February 3, 2022 at 8:48 a.m.
Hodag Nordic competes at conference
Hodag Nordic competes at conference
Skiing the same venue that will be used later this month for the Wisconsin Nordic Ski League state distance championships, the Hodags were seventh out of seven complete teams in the boys' division and fourth out of four teams in the girls' division.
Skiers competed in a 6.4-kilometer classic race at the American Birkebeiner trailhead, which coach Charil Reis said provided a strong dress rehearsal for the WNSL state championships.
"It was a really tough course. It was 6.4K and it was all hills and these are not short hills like you see out at CAVOC," she said, comparing the trails to Rhinelander's home venue. "Every hill is like three times as long as anything out there, climbing and descending. You're rocketing down these tracks that may have a corner at the bottom and you're carrying speeds you're not used to, so it's super challenging for climbing. It's super challenging for descending and you're just kind of hanging on by your fingernails for most of the race."
The Hodag girls had four skiers place in the top 20 of a 32-skier field on Tuesday, led by senior Liana Teter in 11th place. She covered the 6.4 kilometers in 27 minutes, 0.33 seconds. Freshman Brynn Teter, Liana's younger sister, was second across for Rhinelander in 13th overall (28:56.74) and junior Olivia Gillen was 15th (29:43.90).
"I'm super pleased with the girls' results today. Liana should be pretty happy with that, and Brynn as well," Reis said. "This is the race that I've been waiting for Olivia to have her entire high school career. She made it happen. She put it all together today and she finished in the top half. She was able to have just perfect day and I'm really happy for her."
Seniors Anna Wood (17th, 30:13.94) and Callie Threlkeld (26th, 33:31.44) rounded out the Hodags' top five. Wood was in her second race back, and Threlkeld in her first race back, from illness.
"We had that talk yesterday and I said to them, 'I really just don't want that experience to taint the rest of your season,'" Reis said. "'I don't want you to focus on what could have been because it's not one race or one season that's going to defines who you are. Yes, maybe you could have raced differently if you hadn't (been sick) and it had not affected your lungs, but the reality is now you're dealing with some frustration and you're able to kind of segregate that from your mind and put the controllables in front of you and make the best of it.'"
Rhinelander had three skiers on the boys' side Tuesday, just enough to field a varsity team score. Travis White finished 36th in a field of 52 skiers (26:05.04), Iain Rumney was 40th (28:25.17) and Gavin Hackbarth was 47th (30:34.45).
"Our boys, we have a freshman (Rumney) who skied today, a junior (White) and a senior (Hackbarth). I have to hand it to them. I'm so glad that they were able to score and get enough boys together to have a score," Reis said. "For them today was just about making sure that they had good kick and good glide and got a good look at the course for the state weekend."
Luna Grage (29th) and Emma Mankus (31st) also competed for the Hodag girls on Tuesday, but did not factor into the team scoring.
The Hodags are back in action this Saturday and Sunday at the WNSL State Sprint Championships in Madison. Team freestyle sprint races will take place Saturday, followed by individual classic sprints on Sunday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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