Hodag Nordic eager for ‘normal’ season

IRONWOOD, Mich. —The Hodag Nordic club ski team was on the trails last Saturday gearing up for the 2024-25 racing season.

Given that it was the first weekend of December, being on snow should not be much of surprise. But, considering the season the Hodags — and pretty much all the teams in the Wisconsin Nordic Ski League, went through last year — December snow was a sight for sore eyes. 

Last year was anything but normal. An unusually warm and dry winter left the Hodags scrambling for racing opportunities. The team’s first true on-snow opportunity didn’t come until early January and most of the team’s races were at facilities that had snow-making capabilities. 

While a brief warm up earlier this week, and another forecasted for this weekend, have put question marks around a couple of early season races, Hodag Nordic lead coach John Gillen said he’s eager for something resembling a normal winter. 

“I’m very optimistic,” he said. “We do need some additional snow, obviously, but we were skiing last week hopefully we can carry a little bit of snow into the week here and stay on skis. Otherwise, the team’s been willing to travel so that we can keep skiing and prepare for our upcoming races.”

That’s part of what brought the team about an hour and a half north of Rhinelander to the ABR trails over the weekend. Thanks to lake-effect snow in the Upper Peninsula snowbelt, those trails had ample snow to conduct a morning practice followed by an afternoon exhibition race for the high school skiers. 

Gillen, who has served as an assistant coach for a number of years, steps in as the program lead for Andrew Seaman, who stepped down after one year. He inherits a Hodag squad that is young and light on numbers, on both the boys’ and girls’ departments.

The girls’ squad was hit hard by attrition with two of the team’s top skiers from a year ago — Brynn Teter and Lucy Eddy — electing to participate in different sports this winter. 

Senior Emma Mankus is the elder statesperson of the girls’ group. She was 74th overall at the WNSL state distance race last year and tops in the adaptive category for skiers with disabilities. The rest of the squad also returns from last year, including junior Kayla Skubal, and sophomores Kali Skubal and Mya Gillen.

Kayla Skubal was 36th in the state sprint races last year and was fifth at the Northern Conference meet. She was unable to compete at state distance race last year due to a conflict after the meet was pushed back to the first weekend of March. 

Kali Skubal was 20th at conference last year while Gillen took 23rd, and was 69th overall in the state distance race.

“The girls have put in a lot of good effort at that high school level and they’re pretty tight group and are supportive of one another,” coach Gillen noted. “So really looking for them to bring up and mentor a really good and exciting middle school team, too.”

    Jonathan Calhoun skis toward the finish an exhibition Nordic ski race in Ironwood, Mich. Saturday, Dec. 7. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Senior Iain Rumney is back on the boys’ side. He, too, was unable to take part in the state distance race last year, but was 24th at conference and 67th at the state sprints. Sophomore Jonathan Calhoun is the other returning skier on the boys’ side. He was 79th at the state distance race a year ago.

Those two will be joined by a pair of incoming freshman who previously skied with the club’s middle school program — Aaron Calhoun and Douglas Hartmann.

“A couple of freshmen, and that changes a lot in the Nordic world when you come in from a middle school race to high school. It’s a highly competitive environment,” coach Gillen said. “The races are longer, more challenging, and so there it’s definitely more of a challenge. But they’re up for it.”

The majority of the high school skiers got a taste of racing Saturday afternoon in a 5K skate race on the ABR trails. Kayla Skubal was the top finisher on either side, taking 18th in the girls’ 5K with a time of 19 minutes, 58.4 seconds. Kali Skubal was 33rd and Mankus was 42nd. Mya Gillen scratched from the event. 

Rumney posted the top finish on the boys’ side (23rd, 17:26), followed by Aaron Calhoun in 28th, Jonathan Calhoun in 35th and Hartman in 49th. The race featured a number of WNSL and Michigan teams who were eager to get out on the early-season snow.

“It was really good snow and good conditions, team put in a nice practice in the morning and a lot of athletes competed at a very, very highly competitive and skilled race this afternoon,” coach Gillen said.

Snow conditions permitting, the team is scheduled to travel to Minocqua Winter Park for the Lakeland Invite this coming Tuesday and then to the WinMan Trails in northern Vilas County for the Early Bird Invite the following Saturday.

After that, the team is eager to get back to some traditional stops on the schedule that were knocked out last year due to a lack of snow — the Snekkevik race in Wausau Jan. 11 and the Hodag Nordic Challenge at the Cedric A. Vig Outdoor Classroom Jan. 18 and 19. 

The Northern Conference meet will take place Jan. 28 in Cable with the WNSL State Sprints set for Feb. 1 and 2 in Brillion. The WNSL State Distance meet will once again be held in Cable at the American Birkebeiner Trailhead Feb. 8 and 9. 

With only four skiers on both sides, team results will be hard to come by, but coach Gillen said the goal for the season is to keep the sense of team and camaraderie amongst the squads.

“They want to work together cohesively help support one another and keep that bond going,” he said. “They realize it isn’t one single skier that always makes the difference. It even though we may not have the number of athletes to compete as a team score, we certainly want to keep that team dynamic in atmosphere together, and they’re doing a great job of that.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].