Team preview: RHS/NPHS Alpine Ski/Snowboard

Though this past weekend’s warm spell conjured up memories of the 2023-24 winter season, the Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine Ski team hopes that the 2025 season will be much closer to a normal year on the weather front.

The team is slated to kick off 2025 Thursday by heading north to the Upper Peninsula for the Mt. Ripley Invite in the Houghton-Hancock area before starting off the five-race Northern Conference slate a week from today at Christie Mountain in Bruce. 

Going into the season, the biggest thing coach Rod Olson said he is looking for is a normal winter on the weather front. Last year’s unseasonably warm and dry winter kept the Hodags in a state of flux all year. While they were able to get all of their Northern Conference races in and compete at the WIARA state meet, the warmth and lack of snow made things touch and go everyone they got on the slopes. 

“It will be great,” Olson said. “I think all we could remember was last year. It was so engrained in our thoughts how miserable it was. It’s nice to know, ‘Hey, we might get a real winter again.’ We were just on pins and needles every time we were on the snow, worried about injury and not getting any good training.

“I think it’s going to be a big year of growth for us. Last year was, it wasn’t like a COVID year where we got cheated out of a season, but it was pretty close.”

December already went much better than last season, with a number of on-hill training sessions. And, just like last season, the Hodags got a head start on their training the weekend before Thanksgiving. The squad took a large contingent of athletes to Winter Park, Colo. for three days of on-snow training. 

Between instruction time and free skiing, coach Olson said there was a lot of learning and that he could see marked improvements from all the athletes who took part in the trip.

“We were surprised. We knew we’d have some learning and some advancement on some skills, but we had a lot of kids make a transition,” he said. “They learned a lot by just watching other racers, and the ability levels are anywhere from the beginning racer to real advanced. They learned from just watching. When they’re riding the chair, they’re watching what other athletes are doing.”

As far as the squads themselves, most of the boys’ ski team that took runner-up in last year’s Northern Conference standings is back, led by Northland Pines senior Jason Linn and Rhinelander junior Ben Olson. Both placed in the top 10 in the final conference standings overall and in each individual event. Olson was third in Super G, fourth in giant slalom and seventh in slalom, taking fourth overall. Linn was eighth in Super G and slalom, and ninth in giant slalom as he took eighth in the final conference standings. Linn was also the team’s top finisher at state, placing 37th.

“Jason’s very mature. He helps a lot. It’s nice for us coaches to home somebody like that in place. He did a good job,” coach Olson said. “Ben’s also starting to come into that role himself. He took on a lot of responsibility.” 

The team also brings back junior Holden Schmitz, who placed 17th in the conference last year and Eli Repenshek, who was 21st. 

“Boys’ skiing is strong. We have some kids that are up and coming,” coach Olson said. “The freshmen were doing pretty good there. We’re going to have four freshmen, which is a good number. I think we’ll be fine there.” 

While the Hodag girls graduated their top skier from last year in Maddie Ewan, the team has a number of athletes returning, led by Northland Pines senior Eliana Conrad, who was 15th last year in conference. 

    In this Jan. 25, 2024 file photo, Lindsey Hoerchler competes in slalom during a Northern Conference ski race at Granite Peak in Wausau. Hoerchler, a sophomore, was 17th overall in the conference last year for the Rhinelander/Northland Pines girls’ ski team. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander sophomore Lindsey Hoerchler’s back after taking 17th at conference while juniors Aila Bergman and Karlie Yunkers were 18th and 25th, respectively. 

Additionally, the Hodags are looking for senior Callie Hoerchler to add some needed depth to the girls’ squad. She placed 17th in conference as a freshman and 21st as a sophomore before losing her junior year to a knee injury.

“Callie’s coming back after really about a year and a half off. She had gotten injured in skiing as well before her knee,” coach Olson said. “We expected her to be real timid and protecting but, once she starting moving down the hill, she went and had a really good camp. We’re real pleased with that. The mental part of getting back into something after injury and surgery is tough, but she’s really doing well.” 

The Hodag girls placed third last year to claim the Northern Conference’s final team berth to the WIARA state meet. Yunkers had the team’s top finish at state, placing 87th.

In snowboarding, the Hodag boys figure to have enough athletes to qualify for a team score this year, after being one short last year due to injury. 

Most of last year’s squad returns intact led by Northland Pines senior Owen Repenshek who boarded through injury last year but still finished third in the Northern Conference standings and 14th at state. Sophomore Marshal Durkee also returns after taking fifth in the conference and 15th at state. 

Junior Soren Dumar is expected to finally make his high school debut after separate preseason injuries cost him his freshman and sophomore campaigns and coach Olson said freshman Owen Sarkauskas will make an immediate impact.

“We’re sitting real well. We added Owen Sarkauskas … he’s a real strong freshman. We didn’t expect him to be at the level that he’s at for a freshman. We’re real optimistic about that,” he said. “Soren’s doing some good turning. Marshal’s doing all right. I think that boys’ team for snowboarding looks good. We didn’t lose anything really.”

Junior Sydney Sarkauskas remains the lone girls’ snowboarder on the team. She finished third in the Northern Conference and 13th at state last season.  

Once the season gets rolling, the Hodags will have a string of four straight Northern Conference races at Christie Mt. (Jan. 7), Granite Peak (Jan. 13), Snow River (Jan. 23) and Mt. Ashwabay (Jan. 28). Another non-conference trip to Mt. La Crosse and Trollhaugen in western Wisconsin is penciled into the schedule Feb. 3 and 4 before the Northern Conference season concludes at the Hodags’ home hill, Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich. Feb. 8.

The biggest change, conference-wise, is the addition of the Eau Claire Regis and Eau Claire Memorial to the league. Olson said their affect on the competition within the conference remains to be seen and he’ll have a better sense of how the conference look once everyone gets on snow. Wausau/D.C. Everest is the reigning conference champion in boys’ and girls’ skiing while none of the programs in the Northern Conference had enough athletes to field a qualifying team in either boys’ or girls’ snowboarding. 

While the Hodags would like to place high enough in conference to advance virtually their entire team to state, like they did last season, coach Olson said improvement will be the team’s No. 1 goal this season.

“Numerically, I’d like to say we want to place here or there. Those are easy things to target, but we saw a lot of breakthroughs on what each individual has to do,” he said. “They’re all coming into a maturity level where they recognize that too. They’ve bought into what they know they have to do. They’ve seen it on film. They’ve seen it in other racers. Just working through some of those technical things, then tactics once we get into full courses.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].

TEAM SCHEDULE

Date    Event    Time

1/2    Mt. Ripley Invite     9 a.m.

1/7    Northern Conference No. 1 at Christie Mt.*    9 a.m.

1/13    Northern Conference No. 2 at Granite Peak*    9 a.m.

1/23    Northern Conference No. 3 at Snow River*    9 a.m.

1/28    Northern Conference No. 4 at Mt. Ashwabay*    9 a.m.

2/3    Mt. La Crosse Cup    TBA

2/4    Trollhaugen Invite     TBA

2/8    Northern Conference No. 5 at SKI BRULE*    9 a.m.

2/15    WIARA State at Mt. La Crosse (Snowboard)    8 a.m.

2/16-17    WIARA State at Mt. La Crosse (Skiing)    8 a.m.

* Conference Race | HOME RACE IN CAPS