April 20, 2022 at 1:14 p.m.
Track: Hodag boys win first outdoor meet of the season
Track: Hodag boys win first outdoor meet of the season
The Hodag boys won seven events and took the title in the six-team Lakeland Invitational in Minocqua. Rhinelander won four events on the girls' side and placed third in that division.
After snow over the weekend, there was some consternation as to how much, if any, of the meet would be able to take place outdoors. However, the fields on the Lakeland campus cleared to the point where all track events and the throwing events took place outside. Long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault were the only events that took place indoors.
"It was nice to see finally everybody out on the track," Rhinelander coach Aaron Kraemer said. "The weather today was kind of misleading, though it said 41, it was kind of warm for the most part of the meet. I thought it was really good for our distance runners and some of our sprinters. As long as they were able to get warm, there was no reason they couldn't run really good races today."
Tuesday's meet for Rhinelander was headlined by the return of state-qualifying hurdler Cole Worrall to the lineup. The senior was scratched from Rhinelander's first three meets due to injury, but was back in dominating form on Tuesday as he swept the 110- and 300-meter hurdle events.
Worrall took the 110 hurdles in a time of 16.55 seconds, which is among the top 25 times in the state so far this season, according to the MileSplit database. Worrall edged Bessemer, Michigan's Jack Nyquist by 0.12 seconds to take the 300 hurdles with a time of 44.73 that's among the top 50 in the state.
"Any time you look on MileSplit and you see top 50 or top 25 performances, you're always excited," Kraemer said. "I know, for Cole, he looks at it as, 'Where was I last year at this time.' He's smart enough to know and to measure himself from last year, but also see that he's got a lot of room to grow.
"I was very happy to see Cole, first off, just to see him out there and second I was happy to have him around again because he's a Grade-A type human being. I can't say enough about the type of person he is. He did a wonderful job.
Senior Megan Brown led the Hodag girls on Tuesday, sweeping both the 100 and 200 meters. Brown (13.67) edged Mercer's KD Knipp by 0.18 seconds in the 100 and won a photo finish over Wausau Newman's Mel Severson in the 200, beating her to the line by 0.01 seconds. Brown's time of 27.88 was among the top 50 in the state.
"Megan has been impressive to me this year," Kraemer said. "She's got a few things, technically, that if she continues to work on ... she would be probably one of the fastest people around. She has unbelievable raw talent and, a few technical things that, if she worked on it, she'd be blowing people away. Right now, she already is."
Senior Caleb Olcikas nearly pulled off the same 100-200 double that Brown did. He nabbed the 100 in a state top-50 time of 11.50 seconds, but was edged in the 200 by Lakeland's Bo Peterson (23.38). The margin of victory was 0.02 seconds as both runners recorded state top-25 times.
"He has the heart and desire to continue to get better. I'm really, really proud of him, one and two (in his events), and it was a tough race in the 200," Kraemer said. "Bo Peterson, that kid is very, very good. It's good to see him a lot because Caleb gets to see that in the 200, which is going to push him to get better."
Rhinelander had another strong night in the pole vault. Junior Kaleb Winter led a top-three sweep on the boys' side with a state top-25 jump of 11 feet, 9 inches. Ty Welk was second and AJ Gillespie finished third. Rivers Eagleson took the girls' pole vault, with a personal-best mark of 7-6.
"They just keep getting better every single week. Coach (Jim) Povolo's got them working through different technical drills," Kraemer said. "I said this with Cole, but I'll say the same with Kaleb. Anytime you look at MileSplit and see top 25 in the state, top 50 in the state, that's saying something. It's not easy to jump 11-9. There's a lot of technical things that go with it - different poles and different grips and different approaches. Kaleb's really putting it together.
Freshman Truman Lamers added a win for Rhinelander in the triple jump (35-5) while Rhinelander won both the 4x100 and 4x800 relays. Cody Ruetz, Jack DeNamur, Welk and Greyson Gremban took the 4x800 in a time of 9:20.53. In the 4x100, Olcikas, Beau Howard, Peyton Campbell and Brendon Eckrich posted a time of 45.70 seconds. That drew comparisons to Rhinelander's dominant 4x100 crew that reached the podium at the WIAA Division 2 state meet in 2019.
"As far as my records go back, that was seventh place as far as the fastest 4x100 times, outdoors, Kraemer said. "That's saying something when the very first effort of the (Nick) Kriesel, (Josh) Francisco and (Anthony) Kowalski era was 45.45. They ran 45.70. That's pretty good and they have some things they can work on with their handoffs where they can get even better. I was really, really excited about it."
Howard and Eckrich fared well individually in the sprints, taking third and fifth, respectively, in the 100. Peter Danh was second in the 110 hurdles, Ruetz finished second in the 1,600, Gremban was second in the 3,200 and the Hodags were the runners-up in both the boys' 4x200 and 4x400 relays. Lamers added a third-place finish in the high jump, Welk was third in the 400 and Zach Germain took third in the triple jump.
On the girls' side, freshman Callie Hoerchler won the 100 hurdles (18.81), was second in the 300 hurdles and took fifth in the high jump. Luna Grage placed third in the 800 and fifth in the 1,600. Abby Swanson took third in the discus and Rhinelander was third in the 4x100 with the relay team of Cassie Burke, Averie West, Emma Deede and Lexi Bishop.
Kyleah Hartman added fifth-place showings in both the 100 hurdles and the 400, Reese Gehrig was fifth in the 100, Alyssa Smits was fifth in the 800 and Mia Gillingham took fifth in the long jump.
Rhinelander defeated Lakeland 187-158 for the title on the boys' side, with Wausau Newman a distant third at 94 points. Lakeland took the girls' division 131-98 over Wausau Newman. The Hodags finished 10 points behind the Cardinals in third.
Upon further review ...
Tuesday's meet actually was not the first time Rhinelander got the better of Lakeland on the boys' side this year after all.
A clerical error was found after the fact in the scoring of the Northland Pines Indoor Invitational that took place Thursday, April 7. Initially, Lakeland was believed to have edged Rhinelander 112-110 for the meet title. However, the scorers of the meet failed to award Rhinelander's Ty Welk three points for a sixth-place finish in the pole vault.
The error has since been corrected by the company that timed the event, and the official results on the company's website reflect Rhinelander earning the victory, 113-112.
Up next
The Hodags were back in action yesterday at the Dale Peterson Invite in Antigo, which concluded after deadline for today's edition.
With a busy outdoor schedule leading up to the May 17 Great Northern Conference outdoor meet, Kraemer said his team will need to be choosy about how it uses its athletes.
"Now with two meets a week as we go through, we not only have to be selective about our athletes, but understand it's a lot colder than it normally is at this time of the year, so putting kids though the same event schedule that they would always run, it's kind of like lifting the same muscle every day. You start to plateau and your body and muscles start to break down. That's the selection process we've got to figure out, where do kids fit end for certain other events."
Rhinelander is in for another two-meet week next week as it travels to Medford on Tuesday before heading to Merrill a week from today for the Otto Bacher Invitational.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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