January 19, 2022 at 1:21 p.m.
RHS/Pines Alpine begins season with wins
RHS/Pines Alpine begins season with wins
The Hodag boys had three skiers in the top five as they won the Northern Conference opener at Indianhead Mountain in Wakefield, Mich. The Rhinelander and Northland Pines co-op also had the top four boys' snowboarders in the field and the team finished third in the girls' skiing division.
"It was good to get one under out belt and look forward to how we can try to improve for the rest of the season," coach Rod Olson said. "Definitely some good performances and some hiccups too."
The Hodag boys had the best team score in all three events on Tuesday as they edged the Wausau West/
Wausau East/D.C. Everest co-op by 18 points for the meet title.
Consistency proved to be key on a day where a number of top contenders had issues in at least one race. Riley Zarm, Brandon Bacon and Jason Linn all recorded top-10 runs in all three races to finish third, fourth and fifth overall.
Zarm led the trio, finishing third in both Super G and giant slalom, and fifth in slalom.
"Riley had the best showing today for Rhinelander," Olson said. "He did have a great day and skied well. Some things we can work on still, but he had a really good day."
Senior AJ Gillespie likely would have also been in contention for a top-five overall finish if not for a fall during the first run of the day in Super G. He rebounded to finish fourth in giant slalom and third in slalom, but placed 14th overall.
"AJ was skiing real well in Super G but got into a tuck a little too early, hit a gate and did not finish," Olson said. "That hurt his day overall. But he came back and did decent in giant slalom and slalom."
Brody Kowieski was 19th and Lukas Bishop placed 24th for the Hodags.
Senior McKenna Nash led the Hodag girls in seventh place overall while Callie Hoerchler took 10th in her varsity debut. Maddie Ewan placed 19th and Sophie Miljevich placed 23rd.
"We had some mishaps in girls' ski," Olson said. "Our leader, McKenna, was not aggressive enough. She was a little bit timid, so she didn't perform up to her potential. She didn't have any crashes or anything, but she definitely left a lot on the table and I know she can do better.
"The rest of the girls did OK. Sophie Miljevich went down once. Maddie and Callie had decent races. Maddie's only got a year under her belt and Callie's in her first year, but they did OK. They enjoyed themselves."
Olson said Max Durkee did not have the cleanest of days on his board, but still had enough speed to win the overall competition - which was shortened to two runs of slalom as the Northern Conference scrambled to stay on schedule due to roughly six inches of snow that fell prior to and during the meet.
Durkee rode to a 1.42-second win in the first of the two slalom runs and still finished third in the second run, despite a slip.
"Max had one fall but he got up and finished and one slide out," Olson said. "He didn't have his best day, but he definitely had the most course speed. I think he's the fastest racer in the conference this year."
Isiah Willoughby won the second slalom run and finished second overall on the day. Freshman Owen Repenshek was third, followed by Reese Frisque in fourth. Ryder Will was sixth and Brady Frisque finished eighth. The Hodags were the only conference team that had enough boarders to qualify for a team score.
Nicole Long, the lone girls' snowboarder on the squad, placed third in both runs of slalom on Tuesday and took third overall.
The Hodags return to action this coming Monday for the second round of the Northern Conference season at Christie Mountain in Bruce.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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