Hodag Alpine team caps season with banquet

The Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine ski and snowboard team signed off on the 2023-24 season Sunday night. Coach Rod Olson used one word to sum it up, “crazy.”

The team hosted its end-of-season banquet and handed out a number of team awards at Holiday Acres Resort on Sunday. Though the Hodags qualified for state with their boys’ and girls’ downhill ski teams and won the inaugural Northern Conference Cup with its Rhinelander girls’ skiers, the biggest accomplishment of the season may have been the fact that there was a season at all. 

The late arrival of snow meant that the Northern Conference season was condensed into five races over an 11-day period. The early departure of the snow made pulling off this year’s WIARA state meet in La Crosse a feat.

“This year was just crazy,” said Olson, who also sits on the WIARA state meet race committee. “There was a pressure of how are were going to pull this off for everybody. It’s tough for us to feel so helpless. It was tough. The athletes and the families this year did a really great job, no matter where you were around the state, of just hanging in there.”

The team handed out a number of awards on the night, with its most improved awards being what the team viewed as the most prestigious. Those awards went to sophomore Holden Schmitz in boys’ skiing, freshman Lindsey Hoerchler and junior Regan Moore in girls’ skiing, junior Owen Repenshek in boys’ snowboarding and sophomore Sydney Sarkauskas in girls’ snowboarding. 

Schmitz finished 17th in the final Northern Conference standings, including a career-best eighth-place finish in the second conference race of the year Jan. 25 at Granite Peak. Coach Olson said the award was not only a reflection of his technical improvements but also a jump in competitive personality. 

Coach Olson said Hoerchler displayed natural ability as a freshman as she finished 16th in the conference standings and noted the strides that Moore, who transferred to Rhinelander from Florida, made in her first year on snow. 

“It’s difficult to pick this award sometimes because everyone improves a great bunch. Day after day (coach) Greg (McGuire) and I and (assistant coaches) Grace (Nash) and Amy (Schmitz), we talk about who’s doing what,” he said. “Sometimes its hard for that freshman to show improvement in the stats. So we not only do it objectively, but subjectively as well, how much they’ve improved their skiing, how much they’ve improved their boarding, how much they’ve improved in the weight room. A lot of things go into it.”

As the lone girls’ boarder, Sarkauskas won her awards by default, but coach Olson noted her improvement from her freshman year as she placed third in the Northern Conference and 13th overall at state.

“Sydney’s got great flow out there. If anybody’s seen her you don’t even have to know snowboarding to see that she has just a beautiful flow,” he said.

Not only did Repenshek earn most improved for boys’ snowboarders, he was one of the winners of the team’s Pushing the Limits award, as he skied through a pair of injuries to produce his best results of the season, including a 14th-place finish at state on an injured ankle.

“He had his best races coming off of injuries that we thought were season-ending,” coach Olson said. “He tore a ligament in his ankle at state and then had his best runs of all year long. He also hurt his shoulder (during the first conference race) and did great the next race.”   

The team did not hand out most valuable awards, but instead honored its top finishers in individual events for each squad. Statistically speaking, sophomore Ben Olson was the top performer in slalom, giant slalom and Super G for the Hodag boys. Northland Pines junior Eliana Conrad led the girls’ team in slalom and giant slalom while Rhinelander senior Maddie Ewan was tops in Super G. Owen Repenshek led the boys’ snowboarders in giant slalom and boardercross while senior Isaiah Willoughby was tops in slalom. 

In addition, Willoughby was presented with the team’s Transformer Award, for the growth he showed not only during the season but the course of his high school career. 

“He came into being an excellent captain, a good friend of everybody on the team,” coach Olson said. “He was always pleasant, asked questions that challenged me a little bit and it’s nice to see that he was reflecting. He made great effort in the weight room and the training and the understanding of it and the effort.”

Ben Olson, Moore and Owen Repenshek won the Pushing the Limits award; Ben Olson, Schmitz and Marshal Durkee where honored with the Most Turns per Run award; seniors Willoughby, Ewan and Lukas Bishop were recognized as team captains and Ewan was presented the team’s Coaches Award. 

“This young lady is one step ahead of us. She asked us some things, helps remember. She organizes some things, takes care of her team and herself. She never gets wound up. She’s just a solid performer,” coach Olson noted. 

In addition to the awards, coach Olson recapped the team’s fundraising efforts for the year, discussed the possibility of taking another preseason training trip out to Colorado, as the team this past November and thanked the athletes and parents for their flexibility during an highly challenging season.

“We had a weird but great season. A number of people at school asked me what I think about this year’s team and this is the best group of humans that I’ve ever coached,” he said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].