March 20, 2023 at 8:52 a.m.
Hodag track 3rd in season-opening quad
Hodag track 3rd in season-opening quad
The Hodags finished third in both the boys' and girls' divisions of the Wisconsin Rapids Indoor track meet. Rhinelander finished behind Wisconsin Rapids and Reedsburg and ahead of Port Edwards in both divisions.
"We had only a third of our team, really, for the girls. So it was a very good beginning to the first event," Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. "It's overplayed to win meets during the season. It's always nice to do so, but it's always nice to have a PR (personal record) each week, and that's what we want our kids to do - don't worry about the points on the board, just worry about PR'ing every single week."
The Hodags had a number of returning athletes gone on spring break, which provided an opportunity for some new names to emerge. That was especially true in the girls' sprints, where Rhinelander is trying to replace three top sprinters Megan Brown, Sage Flory and Emma Germain, who were lost to graduation.
That ended up being Rhinelander's strongest suit on the evening. The Hodags won the 4x133-meter and the 4x400 relays and finished second in both the 50 and 400-meter dashes.
The quartet of junior Nicole Long, sophomore Lexi Bishop and freshmen Aila Bergman and Millie Gruett won both relay events. All four finished in the top third of the field in the 50 - with Bergman placing second and Long taking fourth. Gruett finished eighth and Bishop was 12th.
"They did kind of steal the show," Kraemer said. "Aila Bergman, taking a second place today in the 50-meter dash in her first high school races, is impressive. We watched her last year as an eighth grader in the sprints and the triple jump. We kind of knew what she was capable of but today she did a wonderful job.
"Nicole Long as a junior coming out as a first-year track athlete ... really nice to have her and coming off a very good powerlifting season for her, that's great. The others in that relay, Millie Gruett and Lexi Bishop, Lexi being a second-year runner for us, she's gaining confidence and gaining speed. Millie, you don't know because she's a wild card, but she did a great job today holding off a crew in the 4x1-lap and doing really well in that 4x4."
Despite a shaky exchange, Gruett was able to hold off a hard-charging Macey Beck of Wisconsin Rapids to win the 4-lap relay by 0.12 seconds (1:22.40). The crew had a much easier time in the 4x400, leading wire-to-wire and cruising to a 16.7-second win (5:03.58).
Those were far from the only standouts for a girls' team that finished only 7 1/2 points behind Wisconsin Rapids for the win, and six points behind runner-up Reedsburg.
Rhinelander went 1-2 in the shot put with freshman Libbey Buchmann (31 feet, 8 inches), beating senior teammate Abby Swanson (30-4).
"She threw a PR today and Abby taking second throwing over 30 feet, that was a good too," Kraemer noted. "They scored a lot of points and did a good job."
The longer sprint proved to be Rhinelander's strongest event on the boys' side. Seniors Cody Ruetz and Daniel Gillingham finished third and fourth individually in the 400 and were joined by juniors Payton Campbell and Kaden Huber for a runner-up finish in the 4x400.
"Cody's been doing that for quite some time as a middle distance race," Kraemer said. "He's obviously caught the eye of a lot of people over the last couple of years. He just makes things look effortless and does a really good job with those middle distance races, and you just saw the 400 side of it today. In the 800 he's a really great racer, too.
"Daniel Gillingham, he was not with us last year in track, gearing up for his senior year of swim and I can't blame him for that. He had a great senior year and a memorable one at that, a legendary one I should say, but today he showed his class too. He's got a lot of sprint capacity. He's very, very fast and, in that 400, I just kept thinking to myself, that's the guy you want in that race. Him and Cody are going to be racing for sure. In the 4x4 they're going to be great teammates and Daniel's going to be somebody to watch in that 100, 200 range, too."
Another senior, Conner Jensen, in his first competition since a knee injury ended his football season in late September, placed fourth in the shot put (37-0). All four throwers were in the top 12 of the 35 who registered in the event. Bo Stott finished seventh, Logan Schwinger was ninth and Joey Evenson finished 12th.
"The boys did a really nice job in the shot put today," Kraemer said. "Conner ripped off on this third throw, a 37, that's a PR for him. If he can get over 40, he's going to compete in the conference and be close to winning. Once he figures out his spin technique and once he feels confident in that, he's going to be throwing in that area."
Junior Maria Hubler held off a pair of other runners to take the girls' 1,600 meters on Thursday. She also finished fifth in the 800. Senior Juliana Smith was the runner-up in both the 400 and the 800. On the boys' side, sophomore Shawn Denis took fourth in the 800.
"Our distance crew, it's really hard for them because they're going around these corners so tight and there's just not a lot of room to spread your legs out and get a good gait going. But I was really, really proud of what they were able to do on both the girls' and the boys' side today," Kraemer noted.
Abe Barlog added a third-place finish for Rhinelander in the 50-meter hurdles.
Thursday's meet did not feature the full complement of events. The long and triple jump were omitted from the field side and a number of running races, including the 4x200, 4x800, the 200, 200 hurdles and 3,200, were not run.
The Hodags will participate in the full slate of indoor events this coming Thursday at the Oredocker Indoor meet in Ashland.
"We get to get on a 200-meter track with spikes and we get to see how it really feels on a full indoor track but, this is a great indicator of what we have and what we'll be able to do," Kraemer said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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