Hodag harriers strive for top half finish at GNC meet

It appears that this year’s Great Northern Conference cross country meet will be like going up against Larry Bird in a 3-point shooting contest in his prime. The biggest question entering the competition is who’s going to finish second. 

While Lakeland and Medford have established themselves as the clear-cut favorites on the boys’ and girls’ sides, respectively, there figures to be plenty of competition behind them when the GNC schools converge on Nine Mile Forest in Wausau tomorrow for the conference meet, hosted by Mosinee.

Despite battling some injuries during the second half of the season, Rhinelander head coach M.J. Laggis said the hope is for his team to finish in the top half of the field tomorrow.

“I think behind them, what’s so interesting, it’s really up for grabs and it just comes down to the little things. If somebody has someone hurt on a given day or somebody has a runner that has an off day, that team won’t be there,” he said. “We’ve just got to try to compete for that 2-3-4, get in there and see what we can do.”

The eye test certainly establishes Lakeland and Medford as the favorites entering tomorrow. The Lakeland boys dominated the Tomahawk Invite, even without No. 2 runner Ashton Bremer. The T-Birds placed six runners in the top 11 in a field that included every GNC school with the exception of Medford. 

Tomahawk won the girls’ division this past Saturday, but finished behind Medford when the teams squared off in the Medford Invite Sept. 29.

The data backs up that assertion. According to MileSpiltWI, a database that keeps track of performances throughout the state all season, Lakeland is a 51-point favorite to defeat Tomahawk on the boys’ side and Medford is favored by 16 points over Tomahawk on the girls’ side. Those projections factor in the season-best times for each athlete in the race. 

“I’d like to say we have a shot at knocking Lakeland off, but that boys team they have is light’s out,” Laggis said. “They’re fast. They’re going to factor at the state level. The sectional level for sure and the state level, they’re going to factor. Medford’s girls, they’re just a power.”

The projections have Rhinelander a competitive fourth in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions. Rhinelander is projected just one point behind Medford for on the boys’ side — and that score factors out Hodag No. 2 runner Brody Kowieski, who sustained a season-ending knee injury last month. 

“No excuses, but just analyzing it, with Brody Kowieski out of the mix, we lost one of our big scorers,” Laggis said. “We have four that can score, but we’re looking for that fifth in the biggest way. Right now we’re not finding it. At this point, probably three or for would be about where we’re at. You don’t want to limit. You don’t want to have any negativity with it at all, but we’re having trouble finding that fifth scorer on the boys’ side.”

On the girls’ side, Rhinelander projects six points behind Lakeland for the No. 3 spot. That mirrors what happened this past Saturday in Tomahawk when the Hodags finished four points behind the T-Birds for the runner-up spot. However, Rhinelander was missing junior Luna Grage due to a leg injury. Grage has been a consistent scorer all season. 

“We are so close. The gap just isn’t very much,” Laggis said. “You get Luna back maybe we can tighten that up and be a top three for sure.”

Individually, the top 21 finishers in each race will earn all-conference honors — with the top seven making first team, positions 8-14 making second time and spots 15-21 receiving honorable mention. 

As the projections sit, the Hodags have four runners in all-conference position with several others around the bubble. 

Greyson Gremban is projected fifth in the boys’ standings with a season-best time of 17 minutes, 9.0 seconds, though he has beaten the three runners directly ahead of him in the projections — Bremer, Antigo’s James Meade and Medford’s Tanner Hraby — at points during the season. 

    Rhinelander’s Avrom Barr crosses the finish line of the Hatchet Invite cross country race in Tomahawk Saturday, Oct. 7. Barr, a freshman, is projected 19th for this coming Saturday’s Great Northern Conference meet in Mosinee according to database MileSplitWI, based on season-best times. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Freshman Avrom Barr is projected 19th in the field while senior Gavin Denis and freshman Jackson Weinzatl sit just out of all-conference position in 23rd and 24th, respectively.

On the girls’ side, Leah Jamison checks in with the 10th fastest time of the season (21:34.6) while junior Sophie Miljevich projects 16th (22:22.0). 

Three freshmen, Hayley Schiek (22nd), Kara Monk (24th) and Ella Miljevich (25th) project just outside the top 21 and Grage is projected 28th.

“That’s what’s so exciting about those three freshmen in particular,” Laggis said. “Kara was a factor but the other weren’t factoring in heavy (at the start of the year). Now they’re starting to factor and play a role.”

Saturday’s event will begin at 11 a.m. with a combined boys/girls JV race. The varsity boys will race at 11:45 and the varsity girls at 12:30. Weather could also be a factor, with the preliminary forecast from the National Weather Service calling for rain all day Friday into the early afternoon on Saturday, with breezy conditions and a race time temperature in the upper 40s. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].