Team Preview: RHS/NPHS Alpine Skiing

The Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine ski and snowboard team will have a tough act to follow after its 2023 season, but will look to continue its winning ways as the calendar hits 2024 and the racing season officially begins.

In skiing, the Hodag boys won the Northern Conference title, edging the Wausau co-op. The Hodag girls had an individual state champion in Tommie Jo Springer. Rhinelander also had the individual conference champions in boys’ and girls’ snowboarding. 

The team has taken some hits from both graduation and offseason injuries. It’s a challenge coach Rod Olson could foresee all the way back at the end of last season.

“We’re going to have to rebuild some there, but that’s the part I love is developing the young ones,” Olson said following last February’s WIARA state meet.

Furthermore, the early season snow has been hard to find due to the mild start of the winter. That forced the team to get creative for training early in the season. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the majority of the team drove out to Winter Park, Colo. for a three-day training trip. 

Coach Olson called the trip beneficial, especially with a relatively young squad. 

“There was not a lot of snow because they had the same hot streak that we did, but the runs are a lot longer,” he said. “Even though the spin getting up the lift and down the hill was much longer, you’re still getting a lot more turns per run. That was good. We had a lot of athletes definitely improve. It was excellent for the team building and the team camaraderie. When you do something like that, each team has its pods or group of athletes that, for the exception of when they’re actually competing together, don’t chum together. This trip brought them a lot closer together, for sure.” 

The team has been able to get on its home hill, Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich. a few times during the month of December. Even then coach Olson noted, due to the limited snow and mild temperatures, the team has been limited in its training and has not been able to do much training in the speed events — giant slalom and Super G. 

As for the teams this season, the Hodag boys took some hits in their lineup, graduating their top two overall finishers in the Northern Conference last year in Riley Zarm and Brandon Bacon. The team’s depth has been further impacted as junior Brody Kowieski, the team’s sixth skier last year, is unable to compete this winter following a knee injury he sustained during the cross country running season. 

“It’s rebuilding, but I still feel we can be pretty competitive on the boys’ side,” coach Olson said.

That leaves Rhinelander with three returning starters in sophomore Ben Olson, senior Lukas Bishop and junior Jason Linn, who finished seventh, ninth and 10th, respectively in last year’s Northern Conference standings. 

“Last year, in each of the disciplines — slalom, giant slalom and Super G — Ben, Lucas and Jason were each our top competitor,” coach Olson said. “They were all bringing in some points in each of those events. It was kind of cool. You don’t have an overall MVP because that ability was spread across. That’s a saving feature to the team that we do have remaining. Those three will continue to get us some top 10s daily.” 

Coach Olson said he expects sophomore Robert Guolee and Northland Pines freshman Eli Repenshek to help fill the void.

Springer, who dominated the Northern Conference and is now skiing at Northern Michigan University, left a big hole in the lineup for the Hodag girls. That hole became deeper when junior Callie Hoerchler sustained a knee injury in early October, sidelineing her for the year. 

That leaves the team rather thin on returning talent, with seniors Maddie Ewan and Kelsey Yunkers leading the way. Ewan finished 17th in the Northern Conference last year while Yunkers, in her varsity debut, was 27th. 

“Maddie Ewan is the leader and the captain and she’ll continue to do a good job, but we’re really rebuilding that program,” coach Olson said. “The nice thing is that we have some good numbers and we have some girls out that are good athletes in their other sports. They seem to be learning quickly and they all have some competitive spirit, which is good.”

The team does have numbers on its side as it tries to rebuild. Sophomores Karlie Yunkers and Aila Bergman, and freshmen Hayley Schiek and Lindsay Hoerchler are among the first-year skiers who will be fighting for spots in the lineup at the start of the year. 

“I think it’s kind of even between the 5 or 6 girls that are just hopping in there,” coach Olson said. “Which is good, because I think they’ll all be after each other. I’m excited to see what develops.”

The Hodag snowboarders graduated individual Northern Conference champion Max Durkee along with brothers Brady and Reese Frisque, taking a good chunk out of a team that finish seventh at state. 

The team returns some talent however. Owen Repenshek, a junior from Northland Pines, was third in the final conference standings and senior Isaiah Willoughby is back as well. He finished fifth in conference but was unable to compete at state after sustaining an injury in a crash during the final race of the conference season. 

Marshal Durkee, Max’s younger brother, joins the team as a freshman and Olson said he’s excited for the debut of sophomore Soren Dumar, who stood out in preseason practice last year before sustaining a season-ending injury.

“(Marshal’s) been spending some time on the long board already, so I think, once he can manage that thing, he’ll do real well,” Olson noted. “Owen’s also getting a long board and Soren, we lost him at the beginning of last year to an injury, but he really has the best natural ability on snowboard of anybody last year or this year. We’re excited to have him be able to get out and compete this year.”

Both girls’ snowboarders return for the Hodags. Senior Nicole Long is the reigning conference champion and Northland Pines sophomore Sydney Sarkauskas scored the win in the boardercross-heavy conference finale at Ski Brule last fall.

“Sydney’s into it. Nicole’s kind of still trying to do powerlifting and snowboard,” coach Olson noted.

The Hodag varsity boys’ ski team was scheduled kick off the season at the Mt. Ripley Invite in Ripley, Mich. Jan. 2, but coach Olson said that meet has been canceled. The majority of the squad it slated to head near the Minnesota border to take part in the Trollhaugen Invite Jan. 4. Those will be the lone tune-up races for the team prior to the start of the Northern Conference season Jan. 9. 

With numbers down across the board in the conference, coach Olson said snowboarding will be an individual-only affair this year. The Hodag boys are once again expected to be the only team in the conference to have the minimum four riders required to field a team score. 

In skiing, coach Olson said he expects some of the usual suspects to be near the top of the conference standings. 

“Rice Lake had good numbers last year, so I kind of look at them to be returning some people and a decent team this year, for boys. Then Ashwabay too, I think will be OK on the boys’ side,” he said. “The girls, I think the Wausau program will probably be the competition there.” 

The Hodags are once again scheduled to host the finale of the five-race Northern Conference season Saturday, Feb. 10 at Ski Brule.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected]. 

TEAM SCHEDULE

Date    Event    Time

1/4    Trollhaugen Invite    9 a.m.

1/9    NC1 at Snow River*    9 a.m.

1/15    NC2 at Christie Mt.*    9 a.m.

1/23    NC3 at Mt. Ashwabay*    9 a.m.

2/1    NC4 at Granite Peak*    9 a.m.

2/7    La Crosse Invite    9 a.m.

2/10    NC5 at SKI BRULE*    9 a.m.

2/12    MAKE UP DAY    TBA

2/16-2/19     WIARA State at Mt. La Crosse    TBA

*Conference meets | HOME MEET IN CAPS