March 20, 2019 at 1:36 p.m.
Hodag track scores four wins at Lakeland
Hodag track scores four wins at Lakeland
The Hodags won four events overall and scored a host of top-five finishes in the Lakeland co-ed invite Tuesday evening at the LUHS fieldhouse.
No team scores were posted, but the Hodags fared well in a number of events. The boys' squad collected three wins and 21 top-five finishes, while Rebecca Lawrence won the girls' high jump for the second meet in a row, leading a list of 11 top-five finishes for the Hodag girls.
Coach Aaron Kraemer said plenty has changed since the days (just a few years ago) when the Hodags had only a skeleton crew for a meet in Wisconsin Rapids during spring break.
"I was very pleased with the fact that we had a fairly large, competitive team that stayed around for spring break," he said. "It's something I've been talking to them all week about - from two years ago at Rapids having seven kids, last year having maybe a contingent of 15 and now having over 30. That's impressive to me that kids want to stick around and continue to get better over their spring break."
Some of Rhinelander's top performers delivered again. For the second time this season, and fourth time in her career, Lawrence cleared 4-10 in the high jump to edge Edgar's Olivia Urmanski. Lawrence narrowly missed on her second of three attempts for a personal best at 5 feet.
"She just missed it," Kraemer said. "I would say you haven't seen the best of her yet and we'll see her get over that 5-foot mark and go even higher. She's a student of it. She's listening to the coaching and she's going to get over it."
Not to be outdone, Rhinelander took five of the top seven positions in boys' high jump including a 1-2 finish by junior Calvin Schneider and senior AJ Kopplin. Both cleared 5-8, along with Wausau Newman's Charlie McCarty, but Schneider did it in the fewest number of jumps to earn the win.
"We've got some great high jumpers competing against each other," Kraemer said. "Even the guys who are jumping 5-2, 5-4 and 5-6, they're continuing to consistently get better. Calvin and AJ are just figuring out their curve. As soon as they figure out that curve and transfer it into a vertical leap, they're going to get into the 6s."
The Hodags lit up the sprinting events as well, going 2-3-4 in the 55-meter dash with Josh Francisco, Anthony Kowalski and Caleb Olcikas. Kowalski turned around to key a 1-2-3 sweep in the open 400 for the Hodags with a winning time of 58.06 seconds. Ethan Tienor was the runner up and Daniel Ritchie finished third.
Rhinelander finished second and fifth in the boys' 4x160-meter relay, second in the 4x400 and third in the 4x320.
"We have seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshman pushing each other in all of those events. It's a different cast of characters than we've seen before," Kraemer said of the team's sprinting group.
Rhinelander also did well in the boys' shot put. Drake Martin won the event with a toss of 43 feet, 8 1/2 inches while teammates Connor Lund and Alex Olson both threw in the 39-foot bracket to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
On the girls' side, freshman Megan Brown had a strong meet. She was second in the 55 meters (8.20), ran the anchor leg for the Hodags' runner-up squad in the 4x160 relay and took third in the long jump.
"She's an explosive athlete and someone I love having in class teaching," Kraemer said. "She always brings a positive attitude to the track and is excelling in her workouts and showing up every day to get better. The sky's the limit for her as a freshman."
Other top-five finishes for the Hodag boys included a third-place run for freshman Cole Worrall in the 55-meter hurdles. Martin finished third in the long jump while Peyton Erikson took fifth in the event. Jaden Beske was fifth in both the high jump and the 1,600 meters while Schneider added a fifth-place finish in the 400.
Morgan Johnson placed third for the Hodags in the 55 hurdles and fourth in the 400, Lexi Morrison was third in the 800 and fourth in the 1600, Abigail Gechas was fourth in the 800, Mattia Beske was fifth in the 400 and Shawna Will was fifth in the shot put.
Kraemer said he saw plenty of improvement from his team in the five days since its season-opening meet in Wisconsin Rapids.
"I'm not surprised. As we continue to get in shape and build our sprint base and build our endurance with our distance runners, you're going to see them improve," he said. "I'm really not surprised by it when these kids are working their tails off at practice and doing everything we ask them to do."
Up next for the Hodags is the Great Northern Conference Indoor Invite at Northland Pines High School in Eagle River next Tuesday. While the rest of the GNC will be in attendance, Kraemer advised against putting too much stock into the meet.
"Our conference indoor, it's important for the kids to see where they're at in the conference but, to me, until we're outdoors, nothing's really set in stone," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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