June 27, 2022 at 8:08 a.m.
Team review: RHS Track & Field
Seniors led Hodag track full circle
Team review: RHS Track & Field
There was a bit of a bittersweet feel as Worrall missed the finals in both the 200 and the 110-meter hurdles at state, but there was also an overall sense of accomplishment for a four-year stretch that put Rhinelander track back on the map, despite the challenges cast from strong competition, a global pandemic that wiped out a season and a difficult spring weather-wise that compacted this year's schedule.
"They have changed the way the program has been viewed," Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. "With the help of this senior group and a few groups before them, we've changed the culture of this program. This senior group was probably the largest part of it because the change started in 2018-19 and it's just continued to snowball since then. It is bittersweet but, at the same time, you look back at all the accomplishments, it's been a really, really fun ride."
In 2022, that ride included another Great Northern Conference championship for the boys' program, a rare meet victory for the Hodag girls and several individual successes both with in the GNC and during the WIAA tournament series.
Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.
GNC redemption
Undoubtedly the biggest achievement for this year's seniors was to bring things full circle from their freshman year in 2019 and return the GNC boys' track title back to Rhinelander.
That championship in 2019 was Rhinelander's first in 52 years. COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season and cost the Hodags a chance to repeat. Last year a few missed opportunities against a stacked Mosinee lineup left Rhinelander five points short of a title. This year, the Hodags wouldn't be denied.
While Mosinee faded this spring, Lakeland emerged as Rhinelander's top rival for the conference title. Lakeland initially outscored Rhinelander at the GNC Indoor Invite in April at Northland Pines, until a clerical error in the scoring of pole vault revealed that Rhinelander won that meet by a point.
Lakeland was still Rhinelander's top challenger six weeks later at the GNC outdoor, particularly hanging tough against the Hodags in the sprints, middle distance and jumping events.
Yet Rhinelander's depth eventually won the night as the Hodags won five events and held off Lakeland by 18 points to claim their second conference title on the boys' side in four years.
"It feels really, really good to be a conference champion again," Kraemer said afterward. "Last year, to have end the way that it did under the circumstances, I really felt like we needed this redemption tonight."
It was a big night for Rhinelander's seniors. Worrall swept the 110 and 300 hurdles, and added a victory in the 200 to take home conference male runner of the year honors. Teammate Caleb Olcikas earned the title of the GNC's fastest man with a win in the 100 and came second to Worrall in the 200. The Hodags also took the 4x200 relay with Olcikas, Beau Howard, Brenden Eckrich and Payton Campbell.
In all the Hodag boys' scored 15 top-three finishes at conference, the most of any program.
Boys' standouts
Worrall made it to state for the second time in his career, qualifying this year in the 110 hurdles and the 200-meter dash, after qualifying in both hurdle events a season ago.
Worrall finished 14th in the preliminaries of the 110-meter hurdles and 15th in the 200-meter dash at UW-La Crosse, missing the top 10 and the finals in both events by roughly 0.2 seconds.
Despite not getting the opportunity for one more high school race, Kraemer said it was a proud way for Worrall, who plans to hurdle for UW-Whitewater next year, to end his Hodag career.
"I didn't think he felt there was more to give," Kraemer said. "That's all I can ask for. He said, 'Boy, there's a lot of great kids I just raced against.' I reiterated with him that he made the entire city and our community and our track program and everyone that follows the Hodags proud today."
Two Hodag seniors narrowly missed return trips to the WIAA state meet. Olcikas, who made it as a freshman as part of the Rhinelander's Division 2 podium-finishing 4x200 relay team, finished fifth at sectionals in the 100, 0.02 seconds outside the top four and a qualifying spot. Jaden Beske, meanwhile, was unable to make it to La Crosse in the high jump for a second straight year, narrowly missing a jump at 6-feet that would have advanced him from the sectional round.
Those three were perhaps some of the biggest names for the Hodags' this season, but Rhinelander had plenty of depth, including Howard and Eckrich in the sprints, Brock Snyder and Conner Jensen in the throws, Kaleb Winter in the high jump and a good portion of the cross country team that qualified for state last October.
Win for the girls
The Hodag girls' season was highlighted by a win in the Dale Peterson Invitational April 21 in Antigo. Rhinelander edged Three Lakes by 4 1/2 points that day for the title in the 10-team girls' field.
It marked the Hodags first meet victory since prior to 2006, the earliest year in which meet-by-meet results are available. The Hodag girls had seven runner-up finishes between 2007 and 2022.
"That's a gigantic feat for them to start that winning," Kraemer said afterward.
"Normally, when something good starts, when the responses start happening, the snowball effect starts to happen. You start to believe in yourself a little bit and you start to move downhill. Hopefully that's what the girls continue to do."
The Hodag girls were slowed a bit by injury during the second half of the season and wound up sixth in a competitive GNC meet, where less than 22 points separated third-place Lakeland from last-place Northland Pines.
Senior Emma Germain repeated as conference champion in the pole vault. She and fellow seniors Megan Brown and Sage Flory helped the Hodags to a second-place finished in the 4x200 and a third-place run in the 4x100.
Senior Rivers Eagleson tied for second at conference in the pole vault while Brown finished third in the 200.
Up and coming girls
There were a few notable underclassman standouts for the Hodag girls' this spring, including junior Gussie Gruett, who was part of Rhinelander's 4x200 relay for much of the year and came on at the end of the season to qualify for sectionals in the 400-meter dash.
"We're still trying to figure out what her best race is and today, 1:04 in the 400, that's eight seconds off of her beginning time of year," Kraemer said. "In that race, it's pretty impressive. To be in the top eight girls in our section, in that race, that's really impressive. I'm very, very proud of her."
Junior Abby Swanson earned Rhinelander's other all-conference award on the girls' side this year, taking third in the discus at the GNCs.
Freshman Callie Hoerchler also stood out, especially early in the season in the hurdles and the high jump. She finished fifth in the 300 hurdles and sixth in the 100 hurdles at conference. Freshman Reese Gehrig was part of the team's 4x100 squad and was a finalist in the girls' 100-meter dash at conference.
Underclassmen Averie West, Kyleah Hartman, Luna Grage, Alyssa Smits, Maria Hubler and Brynn Teter also scored points for Rhinelander at conference.
What's next
The Hodags will certainly have to rebuild a bit after graduating major point-scorers on both sides. Worrall, Olcikas, Beske, Snyder, Howard runner/pole vaulter Ty Welk and hurdler Peter Danh are among the key losses from this year's senior class.
Yet Rhinelander will return a number of pieces, including sophomore-to-be Truman Lamers, who was the conference runner-up in triple jump this spring. Winter, Jensen, Eckrich along with distance runners Cody Reutz and Greyson Gremban round out the list of underclassmen who earned all-conference honors for the Hodag boys' this spring.
Germain, Brown, Flory and Eagleson all graduated after earning all-conference honors for the Hodag girls' this spring. Gruett, Gehrig and Swanson are the only three all-conference athletes slated to return.
Rhinelander also figures to get a influx of talent from the James Williams Middle School track program. The Hodag girls won the WVC Small Middle School Conference meet this year while the Hodag boys were second. The WVC Small meet represented all seven GNC high school programs.
"There are pieces in place for next year and it makes you excited as a coach to be ready to reload," Kraemer said. "You look at what's going in at the middle school with their eighth-grade class, just like this freshman class, there are pieces that fit right in to the puzzle next year. The state of our team looks pretty strong."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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