, they'll be our top riders for sure."
The Hodag bikers are off this week and will return for Round 3 of the WHSCL season Sept. 30 at Lowe's Creek in Eau Claire.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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