May 9, 2022 at 9:27 a.m.
Hodag boys second at Otto Bacher
Hodag boys second at Otto Bacher
The Hodags left a number of points on the table Friday night as they finished second in the 35th annual Otto Bacher Invitational in Merrill. Rhinelander finished 5 1/2 points behind Wausau East for the meet title, a gap that could have been easily made up in a number of places.
Still the Hodags scored three individual victories, and six other top-three finishes in the 11-team meet, which including all seven GNC schools, and were the highest placing conference team in the boys' division. The Hodag girls had four top-three finishes as they placed seventh in their division.
"We had mistakes that are not characteristic of us and we have two weeks to get it fixed," Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. "To say I'm not upset that we didn't win, I'm a competitor, but there's a lot of things to be proud of tonight."
A dropped baton in the 4x100-meter relay, where the Hodags were the top seed, was likely the difference in the meet. That ended up being a 12-point swing in Wausau East's direction. Kraemer said the root of the problem was some miscommunication regarding the handoff.
"I changed the handoffs for them. That didn't get across to one of our runners and we had a dropped baton and I take full responsibility for it," he said. "Ultimately, I'm the coach. I'm the one that changed the handoff, so that's on me."
There were other places where Rhinelander lost points as well. Kaleb Winter scratched out of pole vault, tweaking an injury during warmups. Teammates Brock Snyder and Conner Jensen were about 10 feet off their personal-best marks in discus and Cole Worrall managed only a fourth-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles following a slow start.
Still, the Hodags had a number of personal records on Friday and Kraemer said he saw signs of optimism with the GNC meet only a week away.
"I'm even more excited for the PRs tonight, on both the boys' and the girls' side," he said. "This thing isn't necessarily about winning, it's about being the best you can possibly be each week. We had some unfortunate things happen and it happens.
"We have the tools and pieces in place to win a conference championship. Now, will we go out, fix the problems we had tonight and win? That's the question."
Worrall took the 110 hurdles for Rhinelander (16.14) and the Hodags fared well in the sprint events. Caleb Olcikas won the 100 and finish second in the 200, 0.01 seconds behind Three Lakes' Trevin Walkowski. Rhinelander had three runners qualify for the finals in the 100 with Beau Howard taking fourth and Brendon Eckrich finishing seventh.
Freshman Truman Lamers smashed his personal best in the triple jump, finishing second with a leap of 39 feet, 10 inches. Payton Campbell also had a breakout performance in the long jump, taking third at 19-2 3/4.
"We had three guys in the finals in the 100 and Caleb took second in the 200 by a hair," Kraemer said. "Payton jumped third in the long jump with a huge jump. He PR'ed tonight. Truman Lamers was second in the triple with a 39-foot jump, plus. That was an amazing PR."
Jaden Beske was back in the winner's circle in the high jump. He cleared 5-10 on his first attempt, which proved to be enough to win a tiebreaker as none of the five jumpers who made 5-10 were able to get over the bar at 6 feet.
"Jaden fixed one technical flaw in his jump tonight, which got him over the next height," Kraemer said. "Now it's about refining and getting over 6 feet. Once you get over 6 feet and 6-2, anything can happen. It doesn't matter if it's D1 or D5, 6-foot, 6-2, that's kind of the magic number."
The Hodags were third in both the 4x200 and 4x400 relays while Snyder took third in the shot put. Rhinelander took fourth in the 4x800 and freshman Greyson Gremban took fourth in the 3,200, holding off a strong push from Wausau East's Brecken Bancuk in the penultimate event as the Hodags tried to close the gap on the Lumberjacks in the team standings down the stretch.
"One of the things that could have saved us tonight was Greyson Gremban," Kraemer noted. "We lost by five points (at conference) last year and he scored five in (the 3,200), tried to hold off kids and that's where we had opportunities to win it last year, because not a lot a kids run that race, and that's Greyson's race. He ran 10:45 tonight, which was his goal and he got there."
Peter Danh finished fifth in the 110 hurdles, Ty Welk was seventh in the pole vault and Howard finished eighth in the long jump. Snyder and Jensen were sixth and eighth, respectively, in the discus.
On the girls' side, Rhinelander scored the win in the 4x200 relay with the team of Reese Gehrig, Sage Flory, Emma Germain and Gussie Gruett (1:55.14). Megan Brown, Gehrig, Germain and Flory were second in the 4x100, 0.04 seconds behind Medford.
Overall, it was a good night for the sprinters on the girls' side. Brown placed fourth in both the 100 and the 200. Germain made the finals and finished eighth in the 100 while Flory made the finals in the 200 in placed eighth.
"Great times for Megan Brown tonight in the 100 and the 200," Kraemer said. "Today she was feeling the lactic dump and she was hurting. She was burning and sore and she just continues to surprise me. Just a great athlete."
Germain was the runner-up in the triple jump, near her personal-best mark, with a leap of 33-8 1/2.
"Emma with a huge jump today," Kraemer said. "I work with her constantly and she just is the ultimate competitor. She's been working on that all year and for her to jump just under 34 feet, she's in the state 25 and that's huge for us."
Callie Hoerchler finished third in the 100 hurdles and was fifth in the 300 hurdles. The Hodags were sixth in the 4x400, Averie West was seventh in the 300 hurdles, Gruett finished eighth in the 400 and Abby Swanson was eighth in the shot put.
Mosinee beat Medford 121-93.5 for the girls' title. The Hodags were fifth-best among GNC schools, behind Lakeland (fifth) and Antigo (sixth).
Lakeland finished 6 1/2 points behind Rhinelander in third on the boys' side. Northland Pines was fifth, Medford was seventh. Mosinee, last year's GNC boys' champion, was a surprising eighth. Antigo was ninth and Tomahawk finished 10th.
Kraemer hinted that, like it did last year, he suspects Mosinee did not show all of its cards on the boys' side and there is still a lot to be decided on May 17 when the GNC championships take place at Listle Field in Antigo.
"I think it sets us up good. You look at where we're at in relation to the rest of the conference tonight, the interesting thing is a lot of the points that were taken in some places (from non-GNC schools) get redistributed and you never know what happens," he said. "Anything can happen in track. One dropped baton, one missed board, anything could happen."
The Hodags will have two more meets to prepare for conference, at Tomahawk this afternoon and then home Thursday for the Hodag Invite at Mike Webster Stadium.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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