Hybrid highlights

The Rhinelander High School track team had a chance to showcase its depth Thursday in its first outdoor meet of the season. 

The Hodag boys claimed three events, the Hodag girls won four and both squads held off GNC rival Lakeland for first place in the Hodag Hybrid Invite at Mike Webster Stadium.

For the second time this year, the Hodag girls claimed victory thanks to the final event scored on the night. The Hodags took third in the 4x400-meter relay to pull within a point and a half of Lakeland with the results of the long jump still pending. 

Freshman Karly Gillingham finished as the runner-up in that event and her older sister, Mia, finished sixth. That was just enough to put the Hodags over the top as Lakeland finished fourth and eighth.

“It’s always good to be in a meet but, at the end of the meet, it just gives you that added incentive to go out and run your best race. We did that. The girls did a great job today, collectively,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. “It was impressive all around today from the boys and the girls. It took everybody in every event to do their job and we ended up coming out victorious.” 

With unlimited entries, the Hodags had nearly 100 athletes compete on Thursday between its boys’ and girls’ squads. The depth especially stood out for the Hodags in the relay events. 

On the boys’ side, Rhinelander took the top spot in the 4x800 relay with Avrom Barr, Cyrus Leisure, Jackson Weinzatl and Shawn Denis (9 minutes, 28.01 seconds). The Hodags also claimed the 4x100 with Amos Bergman, Payton Campbell and Ryley Hull (46.25).

The Hodag girls scored wins in the 4x800, 4x200 and 4x100. Kara Monk, Luna Grage, Maria Hubler and Brynn Teter won the 4x800 (11:38.67) while Lexi Bishop, Emma Deede, Lucy Eddy and Millie Gruett won the 4x200 (2:03.40). Rhinelander then swept the top two spots in the 4x100 with the quartet of Olivia Ruetz, Macy Myers, Shyanne Hueckstaedt and Reese Gehrig (55.80) coming out ahead of teammates Karly Gillingham, Kayla Skubal, Arieanna Crossman and Taylor Dahlquist. 

Violet Biolo, Kyleah Hartman, Skubal and Eddy made up the third-place team in the 4x400 that put the team in position to score the win.

“Our relays were impressive,” Kraemer said. “We did really, really, well. We had a few troubles with handoffs, but that’s expected early in the season. Coach Olson’s doing a good job with them.”

In general the Hodags were strong in the sprints. Junior Zach Germain and Campbell finished first and third in the 100, in a tight battle with two of Lakeland’s fastest sprinters. Germain hit the tape first. He crossed the line in 11.54 seconds, 0.01 ahead of Talon Haling. Campbell was third (11.75), 0.02 seconds ahead of Lakeland’s Ethan Gonzalez. 

“Zach Germain was a guy last year that was long jumping You can tell he’s a very explosive athlete. He’s somebody that, today, he had his best race. He’s going to continue to drop time, too,” Kraemer noted. “His max speed doesn’t drop much. There are a lot of kids that run the 100 and by the time they get to 70 meters, they’re starting to slow down. That’s where Zach’s starting to get fast and stay fast because he’s so big and strong.”

    Rhinelander’s Aila Bergman, right, and Averie West compete in the 100-meter hurdles during the Hodag Hybrid Invite track meet at Mike Webster Stadium Thursday, April 11. The Hodag teammates finished 1-2 in the event. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Sophomore Aila Bergman led a 1-2-4 finish in the 100 hurdles with teammates Averie West and Kyleah Hartman. Bergman added a runner-up finish in the 200 and a sixth-place run in the 400. 

Also in the sprints, junior Lexi Bishop and freshman Olivia Ruetz finished third and fourth in a loaded 100-meter dash that included last year’s Great Northern Conference champion in the event, MacKenzie Wissbroecker of Antigo.

“Lexi and Olivia, it’s absolutely crazy that we have these girls for years to come and they’re shining through as freshmen, sophomores and juniors,” Kraemer said. “It was fun to watch in the short sprints today.”

The Hodag boys also had a strong day in the throwing events. The team went second, third and fourth in the shot put with Logan Schwinger, Reid Schultz and Sam Balge. Both Schwinger and Schultz went over 40 feet with their heaves. Rhinelander then claimed four of the top six spots in the discus, led by Balge’s runner-up finish (110-6). Freshman Eric Parish was fourth in his discus debut, Schultz was fifth and Schwinger finished sixth. 

“We have some incredible top-end talent and now you’re seeing some of the younger guys starting to pick it up too,” Kraemer said. “You look at the older guys — Sam Balge, Logan Schwinger, Reid, David (Houg) — those guys, they can chuck it. (Throws coach) Brock (Snyder) has been doing a real nice job with them, in the weight room especially. It’s a competition in the weight room every single day. You’re seeing that translate over into the pit.” 

Junior Truman Lamers scored a runner-up finish in the high jump, clearing a personal best of 6 feet, 2 inches. He added. Runner-up finish in the triple jump and was fourth in the long jump. Ryley Hull took second in the 300 hurdles, Barr was third in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters, Myles Eagleson took third in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump and Maxi Singhamer was third in the pole vault. 

Sam Zwaard finished fourth in the 400, Ben Olson took fourth in the 200, Weinzatl was fourth in the 3,200 and fifth in the 1600. Nathan Olds added a fourth-place showing in the high jump and Landon Catlin was fifth in the triple jump.  

On the girls side, Grage added a runner-up finish in the 3,200, Eva Heck was third in the 300 hurdles and Ruetz took third in the 200 and fifth in the high jump. Kara Monk was fourth in the 1,600, Myers was fourth in the 200, Teter was fifth in both the 800 and the pole vault and West was fifth in the 300 hurdles. 

Rhinelander won the boys’ meet by 23 1/2 points over Lakeland. Washburn was third and Antigo, the only other GNC school in attendance, was fourth. Both Rhinelander and Lakeland had more than double the total of third-place Bruce on the girls’ side. Antigo once again finished fourth. 

While Kraemer said he figures his team will have more battles with Lakeland later in the season, the rest of the GNC will make things interesting when it comes to conference meet time May 14 in Medford.

“They have an impressive team and we knew that from last year, with their boys winning (conference) and their girls being very, very good,” he said of Lakeland. “Our depth in our events shined through a little bit. They’re still going to be very, very tough to beat in the conference as the year goes on — for both the boys and the girls. And there are a lot of other talented teams that you saw last week in the GNC Indoor.”

Thursday’s meet was called a hybrid because the team had the option to run some events inside the Hodag Dome. Despite some early-meet rain showers, only the pole vault competition was held indoors. 

“It seems to be a theme at Rhinelander High School track meets,” Kraemer quipped, referencing a pop-up thunderstorm right after the national anthem that prompted the cancellation of the Hodags’ home invite in 2022. “Right around 4:30 it started to rain and it got worse and worse until about 5 o’clock and then things kind of shut down as far as the rain was concerned. 

“The field events started, and then it started to rain, so a lot of kids were outside and they were wet and cold, but everyone who stuck it out, the end of the meet was absolutely beautiful,” Kraemer noted.

The Hodags are now idle until Friday, April 26, when they will race at Kaukauna. That’s partly because invites that Rhinelander usually competes in at Antigo and Lakeland have moved to later in the spring, but Kraemer said it’s also partly by design as the Hodags gear up for the championship meets ahead. 

“We’re excited about next week because it means we have some time to work,” he said. “This off week is kind of designed that way. We probably could use a week to work on technique in field events, to get some rest and to prepare for our competition season. We see Kaukauna, Otto Bacher (Invite at Merrill), our home meet and then conference, regionals, sectionals and state as the premier meets.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].