April 26, 2019 at 3:06 p.m.
Soaring to victory
RHS boys' track wins five events, routs field in Northland Pines Invitational
Soaring to victory
That changed, in a big way, Thursday - on Northland Pines' home track no less.
Rhinelander won five events, and placed in the top three 14 other times, as it dominated the nine-team Northland Pines Invitational in Eagle River. The Hodags won the meet by 76 points over the Eagles. The Rhinelander girls placed sixth in their division.
"That's an exciting first (outdoor) win for us and we've just got to continue to stay hungry," said coach Aaron Kraemer, whose boys' squad also won the Ashland Indoor earlier this month. "I can't say enough about how hard our seniors are pushing our underclassmen on both sides, and the young talent we have coming up. It's turning heads the way our younger kids are running. I'm just proud of our seniors for pushing those kids to stay hungry."
Rhinelander's excellence in both the sprint and field events continued Thursday night, highlighted by a personal-best performance from junior Calvin Schneider, who outdueled Northland Pines ace Lochlan Siegmeier to win the high jump. Schneider needed all three attempts to stay alive at 5 feet, 10 inches and 6 feet. From there, he was able to clear 6-2 and hold off Siegmeier.
"Big PR for him and a win in the high jump," Kraemer said. "When you look at Northland Pines and Lochlan Siegmeier, he's almost guaranteed to score them 40 points every meet. In the high jump, that's the one spot where Calvin beat him tonight.
"I was really proud of the way he responded to missing those heights, fixing the small things we needed him to fix to get over them. Just the joy on his face when he got over that 6-2. He's jumping up and down. He actually almost tackled the 3,200 runners he was so happy. It was really fun to watch him and see how excited he was for that 6-2. I know it's just going to push him to get better."
Rhinelander's combo of juniors Peyton Erikson and Drake Martin had the horizontal jumps covered again, sweeping the top two spots in the long and triple jump for the second meet in a row. This time, Erikson got the better of Martin with marks that nearly matched his personal bests from the end of last season. Erikson went 20-3 1/2 in the long jump, and 42-1 in the triple jump.
"We worked on a few things with him to get him back to where he was at the end of the season last year," Kraemer said. "Finally we were able to get outside and work a little technique and he ended up triple and the long jump, with Drake right behind him."
Rhinelander took three of the top six spots in the 100-meter dash, led by a third-place run from Josh Francisco. Anthony Kowalski and Francisco finished 2-3 behind Siegmeier in the 200 and Kowalski won the 400 with a time of 52.79 seconds.
Those two, along with Nick Kriesel and AJ Kopplin, claimed another win in the 4x100 relay, their time of 44.84 seconds barely edging out a quartet from Three Lakes/Phelps. The team of Daniel Ritchie, Ty Welk, Tyler Olson and Schneider, added a runner-up finish in the 4x400.
"Our 4x4 did not disappoint, our 4x1 did not disappoint," Kraemer said.
In the throwing events, Martin was the runner-up in the shot put with a season-best toss of 45-2 1/2. Connor Lund, who finished fifth in the shot put, led a 2-3-4 finish for the Hodags in the discus with Alex Olson third and Brock Snyder fourth.
Freshman Cole Worrall was the runner up in the 110 hurdles and finished third in the 300 hurdles. Rhinelander also got some solid points out of its distance crew on Thursday. The Hodags were second in the 4x800 relay with the team of Tyler Olson, Daniel Goldsworthy, Konnor Kennedy and JC Adams. Goldsworthy added a third-place run in the 3,200.
"Our distance runners came through and scored a lot of points where we needed them and our field is our field," Kraemer said. "They've been solid all year. It was a really nice effort from all the kids, but we've got to stay hungry."
Kopplin finished fourth in the high jump, Kriesel was fifth in the 100 and Will Swanson took fifth in the 110 hurdles.
On the girls' side, fresh off a win in her maiden try at the triple jump Tuesday at Lakeland, freshman Emma Germain bettered her distance in a runner-up finish Thursday, leaping 31 feet even.
"Emma Germain got another PR in the triple jump at 31 feet. We're talking two meets with virtually no experience, that's pretty good," Kraemer said. "When Kortnie Volk from Three Lakes is jumping 35-7 and is 10th in the state and we've got a freshman who's jumping for the second time at 31 feet, that's just shows what kind of a raw, physical athlete she is and what she can do."
Rhinelander also got a runner-up finish from the 4x100 meter relay team of Sage Flory, Isabella Anderson, Megan Brown and Samantha Siefert.
Flory was fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100. Rhinelander added a fourth-place finish in the 4x400 and was fifth in both the 4x200 and 4x800.
"I was very proud of our 4x4 at the end of the night and Megan Brown was the star of that," Kraemer noted. "She ran a 1:05 split, unofficial, which is a competitive regular open 400 meter time in our conference. She really hasn't been running that race a lot, but she did a nice job in that (relay) and maybe it's something we need to think about putting her in."
Next up, the Hodags travel to Three Lakes for an invite Tuesday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.