April 24, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.
Hodag track teams take second at Lakeland Relays
Hodag track teams take second at Lakeland Relays
The Hodags collected nine first-place finishes as they finished second in both the boys' and girls' divisions of the Lakeland Relays Tuesday at River Valley Bank Field in Minocqua.
After outdoor meets at Medford and Antigo were nixed due to inclement weather, the Hodags were happy to get outside and showed well in their first competition in three weeks.
"It was a really fun day. The kids rose to the challenge of an outdoor meet and it's great to see a continual, gradual growth with all of our athletes," coach Aaron Kraemer said.
Rhinelander's sprinting group turned heads again Tuesday night with the squad of Nick Kriesel, AJ Kopplin, Josh Francisco, Anthony Kowalski and Caleb Olcikas teaming up to win three events.
Kriesel, Kopplin, Francisco and Kowalski raced to the win in the 4x100-meter relay. Their time of 45.28 seconds was nearly four seconds better than the runner-up quartet from Northland Pines. Kriesel, Olcikas, Kowalski and Francisco ran to a more than three-second win in the 4x200 (1:35.03) and Kriesel, Francisco, Olcikas and Kowalski took the 800-meter sprint medley relay with a time of 1:38.52.
Kraemer said the core group of sprinters is deservingly getting its recognition for its own performances but is also making the rest of the team better.
"They're pushing the rest of the kids too in those sprinting events," he said. "That goes to our JV 4x1 and our relay today."
Juniors Drake Martin and Peyton Erikson cleaned up in the jumping events, going 1-2 in both the long and triple jump. Martin won both events, going 19 feet, 1 1/4 inches in the long jump and 39-8 1/2 in the triple jump. He edged Erikson (18-8 and 39-4 1/2) in both events.
"With limited time in the jump pits, they're doing a very good job with what they can," Kraemer said, pointing to Martin and Erikson's base as sprinters as the key to their success. "I keep telling them as we get more time outside now and we can work on refining the skills that they need to do this, they're only going to get better. So when you look at both of those guys competing and taking 1-2 in those events, that's just scratching the surface of what they can do."
For events that were not true relays, the combined marks or times of each team's three varsity performers were combined to calculate team results. The Hodags took the long jump, triple jump, shot put and discus relays.
Connor Lund won the discus throw individually with a toss of 112-4. Teammate Alex Olson was third and Brock Snyder was fifth.
"Connor Lund, he went off today and a really good throw to start the season," Kraemer said. "It's going to boost his confidence moving forward in the throws and he's going to lead the line there."
Martin (41-2 1/4) led the Hodags in the shot put with a runner-up finish, Olson was fourth and Lund finished fifth.
Kopplin won the high jump for the Hodags (6-0) and freshman Cole Worrall won the 300-meter hurdles (45.83).
Two performances stood out on the girls' side Tuesday. The Hodags won the 4x100 relay and freshman Emma Germain took first in the triple jump. Germain had a distance of 30-1 3/4 in the triple, which Kraemer said was quite an accomplishment, given the circumstances.
"This is her first time ever triple jumping period," he said. "I'm not talking about her first event. She's done a few triple jump exercises with us in practice. She's been working with me in the long jump and working on her steps, but we haven't been able to jump into a pit since we started triple jumping. Today was her letting loose - her and Lily Sneller both. It was their first day triple jumping and they both did a really nice job."
Two more freshmen helped Rhinelander to win the 4x100. Sage Flory and Megan Brown teamed up with junior Isabella Anderson and senior Samantha Siefert to win the event (56.24) by 2.6 seconds over Lakeland.
"That turned my head today, seeing them finish first with the time that they had," Kraemer said. "I was very pleased by their finish and pleased with what they are doing in practice they are seeing pay dividends in meets."
The Hodag girls nearly won a third event. Sophomore Rebecca Lawrence cleared 5 feet in the high jump, tying with Northland Pines' Jacqueline Smith for the top height of the day. Smith won the tiebreaker based on total number of jumps. Brown added a runner-up finish for the Hodag girls in the long jump (13-7 1/2), Aryssa Zasada was second in the 100 hurdles and Delaney Chillemi was second in the 300 hurdles.
On the boys' side, Will Swanson was third in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles, Francisco was fourth in the long jump and Calvin Schneider placed fifth in the high jump. Rhinelander took fourth in the 4x800 relay, and fifth in both the 4x400 and distance medley relays.
Morgan Johnson and Zasada finished fourth and fifth, respectively, for the Hodag girls in the 300 hurdles; Lexi Morrison was fifth in the 1,600 meters and Shawna Will was fifth in the shot put. Rhinelander took third in the 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800 relays. The Hodags were fourth in both the sprint and distance medleys.
"I was encouraged by the way kids stepped up and did certain parts of events that maybe they weren't necessarily used to," Kraemer noted. "This is one of the only events all year where it's truly team-based, the whole think is team-based. It's a lot of kids counting on each other, whether it's the relay scoring or the actual relay races. Our depth showed today on both sides today. Kids stepped up to the plate in things maybe they weren't comfortable with. I was proud of the team and how they responded to this challenge."
The Hodags were edged out by Northland Pines by three points for the overall title in the boys' division, and by 13 points in the girls' division.
After a three-week lull without competition, thanks in large part to Mother Nature, the Hodags now enter the busiest part of their schedule. Tuesday kicked off a stretch of six meets in 16 days for the team. Rhinelander's back in action today at Northland Pines, and will have two meets both next week and the following week.
"I actually like it this way because it gives the kids a great experience and that's what high school sports is all about, it's about the experience and about the kids enjoying what they do," Kraemer said. "The way we see training is we get two hard day a week ... Our kids are going to use these as their hard days and use the rest of the days are going to be skill-based and we're going to make sure our kids are fresh and ready to go for the rest of the meets this year."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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