RHS girls 2nd, boys 3rd in opening invite

The Rhinelander High School cross country team has some work to do to catch some of the elite programs in the Great Northern Conference but Thursday’s season opener showed the Hodags that doing so is not out of the realm of possibility.

Rhinelander finished second in the girls’ division and third in the boys’ division in the 14-team Hodag Invite in front of RHS. The story for both teams followed similar a script — one returning runner had a breakout run, a number of other returners turned in solid performances and both sides had freshmen who contributed to the scoring right away. 

“I’m really encouraged with where we started today,” Hodag coach M.J Laggis said. “I think, on the girls’ side, we have so much to look forward to. On the boys’s side I feel the same way.”

Junior Greyson Gremban had a strong showing out of the gates for the Hodags, and was Rhinelander’s best individual finisher on the day. He finished third, covering five kilometers in 18 minutes, 3.5 seasons. Only Lakeland’s Owen Clark and Crandon’s Taylor Karcz were faster. 

Laggis said Gremban enters the season in great form following a strong summer of training, which was on display Thursday. 

“Greyson Gremban, all his training and work has paid off,” he said. “I’m really proud of him and how he ran today. He’s an absolute hard worker. He’s the hardest working boy, practice-wise, that I’ve had.”

Another junior, Brody Kowieski, was second across the line for Rhinelander in 23rd overall. Gavin Denis finished 30th followed by a pair of freshmen making their high school debuts — Avrom Barr took 31st and Jackson Weinzatl finished 48th. Junior Shawn Denis (52nd) and freshman Hank Kowieski (98th), a late addition to the team, rounded out the top seven. 

“Brody Kowieski, what a difference from last year to this year,” Laggis said. “It’s just crazy how much he’s improved. Gavin Denis, just an absolute worker, and Avrom Barr was a huge surprise at how good he’s going to fit in. Don’t forget, Avrom’s trying to figure out how to run a high school race here. He’s just starting. Then you had Shawn and you had Jackson right there.”

    Rhinelander’s Leah Jamison leads Lakeland’s Ada Ernst to the finish line of the Hodag Invite cross country race Thursday, Aug. 24. Jamison took seventh individually as the Hodags finished second as a team in the girls’ division. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Senior Leah Jamison turned in a strong run on the girls’ side. She ran in the top five most of the race before settling into seventh place with a time of 23:00.7. She edged Lakeland’s Ada Ernst — who finished sixth in the GNC last fall — across the finish line. 

Behind Jamison, freshman Kara Monk impressed in her debut, coming home 21st at 24:33.7. 

A trio of juniors — Sophie Miljevich, Luna Grage and Brynn Teter — came across 23rd, 27th and 28th. Freshman Ella Miljevich was 29th and senior Maria Hubler rounded out the varsity scoring in 35th. 

“Leah had a fantastic race. Kara Monk has come out of nowhere. In the first day of practice, watching her, I thought, ‘this girl can really go.’ I’m really going to be curious how she improves throughout the year,” Laggis said. “Sophie’s a totally different runner this year and I’m really pumped to see what she does. She’s had a completely different mindset so far this season. I’m really happy with that. Luna had a good race. She’s battled injury the last couple of years. I’m happy with that big time. Then Brynn did not start out super good and she finished as our five. That told me about her gutty, willingness to finish a race.”

Defending GNC champion Lakeland won the boys’ race, returning six of its seven starters from a year ago. The T-Birds edged D.C. Everest by four points for the team title. 

The Hodags were third with 123 points and placed ahead of fellow GNC schools Tomahawk (fifth), Northland Pines (ninth) and Antigo (11th).

“On the boys’ side, I knew Everest would be rock solid and Lakeland’s tough as nails. I’m very pleased with the boys finishing third overall. Granted, Lakeland got us by a lot but there’s a lot of season here to go,” Laggis said. “We just feel on the boys’ side we have a lot to work with right there, a good start. Third overall is pretty darn good.”

Tomahawk won the girls’ division with 45 points while Rhinelander edged Chequamegon by a point for second. Lakeland took sixth, Northland Pines was seventh and Antigo did not have enough girls to qualify for a team score. 

“Tomahawk beat us, no doubt about it,” Laggis said. “They put an exclamation point on and beat us, but I don’t think we’re that far away. On the girls’ side, there’s going to be one team ahead of us, that’s pretty obvious right now. We’ll see what Medford brings, but Tomahawk will be that team to chase.”

Despite muggy conditions on Thursday, times for a number of returning athletes were significantly faster on Thursday than they were in the opener one year ago. Gremban beat his mark from last year by more than 1 minute, 10 seconds. Brody Kowieski dropped nearly 2 1/2 minutes. Gavin Denis and Shawn Denis were also faster than a year ago. 

On the girls’ side, Jamison finished nearly 2 1/2 minutes ahead of her 2022 time, as did Grage. Teter bettered her time by roughly 30 seconds. 

Laggis said it was a positive ending to two strong weeks of practice. 

“Practices have been a blast,” he said. “Kids are working hard on the routes, working hard on the repeats on hills, whatever we’re doing, surge and recoveries, and the weight room has been excellent, really good work ethic on our big core lifts in the weight room.”

The Hodags travel to the Wausau area today for the Mosinee Invite hosted at Nine Mile Forest, which will also play host to the Great Northern Conference meet in mid-October. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].