August 23, 2021 at 8:18 a.m.
Team preview: RHS cross country
Hodags enter 2021 with unfinished business
Team preview: RHS cross country
The Hodags were hit hard by COVID-19 protocol toward the end of last season, with a number of the team's best runners missing the biggest meets of the year while in quarantine.
It's a new season for the Hodags, who bring back a number of runners from last year's team and are eager to show where they stack up among their rivals when they are at full strength.
"It definitely didn't end the way we wanted it to," coach M.J. Laggis said. "We weren't the best in the conference, but we were a lot better than what we were putting out there at the end."
On the boys' side, COVID protocol knocked out the team's top two runners from last year - Cal Laggis and Jaden Beske.
Cal Laggis, coach Laggis' son, was a first-team all-GNC runner as a sophomore and appeared to be on the same trajectory last year. He placed fourth or better in all seven of his starts last year and had just run a personal best time of 17 minutes, 27 seconds before getting put into protocol.
"Cal's the anchor right now and you'd like to think he's, at worst, a top two runner for us and a first-teamer. You love having that come back," coach Laggis said.
Beske is going to try to juggle both football and cross country this season. Ty Welk, Cody Ruetz and Jack DeNamur all return after earning all-conference honors last year, placing in the top 21 of the GNC meet. AJ Gillespie and Travis White also return, and coach Laggis said he's also excited about a couple of newcomers to the boys' squad.
"Greyson Gremban is a freshman coming in that has had a really, really good week of practice," he said. "Again, trying to dual-sport, play soccer as well. That's going to be difficult, but he really has some potential. Then Gavin Denis we got to come out this year as a sophomore, and he's a natural runner."
The Hodag girls' squad lost seniors Ali DeNamur and Abbey Henrichs from last year's squad, but No. 3 runner Leah Jamison, who finished 19th at conference, returns. Emma Germain is also back, and coach Laggis called her the "anchor" of the girls' squad.
"She's a total leader and she's handling herself like that right now," he said. "I'm super, super impressed with her. The other girl that just jumps off the board with her work ethic in the offseason is Leah Jamison. I'm going to be really curious to see what those two can do."
Sage Flory, Aubrey Younker and Juliana Smith also return with previous varsity experience and the Hodags are expecting freshman Sophia Miljevich to make an impact after a standout performance at the middle school level.
"Sophie's going to be a big part of it," M.J. Laggis said. "I'll be very curious to watch her in a race against Everest and West and all those schools to see where she stacks up, because there will be some real competition here on Thursday."
Overall, coach Laggis said this year's team is unproven. He's excited about the shape and form it has shown in the first week of practice, but he knows the rubber will hit the road Thursday when the team hosts an 11-team invite in front of RHS.
"I think it's a fair representation and I think it's going to tell us a lot about where our kids stack up," he said. "We've added some kids but we also have kids who don't have any race experience with us. We don't know where we're at. We truly don't know how we are all made. We could be really solid through six or seven (runners), or we could struggle after three. We're going to have to see a meet to see where we are at."
A number of traditional stops on the schedule return this fall, including the annual Bill Smiley Invitational in Wausau in mid-September, and the Hatchet Invite in Tomahawk the week before conference, which this year will be hosted by Lakeland and Minocqua Winter Park.
Rhinelander is also back in Division 2 this year, which means the Hodags will race against schools of more comparable size, as opposed to last year when the team was bumped up to Division 1 due to the number of schools that opted out of the traditional fall season.
Coach Laggis said he's hopeful, with a little good fortune on the health front, his teams can be right in the mix in the GNC.
"I'd like to see us have a girls' and a boys' team that can compete and battle in that top three," he said. "I hate to even say because every time I think we're right on the cusp and we have that team, we've been bitten by so many things - the injury bug, another year it was a different sickness where I had three or four kids sick right at the end. Last year was obviously COVID. I just feel like I'm a broken record, but honestly we want to be in that top three and challenging."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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