May 16, 2022 at 3:16 p.m.
Hodag track focuses on GNCs as weather nixes home meet
Hodag track focuses on GNCs as weather nixes home meet
Thunderstorms rolled in right as Thursday's Hodag Invite at Mike Webster Stadium was scheduled to get underway. Though skies were beginning to clear as the weather delay stretched into its second hour, a consensus was reached by participating coaches and officials to cancel the meet as a couple of thunder clouds hung around in the eastern sky.
It marked the second time in three years that the Hodags were unable to host their home meet. The 2020 edition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's the right decision, but it's a sad decision," Hodag track coach Aaron Kraemer said. "(RHS activities director Brian) Paulson put a ton of work into this today. It was looking really, really good. We were getting ready to get started and then everything had to stop. Sad for him, sad for our players and, ultimately, I'm sad for the community too, because this is a beautiful track and it's a shame that none of our high school athletes get to use it today."
Winds increased and skies darkened roughly 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the meet. The national anthem played, and a few field events got underway. Just as the officials were getting set to call the first running race, the 4x800-meter relay, to the starting line the storms came close enough to force everyone to seek shelter.
There was talk of eliminating a couple of events in an effort to get the meet back underway shortly after 6 p.m., but the coaches couldn't reach a consensus and, ultimately with thunder still audible to the east at around 5:30 p.m. - prompting officials to reset the 30-minute wait period under WIAA regulations -the decision was made to pull the plug on the evening.
"There's just far too much uncertainty, things popping up behind, everybody's radar looks different," Kraemer said as the sun began to shine just minutes after the decision to cancel the meet. "It's just hard to tell and the last thing you want is to have kids here until 11 o'clock three days or four days before the conference meet."
Kraemer's mind immediately began to shift to today's GNC meet in Antigo. Rhinelander won the boys' conference title in 2019 and finished second last year, just five points behind Mosinee.
Kraemer said he was hoping to use Thursday's home meet to put the final pieces of his conference lineup together, but now has to go with his gut to determine where to put his athletes so that they are in the best position to score points.
"It's just a little tinkering that has to happen in a couple of the events where we think some (teams) are going to go heavy and some are going to go light," he said. "Where can we score points and how can we manage our 28 entries?
"It would have been nice to see a few things tonight to prepare our entries for conference, but we're not going to be able to see it and, hopefully, we can make sure to have a great practice tomorrow, prepare on Monday and get into the end of the season."
Though Rhinelander has won a number of meets on the boys' side this year, as many as five teams could be in the hunt for the championship today depending on how things shake out. Lakeland has been neck and neck with Rhinelander all season and thought it won the Northland Pines Indoor Invite, with all seven GNC schools in attendance, until a clerical error in the scoring of pole vault was discovered and Rhinelander was declared the winner by one point.
Northland Pines finished only 14 points behind Rhinelander last week at the Hatchet Invite in Tomahawk. Medford has the top distance runner in the conference in Joey Sullivan and though defending conference champion Mosinee finished a distant eighth at the Otto Bacher Invite in Merrill earlier this month, Kraemer said he knows the Indians have yet to show their full hand.
"The interesting thing about our conference is that everyone's strong in different places," he said. "Mosinee's strong in the sprints and the jumps. Lakeland's strong in the sprints and the distance. They have some good relays. Pines has some good relays. Jack Gjovick is a great jumper. But, I think it's going to come down to how many of your 28 entries are going to score and, at the end of that, what that looks like."
Last year, Mosinee went all in, stacking its lineup in the sprints and horizontal jumps, and scored just enough points in those events to hold Rhinelander off for the conference title. Kraemer said he still carries the memory of an opportunity lost, and there would be no better redemption than to walk out of Antigo's Listle Field with the trophy.
"First of all Rhinelander walking out of Antigo with a trophy, that's something that we want to keep going," he said, alluding to the Bell Game football rivalry between Rhinelander and Antigo that the Hodags have won three years running. "It would feel very gratifying doing that as a football coach but, at the same time, it would feel a little but like redemption.
"All it's going to take is our best efforts and if we have our best efforts, I think we can come out victorious."
On the girls' side, Mosinee and Medford appear to be the class of the field. Medford won the Northland Pines Indoor Invite in April while Mosinee, the defending conference girls' champion, won the Otto Bacher convincingly earlier this month.
Behind those two, all five other teams in the GNC could make a legitimate case for third in the conference, or perhaps second if one of the favorites falters. Antigo has the top sprinter in the conference with Mackenzie Wissbroecker, Northland Pines figures to rack up points in the distance events with sophomore Nora Gremban. Rhinelander has two of the top sprint relays in the conference and the defending triple jump champ in Emma Germain. Lakeland and Tomahawk have had enough all-around depth to be competitive in the scoring all season.
"Mosinee, their girls' team is very, very solid and it's going to be very difficult for them to be beaten," Kraemer said. "But when you look at the other teams, you look at Antigo with Wissbroecker and you look at Medford, they always have a very, very strong distance program and some fast sprinters, it's anybody's race there in the girls' (division). Who knows. We need to stay strong, stay positive, do the best we can."
Entries for today's meet were not available prior to press time, but the Hodags enter the meet with a chance to defend a number of individual conference titles. Cole Worrall is the reigning GNC champ in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, Jaden Beske will look to defend his high jump crown and the Hodags bring back two runners off last year's winning 4x100 relay - Caleb Olcikas and Brock Snyder.
In addition to the triple jump, Germain is looking to repeat in the girls' 4x100 along with senior teammates Sage Flory and Megan Brown.
"I'm excited for Cole and Caleb and Emma and Megan to get their opportunities to shine under the bright lights," Kraemer said.
Today's meet gets underway at 4 p.m. at Listle Field, adjacent to Antigo High School.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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