June 3, 2021 at 8:40 a.m.
Hodag boys beat Medford, finish 2nd in final GNC tune-up
Hodag boys beat Medford, finish 2nd in final GNC tune-up
The Hodags won five events as they finished second overall in the seven-team Medford Invitational on Tuesday. Rhinelander's girls' squad won two events and placed fifth.
On Tuesday who the Hodags beat was more important than where the team finished. The Rhinelander boys were the best of the three GNC schools in attendance and bettered hosting Medford by 30 points. It was Rhinelander's first head-to-head battle with the Raiders all season and the final chance for coach Aaron Kraemer's Hodags to handicap one of the contenders as they look to defend the GNC boys' crown.
"That was the last kind of question mark for us, what to expect from Medford," he said. "You can see a lot (with their results) about their times and their distances, but it's always good to see them in person. We took that last step today to beat the last conference team that we need to beat as far as points are concerned."
Junior Cole Worrall headlined the list of winners for the Hodag boys, once again sweeping the 110- and 300-meter hurdle races. Worrall's time in the 110s was 15.53 seconds, smashing his own personal best.
"This is the first time we've got to see Cole in, I would say, a perfect weather scenario," Kraemer said. "There wasn't a lot of wind and it was very warm today. Cole, it was a fast time. Any time you can drop 0.6 seconds off any sprint race, that's a huge accomplishment for him. A 15.5 sets him up to have a good end of the season, and a good postseason."
Junior Jaden Beske also had a hand in a pair of wins for Rhinelander. He took the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 10 inches and was part of the Hodags' winning 4x400-meter relay team with Worrall, Cody Ruetz and Ty Welk.
"Jaden, this is probably one of the hardest meets he's ever had as far as getting his steps down," Kraemer noted. "He was uncomfortable for the first couple jumps, but he soldiered through. That can go a long way in a conference meet, when there's pressure on."
Senior Jacques Tulowitzky took the 200-meter dash for the Hodags' for their other win on the afternoon. Brock Snyder had another strong day in the throws - finishing runner-up in the shot put and third in the discus - and the Hodags had a help addition to their lineup just ahead of championship season. Sophomore Kaleb Winter, in his first meet of the season after rehabbing from an injury sustained during the football campaign, cleared 10 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault to finish second in that event.
"To see him finally be able to compete and do what he loves to do, was amazing," Kraemer said. "Then to come out in an event that's not easy and jump 10-6, he's got a high potential, high ceiling going forward. I'm very proud of him just to be able to overcome that and come back. I know he's still not 100%. He's almost there."
The performance on the girls' side was highlighted by three top-two finishes, including a couple of personal best marks.
Senior Rebecca Lawrence is rounding into form in the high jump. She won Tuesday's meet with a mark of 4-10 and is rounding into shape just ahead of the biggest meets of the season.
"For Rebecca, our mark is 5-foot. That's where we want to get," Kraemer said. "We want to make sure she gets back to 5-foot by conference so that she puts herself in the mix. When we get to regionals, 5-foot is kind of that mark, and 5-foot, 5-1, 5-2, you start jumping there, you have a chance to not only win the meet but make it through to the next round. We have a few technical things to work out, but next week, we should see her competing really well."
Lawrence was also on the Hodags' winning 4x100-meter relay team along with Megan Brown, Sage Flory and Emma Germain. The quartet posted their fastest time of the season at 52.53 seconds.
"They want to break the school record (50.78 seconds)," Kraemer said. "They're about a second and a half off and if we can get those handoffs down, I think they could do that. They got to see Medford today too, which is the fastest other team in our conference. It's good to see them take the win in that. Hopefully, they can get the handoffs right and win the conference in that event too."
Germain added a runner-up finish in the triple jump with her best mark of the season, a jump of 32-11 1/2.
"She had a really, really good step phase today," Kraemer noted. "We talked about attacking the ground in between her phases and taking the opportunity to propel herself forward. She listened to that coaching and jumped a PR. It was a great jump."
Flory added a third-place showing for the Hodags in the 200 and was fourth in the 100. Brown was fourth and fifth, respectively, in those races. Genna Fugle was fifth in both the 100 and 300 hurdles, Abby Swanson was fifth in the discus and the Hodags took fourth in the girls' 4x400 and fifth in the 4x200.
On the boys' side, Cody Ruetz finished third in the 1,600; Brendon Eckrich and Kaden Worrall were fourth and fifth, respectively in the 100; Kaden Chillemi was fourth in the discus and the Hodags finished fourth in the 4x100.
Rhinelander's boys finished 26 points behind Stanley-Boyd for the meet win. That was with the team's 4x200-meter squad getting disqualified, and a light workload for the team's top sprinter, Caleb Olcikas.
"We had some did not starts and DQs in some events that lost us some points. I thought we would have been right there with Stanley-Boyd, if not right behind them, right in front of them," Kraemer said. "Unfortunate, but it's something, if it had to happen, it had to happen today. Hopefully we got it out of our system."
The Hodags elected to skip Thursday's rescheduled Dale Peterson Invite in Antigo to rest up for this Tuesday's GNCs, which have been moved to Medford after originally being scheduled to be held at Northland Pines.
"It sets us up for a good conference meet. We can't wait to compete against the rest of the teams in our conference," Kraemer said. "There are always going to be meet entries up coaches selves and plans to try to win. For us, it's just to make sure everybody's there, everybody's healthy and to compete to the best of our ability. Hopefully, for our boys, we get the opportunity to lift the conference championship trophy.
"For our girls, there were a lot of great things that happened tonight. Hopefully we get a good practice, (Wednesday), Thursday and Friday and we get ready for the conference meet ... They have a good team and they have enough to do really, really well in the conference and surprise some people with where they finish."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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