April 15, 2021 at 8:08 a.m.
Team review: RHS Nordic skiing
RHS skiers made the most of long, unusual season
Team review: RHS Nordic skiing
"It was an appropriate way to end the season," she said. "What's a better way than to go out on the very last day of the season and just lay a bunch of sticky klister (wax) on peoples' faces and send them home."
The season was anything but ordinary for the Hodags, or really anybody in the Wisconsin Nordic Ski League. Events were canceled or postponed either due to weather or the COVID-19 virus. The WNSL state competitions, usually held in February, were pushed back into March due to a bitter cold snap that dropped temperatures to levels too dangerous to race.
The end result was a season that started in mid-November for the Hodags, ended the first week of March and included only four races.
"The kids who were here today really love Nordic," Reis said at the conclusion of the WNSL state championships.
"It's not to diminish anybody else's commitment to the sport, because mostly what they did is they had to move on to a different sport for the spring, but these kids also could have said, 'I've got to move on to a spring sport' and they just really like Nordic so they stuck around for the state champs and I'm happy they did," Reis added.
Here are five storylines from the season.
Juggled schedule
If it wasn't one thing, it was another that kept the Hodags from racing much of the season.
It started with a lack of snow early in the year. That forced the cancellation of the team's scheduled opener at the ABR trails in Ironwood, Mich. Dec. 3. It also forced the postponement of the Lakeland Invite at Minocqua Winter Park from mid-December to January.
The Snekkevik Races in Wausau did not place in early January as scheduled. Organizers initially postponed the race until later in the month before canceling it altogether.
Finally, on Jan. 12, the Hodags took part in the first competition in the rescheduled Lakeland Invite. Then, on Jan. 16, the team was able to take part in a race on its originally scheduled date, competing in the Hinder Binder in Westboro.
"It was nice to be out there and see other teams," Reis said.
But, then another spate of cancellations and postponements hit. The Northwoods Nordic Ski Club, organizers of Rhinelander's home race - the Hodag Challenge at the Cedric A. Vig Outdoor Classroom - decided to pull the plug on the race, uncomfortable with where the COVID-19 positivity rate in Oneida County sat in the days leading up to the race.
After the team took part in the Northern Conference race Jan. 30 in Cable, a major cold snap hit. That knocked out the WNSL state sprint championships, the Ashwabay Summit race and pushed back the WNSL state distance championships until March 6 and 7.
Reis said all the fits, starts and delays caused some attrition within the team.
"It's been a long wait and we've lost some people along the way," she said. "It's just real hard to keep the kids' interest that long."
Girls' results
When the team was able to get on the course, results this year were relatively strong, compared to recent seasons. The Hodag girls ended up eighth of 11 qualifying teams at the WNSL state meet, up from 11th of 12 a season ago.
"I will take that. I don't remember the last time we were eighth," Reis said afterward.
The squad was third at the Lakeland Invite and fourth at the Northern Conference meet.
Individually, a trio of juniors paced the way for Rhinelander. Liana Teter ended up 31st in a field of 107 skiers at state, Callie Threlkeld was 35th and Anna Wood was 38th. All three showed great improvement from their previous state performances. Teter led the Hodags with a 58th-place finish at state in 2020. Threlkeld was 86th in that meet and Wood missed last year's state meet due to illness. She was 61st at state two years ago as a freshman.
"I'm not surprised with how well the girls did. It's nice to see people moving up the ranks," Reis said.
Threlkeld, Teter and Wood were 13th, 14th and 15th, respectively at the Northern Conference meet back on Jan. 30.
Boys' results
Senior Daniel Goldsworthy stepped up and led the boys' squad this season with a 12th-place finish at conference and a 57th-place showing at state. That was a 10-place jump from Goldsworthy's performance at state last year.
"This was Daniel Goldsworthy's final state competition, and I feel like he left nothing to guesswork," Reis said. "He laid it all on the line. He was really particular about testing his skis, his wax, dialing everything in and being very present. He did a very good job and led the team very well."
Freshman Mason Shinners came to the forefront at state as well with a strong showing in the classic-technique portion of the two-day race as he wound up 58th overall. Travis White placed 69th.
As a team, Rhinelander finished 11th of 15 teams this year, after placing 12th out of 17 teams a season ago.
Divide and conquer
The Hodags took a bit of a different approach with the team this year, dividing the skiers into a competition and developmental squads. It was, more or less, a varsity/junior varsity distinction for the skiers, with the fundamental difference of the skiers choosing their level.
"It was time to make these divisions available to the skiers because there were some who were suffering by not getting enough and then there were those who were suffering because we were pushing them too hard," Reis said. "They get to choose what they want."
The team had nine skiers start the year on the competition team, but lost senior Gwyneth Lowry to a pre-season injury. Threlkeld worked her way on to the competition team by mid-season thanks to her performance at practice and in the Lakeland Invite.
What's next
In a word, the Hodags hope next season will bring with it some normalcy.
There was at least some sign of that last month, when the Northwoods Nordic Ski Club announced that the Hodag Challenge would return Jan. 22 and 23, 2022.
That will, hopefully, be one part of a full schedule for the Hodags next year. As for results, the team hopes to build on a disjointed, but relatively successful 2020-21 campaign. Nine of the 10 skiers who competed at state for the Hodags are slated to return, with Goldsworthy being the lone exception.
"I might be putting words into their mouth, but I think they're really looking forward to next season and seeing how far they can progress again. There were so many athletes this year that made huge strides," Reis said. "It's nice to see the excitement. It's nice to be working with a team that is finally setting goals for themselves in this sport ... We're not used to setting goals. We're used to showing up and hoping to survive. We've finally turned the page on that and started a new chapter."
What's more, the girls' squad could be getting a boost as eighth-grader Brynn Teter finished 15th in the middle school girls' division of the state meet. She was part of a middle school girls' squad that finished fifth in a 10-team field.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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