May 6, 2019 at 1:02 p.m.
OTTO-STANDING
Hodag boys break two school records, win Otto Bacher Invitational
OTTO-STANDING
Forget about being more competitive in the Great Northern Conference, the way the Hodags are performing right now, they might be able to win the whole thing.
Rhinelander put the rest of the GNC on notice Friday night winning five events and setting two school records en route to the title at the Otto Bacher Invitational in Merrill, an event that featured six of the seven teams in the GNC and is widely regarded as the big dress rehearsal before championship season rolls around with conference, regionals and sectionals.
"When you look at a meet that's been running a very long time and has a lot of tradition behind it, for us to be first in a meet like that against the opponents we face, it's really exciting for our players," coach Aaron Kraemer said.
Rhinelander's girls scored ninth out of 11 teams in a meet comprised of several Northwoods schools.
The Hodag boys won the meet in style, breaking an 11-year-old varsity record in the 4x200-meter relay before coming back a few minutes later to take down a 24-year-old record in the 4x100.
In both races senior Anthony Kowalski looked like Secretariat at the Belmont, dusting both the field and the stopwatch in the anchor leg. In the 4x200, the team of Nick Kriesel, Josh Francisco, Caleb Olcikas and Kowalski posted a time of 1 minute, 32.38 seconds, beating the previous mark of 1:32.87 set in 2008 by Matt Furyk, Austin Murphy, Chris Sykes and Eric Borchardt. Senior AJ Kopplin joined Kriesel, Francisco and Kowalski to post a time of 43.76 in the 4x100, bettering the 1995 mark of 44.1 set by the team of Loduha, Lehman, Smith and Vick.
"Those records have stood quite the time -one 10 years and one more than 20 years - so you're talking about records that are tough to beat," Kraemer said. "Whenever you beat a school record, as a coach, you're just so proud that the kids have made it a priority to train hard and to continue to push for their goals. These guys aren't done yet. In talking to a few of them after the meet, you could tell they're still hungry for more."
"Those guys are just scratching the surface of what they want to do and when you break a school record and you're not to your final goal yet, it's going to be exciting to see what they do in these next couple of weeks," Kraemer added.
Kopplin was back in the winners' circle in the high jump, clearing 6-feet to win the event by four inches over a trio of jumpers that included teammate Calvin Schneider.
"AJ just continues to surprise me in how efficient he is as a sprinter and how efficient he is as a jumper in his form. I'm proud of that with him," Kraemer said. "AJ's been working trying to get back over 6 feet. He and Calvin have been kind of back and forth the last couple of weeks. It's going to be pretty scary when those guys both figure it out in (the same) meet. I'm just hoping it's going to be a big one for us. That's going to be scary for other teams because that's 18 points coming at you right there if they (finish 1-2)."
Eighteen points are exactly what the junior tandem of Peyton Erikson and Drake Martin scored for the Hodags in the triple jump, as the went 1-2 in the event with marks of more than 41 feet. Erikson nearly got to 42 feet with an official distance of 41-11 1/2. Martin jumped 41-5 3/4 and also won the long jump with a distance of 20-2 1/4.
"Both those guys, Peyton and Drake, they continue to push each other in what they do, and all they want to do is be one inch better than the other kid," Kraemer said. "They want to beat each other, which is awesome. They want each other to do better so they can continue to strive for what's best."
In all, Rhinelander recorded 21 top-six finishes in the boys' division, qualified three sprinters for the finals in the 200 and two in the finals for the 100. Francisco was the top qualifier in the 100, but finished second in the finals (11.67), just behind Tomahawk's Cody Jablonski. Kowalski qualified first in the 200, but settled for fourth in the main event. Kopplin was fourth for the Hodags in the 100, while Olcikas and Kriesel finished fifth and sixth in the 200.
Cole Worrall was third in the 300 hurdles and sixth in the 110 hurdles, Francisco was fourth in the long jump, Connor Lund took fourth in discus, Daniel Ritchie was fifth in the 400 and the Hodags finished fifth in the 4x400.
Medford took second in the boys' standings Friday night, 25 1/2 points behind the Hodags. Rhinelander's last conference championship in track and field came all the way back in 1967. The Hodags may have a chance to end that drought a week from today at the GNC Outdoor in Minocqua.
"I just want to say we'll be competitive," Kraemer said. "The kids are asking, when's the last time we won conference. I just keep telling them, just be happy with every time we win and don't be satisfied with it. We're going to tweak a few things this week, see where we can get maximum points and put the most competitive team out there (next) Tuesday at Lakeland."
Girls' results
Rhinelander had a handful of standout performances in the girls' division as it placed ninth overall, led by a runner-up finish in the high jump by Rebecca Lawrence.
The sophomore cleared 5 feet, and ended up losing the title to Mosinee's Emily Wicklund in a tiebreaker.
"She was about a quarter of an inch away from clearing 5-2," Kraemer said. "I know, just like the boys 4x1 and 4x2, she's looking at breaking the school record. She's got 5-4 (set by Taylor Wissbroecker in 2012) to get to and the next hurdle for her is 5-2. There are a few technical things we've got to work out before we get to conference and once she figures that out, she's going to be pushing that mark."
Aryssa Zasada easily qualified for the finals and finished third overall in the girls' 100-meter hurdles (18.58 seconds). Sage Flory qualified for the finals in both the 100 and 200 meters, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
"We have some girls that are just starting to get their from and getting their knees up high enough where they're starting to bounce at their max velocity, get their speed underneath them and really push," Kraemer said. "When you look at the girls like Sage and Aryssa, who made the finals in these events, it's really fun to watch the young talent and watch them get better every single meet."
Delaney Chillemi added a sixth-place run for the Hodags in the 300 hurdles and Emma Germain was eighth in the triple jump.
Rhinelander returns to action today at the Hatchet Invite in Tomahawk.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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