February 24, 2022 at 9:56 a.m.
Hodags finish 18th at state ski meet
Hodags finish 18th at state ski meet
The Hodag boys finished 18th in a field of 22 teams in the two-day meet that concluded Monday.
Olson said he hoped for an all-or-nothing approach, to shoot for the top 10 or crash trying, but felt his team held back a bit on the steepest terrain it has faced all season.
"Our upperclassmen in the ski ranks did not perform well. It was a mix of being tentative, a mix of being cautious for the older guys. They definitely did not ski up to their potential," he said. "Our upperclassmen had a mix of bad luck and then just being a little bit cautious."
Senior AJ Gillespie was in position to be the Hodags' top finisher on the weekend. He led the team with a 55th-place finish in giant slalom on Sunday, and was 72nd in Monday morning's slalom run, but a mishap before the headwall Monday afternoon in Super G knocked him out of that race, and down to 97th in the final standings.
"There were some deep slalom ruts from the warm snow on Sunday and yesterday it froze hard as a rock. If you were a little bit late on a couple of turns, you would hit these ruts," Olson explained. "He hit one, did the splits and then missed the next gate just to save himself from going into that rock wall up on the top."
Junior Riley Zarm ended up with Rhinelander's top overall finisher on the weekend, finishing 57th overall in a field of 157 skiers. Zarm was 71st in giant slalom, 67th in slalom and 75th in Super G. Freshman Jason Linn recovered from a slip in Sunday's GS run to led the Hodags in both of Monday's events. He was 55th in slalom and 49th in Super G as he finished 59th overall. Fellow freshman Brody Kowieski was the Hodags' next best finisher in 69th overall.
"The bright spot of the weekend was definitely Jason Linn and Brody Kowieski. They both skied at their level and did attack on a pretty steep hill," Olson said "(Linn) had a real good finish in Super G and skied slalom pretty good. He came to one little stop but he kept up with his momentum. He came out and competed at the level we wanted him to compete for a freshman. That was great."
Brandon Bacon finished 75th overall for Rhinelander/Northland Pines and Lukas Bishop was 78th.
Senior McKenna Nash was Rhinelander's lone state qualifier in girls' skiing. Slowed by a foot injury, Nash placed 103rd in a field of 149 racers. She crashed out of Sunday morning's Super G run, took 63rd in slalom on Sunday afternoon and placed 80th Monday in giant slalom.
Olson said much of the weekend was an exercise in trying to keep Nash as comfortable as possible on the hill.
"We were doing boot work right up until about 10:30 on Saturday night. We looked at it again Sunday trying different things ... and we couldn't get rid of it," he said. "Her foot was coming off the bottom of the boot and hitting the back of the boot right on top of the heel bone. It was aggravating for her. She pushed through it, but definitely could not ski (at 100%). That was unfortunate."
The event concluded the season for the Hodag skiers. Gillespie and Nash are the only two graduating from the ski program and Olson said he was optimistic for next year.
"We'll have a good team next year I think for the boys," he said. "We're losing AJ, in which we're losing a great captain, and then McKenna (for the girls). Some more rebuilding but I think we can do pretty well next year, based on what we have down below, and they're performing well too."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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