Hodag Alpine finally starts 2024 season, boys 2nd at Christie Mt.

After a few false starts and meet cancellations, the Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine ski and snowboard team finally got on the hill to race on Monday. It kicked off a busy slate in which its entire conference season will be contested in the span of only 16 days. 

The Hodag boys finished second and the Hodag girls took third out of four complete teams in skiing Monday in the Northern Conference opener at Christie Mountain in Bruce. 

While the mild winter hasn’t completely prevented the team from getting on snow for training, it did prompt four meets to be canceled or postponed — and a number of other adjustments in the schedule. The Hodags’ first race came three weeks later than expected — and took place exactly four weeks prior to the final day of the WIARA state meet in La Crosse — but coach Rod Olson said it was good to finally get to racing.

“It was so long that it’s almost tough to be mentally up. You’re waiting so long,” he said. “We’re happy to be back out on the snow and we have some redefined goals now. I hope we can all stay healthy in the next two weeks and carry on.”

A rebuilding Hodag boys’ squad took second overall and appears to be playing catch up against the Wausau co-op, which placed four skiers in the top eight on Monday to win the day by 42 points over the Hodags. 

Ben Olson led Rhinelander, taking fourth overall on the day. He took third in Super G, was fourth in giant slalom and seventh in slalom. Jason Linn scored a fourth-place finish in slalom and placed eight overall. Lukas Bishop took ninth overall, highlighted by a fourth-place run in Super G.

“Jason, Ben and Lukas didn’t have their typical or best performance,” coach Olson said. “They were guarding, trying to hang on and not being as aggressive, or as natural, as we would have liked them (to be). They were really off form because they were locked up from trying to protect.”

Holden Schmitz was 17th on the day, Eli Repenshek took 20th and Robert Guolee finished 26th. Coach Olson noted that Wausau’s improved depth, coupled with the Hodags rebuilding after losing three starters from last season, will make it difficult for the boys’ squad to repeat as Northern Conference champions.

“We’re going to get better and I want us to just perform better, but I think until we have some more development, we’re going to kind of sit in that second place,” he said. “If Wausau makes some mistakes, then we’re there, but they have a pretty deep team this year.”

On the girls’ side, a virtually brand new squad finished third, only four points behind Ashwabay for the runner-up spot. 

All six Hodag skiers finished inside the top 20 on the day, led by newcomer Eliana Conrad in 12th. Senior Maddie Ewan had the team’s lone top-10 performance, a 10th in Super G, as she placed 13th. Lyndsey Hoerchler was 14th, Karlie Yunkers took 18th, Aila Bergman was 19th and Hayley Schiek finished 20th. 

“I was pleasantly surprised with everything they did. They’re all competitive and they’ve got a lot to learn, which I think is exciting,” coach Olson said. “They’ve got a good core. Maddie will graduate next year but Eliana continues to improve in practice. All of them are very aggressive. They have some inner-team competition, which is great. I’ve got some numbers there in that girls’ program. We’ve got more coming next year. It’s catching on. We had a little bit of a down year with numbers with the ladies, and we’re building that back up. They’re good athletes. That’s become a real promising part of our program.”

The Hodags had an inconsistent day in boys’ snowboard, finishing third, fourth and sixth in a field of six boarders. Freshman Marshal Durkee won the first run of slalom, but placed third or lower in the other five runs as he took fourth overall. Owen Repenshek won the third run of slalom, but finished sixth in his first two runs of giant slalom before pulling out of the final run due to a shoulder injury. 

“Both Owen and Marshal are on straight boards and they’ve jumped into a whole different style of snowboarding,” coach Olson said. “There’s some growing there that we need to have some more work on, experience and comfort with. The board’s very fast.” 

Isaiah Willoughby finished third on the day as the Hodags did not have enough boarders to fill a team score. Sophomore Soren Dumar, who missed all of the 2023 season due to injury, suffered an arm injury during the preseason and Olson said it is uncertain if he’ll be cleared in time to race this year.

The Hodags had only one girls’ snowboarder on Monday as Sydney Sarkauskaus won one run each of slalom and giant slalom to tie for first on the day for points. She lost a tiebreaker for the meet win to Ashwabay’s Lahaela Mika by 0.84 seconds based on overall combined time for the six runs on the day.

“Sydney’s doing really well,” Olson said. “She’s really coming on this year as far as her performance. She didn’t have a lot of competitors, but we’re really pleased with how she’s been making some turns in practice.”

The Hodags jumped into the second race of the Northern Conference season on Thursday at Granite Peak in Wausau, which concluded after press time for today’s edition. Olson noted that the Hodag snowboarders have picked up a meet on Saturday at Tyrol Basin in Mount Horeb. A condensed Northern Conference season continues this coming Tuesday at Mt. Ashwabay. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].