Race season finally begins for Hodag Nordic

CABLE — It’s been a long couple of months of training and waiting for the Hodag Nordic ski team. 

The team’s first four scheduled race dates were canceled due to a lack of snow. Getting on snow has been a challenge and the team was just waiting for Mother Nature to cut it a break. 

She finally did on Saturday, with a bit of an assist from modern technology. The team had its first race of the season, competing in the Seeley Hills Classic held at the American Birkebeiner Trailhead in Cable.

Seeley Hills does not normally have divisions for high school or middle school skiers, and is usually a point-to-point race in northwest Wisconsin. The lack of snow forced that event to move to the Birkie trail, which has man-made snowmaking capabilities. The youth events were an add on for teams starved for competition after an abnormally warm and dry start to the winter. 

“This was our first week on snow and we finally have some tracks to ski in. I think everyone was grateful for those,” Hodag coach Andrew Seaman said. “It was great to get out here.”

On-snow opportunities have been few and far between for the Hodags, who were only able to get on trails locally for the first time late last week. Otherwise, the team had been relegated to a couple of training trips to Cable and two others to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

“It’s been tough, but we’ve been sharing with the kids that everybody else is in the same boat,” Seaman said. “If we’re here and we keep showing up for practice or dryland practice, we’re going to be just as prepared as anyone else that steps out here.”

It was a relatively low turnout for the race, which ultimately was a precursor to the Northern Conference meet that will take place in Cable a week from today. Many of the same teams that will compete in that race were there on Saturday. The Hodags finished fourth out of five qualifying teams in the boys’ division and second of two qualifying teams in the girls’ division. 

Junior Brynn Teter had the best individual finish for Rhinelander, placing sixth in the girls’ 6K classic race with a time of 25 minutes, 9 seconds. Kayla Skubal finished sixth (28:03), Mya Gillen was 12th (33:08) and Kali Skubal was 13th (33:59). 

Even then, the Hodag girls’ were bitten a bit by the injury bug. Junior Luna Grage (elbow) was a scratch from the meet and freshman Lucy Eddy crashed in the opening kilometer of the race and was unable to finish. 

“Brynn and Kayla had a real solid race. I think Lucy would have been right up there. Disappointing for Lucy. I hope she gets better soon and is not hurting too much,” Seaman noted.

    Rhinelander’s Iain Rumney, right, battles Spooner’s Zachary Fleishauer during the Seeley Hills Classic Nordic ski race in Cable Saturday, Jan. 13. Rumney was the top finisher for the Hodag boys in 16th place as Rhinelander took fourth in the team standings. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Junior Iain Rumney led the Hodag boys’ contingent. He was 16th in a field of 26 skiers (23:43). Freshman Jonathan Calhoun was 21st (24:17) and senior Charlie Loomis finished 24th (26:13).

“Iain has been one of the hardest workers at practice and dryland,” Seaman said. “He’s always trying to keep up with anybody else who’s ahead of him at practice. He’ll push himself harder just to keep up with them. That effort has been seen here at the race today. That was great to see.”

After a couple of months of training, the race was finally Seaman’s first as the team’s head coach. He admitted that he didn’t quite know what to expect going in, but was pleased with what he saw from the team.

“I think a lot of smiles from the kids. It’s great to see a lot of game faces before the race and them getting focused. That was great to see. I think we’ve got all the right tools to have a great rest of the season,” he said. “We’ve got such great help from parents, volunteers, coach (John) Gillen, coach (Jim) Wood, coach Mark (Lehman) getting our skis ready the last couple of days. I think we can build on it.”

Even though the snow has come and the temperatures have plummeted, Mother Nature was not finished wreaking havoc on the Hodags’ schedule. The Hodag Nordic Challenge, scheduled for this weekend, was canceled last Wednesday due to a lack of snow —which appeared to be a good call after Friday’s snowstorm brought less snow to Rhinelander than originally forecast. 

“It’s disappointing. Even with this amount of snow, I think we would have torn up the trails pretty good,” Seaman said.

The Hodags are planning for an alternate race this coming Saturday. Seaman noted the hope was to head to Iola for a skate race, though those details had not been confirmed as of press time for today’s edition.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].