September 26, 2022 at 8:43 a.m.
Hodag runners near the front in Three Lakes
Hodag runners near the front in Three Lakes
The Hodag girls finished second, edging Crandon in a tiebreaker for the runner-up spot. The Hodag boys were third on the day, only five points behind meet winner Marathon in a race at Big Stone Golf Course.
A race-time temperature in the 50s and a flat course yielded fast times across the board. Of the varsity and JV runners who competed for Rhinelander on Thursday, all but one posted a personal-best 5K time.
"You couldn't have better weather for a cross country race today," Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. "We worked awfully hard and when your working hard and get into that middle season grind where people are tired and, then, all of a sudden you recover. You have a nice, flat race like we had today, we had a real easy day at practice yesterday so guys dropped a lot of time and did well."
The Hodag girls ran in packs of three for much of the race on Thursday. Junior Leah Jamison led Rhinelander's top pack, taking ninth overall in a time of 21 minutes, 49.3 seconds. Sophomore Sophie Miljevich was not far behind in 12th (22:02.0) and senior Juliana Smith was 13th (22:19.0).
"I thought they got better as the race went," Laggis said. "Juliana, you can't tell if she's feeling great or not feeling great. She's just so even-keeled out there and runs her race. I thought Soph did a really good job of finishing hard, finishing that race. I was really proud of that. Leah started out in the No. 2 hole for us and came right up there and was our No. 1. I thought Leah ran a really, really good race and I was proud of her as well."
Rhinelander's second pack - Brynn Teter, Maria Hubler and Luna Grage - finished within 15 seconds of each other in 25th, 26th and 27th. Aubrey Younker beat three other Hodag teammates to be Rhinelander's seventh runner. She placed 36th, ahead of teammates Kyleah Hartman, Charlotte Shurtleff and Reese Gehrig in spots 37-39.
"Maria was hurting today and she really gutted it out. I thought Luna had a breakout race and really looked stronger today," Laggis noted.
Cody Ruetz paced the Hodag boys, taking second with a lifetime-best time of 17:15.0, finishing behind only Taylor Karcz of Crandon (16:23). Greyson Gremban also cracked the 18-minute mark for the Hodags, taking fourth at 17:50.8.
"We had a couple of guys in the 17s, and that's fantastic. Really good job by Cody Ruetz. He started out in the lead and finished second, and Greyson got stronger as the race went, so a really good race by those guys," Laggis said.
Gavin Denis was 19th, missing a sub-19-minute run by 0.6 seconds. Olin Slette was 24th followed by Brody Kowieski in 29th. Shawn Denis, back in the lineup after missing a couple of meets due to injury, was 33rd and Payton McCue finished 47th.
"Gavin Denis and Olin really worked well together back there. Shawn had a nice comeback race and Brody was our No. 5 solid today, that was good," Laggis said. "That's what separate a No. 1 team from that team that's in the three or four hole. It's where that No. 3, 4 and 5 runner is. We've been working on that, for sure. We want to get that clump of runners up closer to the front. That would make a big difference, but it's not for a lack of effort, that's for sure. And there's a lot of improvement, as seen by the times today, so that's a really good thing."
The Hodags will return to action this coming Thursday at Medford in what will serve as a preview of the Great Northern Conference meet which will be held there Oct. 15.
"In a sense, you'll have two conference meets, because everyone's going to be there and want to run the course," Laggis said. "You're going to see Lakeland's best, Medford, Tomahawk. Those are undoubtedly the top three so far on the season. We've got to run our best and try to get in that mix."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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