Hodag girls win Three Lakes Invite, boys take 2nd

After some deliberation, the Rhinelander High School track team decided to send its whole contingent to Three Lakes on Tuesday and, despite fielding a younger lineup than normal, still produced some strong team results.

The Hodag girls won six events as they defeated GNC rival Tomahawk for the title in the seven-team Three Lakes Invite. The Hodag boys scored four wins and came home second behind the hosting Bluejays.

Rhinelander originally planned to split its squad between invites at Three Lakes and Lakeland on Tuesday, but pulled out of the Lakeland meet entirely due to an early start time and limited running lanes caused by ongoing construction at Lakeland’s athletic complex.

With the Otto Bacher Invitational, one of the premiere meets of the regular season, on the schedule for this evening in Merrill, coach Aaron Kraemer said the Hodags got creative with their lineup on Tuesday.

“The plan today was to get as many of our varsity athletes that we could, that we felt like we didn’t have to rest, to get them into their alternate events,” he said. “Maybe put a good 4x1 or 4x2 team together and see what we might have going through when we get to regionals and, from there, fill in the remainder of the team with our JV athletes.

“The impressive thing is that we hung around with a light crew on the boys and the girls. We got our athletes that are going to run on Friday into an event, let them stretch their legs a little bit, but saved them and got them ready for Friday’s meet. Then we saw some really nice efforts out of our younger athletes today.”

The Hodags were strong in the relays, taking the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 meters on both the boys’ and the girls’ sides. 

In particular, the Hodags loaded their girls’ 4x100, girls’ 4x400 and boys’ 4x200 with strong results. The squad of Lexi Bishop, Olivia Ruetz, Violet Biolo and Reese Gehrig race to a nearly four-second win in the 4x100 (52.77 seconds), while the Hodag girls dominated the 4x400. Aila Bergman, Nicole Long, Ruetz and Biolo raced to a nearly 38-second win in that event, crossing the line at 4:33.70. Meanwhile, the Hodags scored a commanding win in the boys’ 4x200. Ben Olson, Sam Zwaard, Jackson Fuss and Zach Germain won that event by nearly 13 seconds (1:35.18).

“The thing that stood out was our regional pairings in the 4x1 and 4x2 with Lexi, Violet, Reese and Olivia going low in the 4x1 and the 4x2 of Ben Olson, Zach Germain, Sam Zwaard and Jackson Fuss going low as well,” Kraemer noted.

Meanwhile, underclassmen had a chance to shine in other relays. Rhinelander used an all-freshman squad of Alexa Segovia, Madalyn Soulier, Taylor Dahlquist and Karly Gillingham to take the girls’ 4x200 (2:01.36). 

“That 4x2 kind of came around because we knew we want to get our top-end sprinters in an alternate event, so we needed to go with a younger 4x2 team and they showed out.” Kraemer said. “The girls, all year long, have seen the example that’s been set by Emma (Deede) and Lexi and Reese and they’ve been chasing them down.”

The quartet of Kaden Worrall, Paul Van Camp, Abe Barlog and Marshal Durkee edged Hurley by 0.47 seconds for the win in the 4x100 (48.21) while Rhinelander’s Ryley Hull, Renin Craig, Eric Kelly Jr. and Austin Sparling won the 4x400 (4:07.57).

On the boys’ side, the Hodags’ lone individual win came from Fuss, who took the 400 meters (55.94). 

“It’s really good to see Jackson back on the track. He’s worked really hard to get his grades back up where they need to be,” Kraemer noted. “I’m really happy that he’s back with us. He’s a kid, the more and more he runs, the more confidence he gains, he’s going to give us a shot against some of these really fast kids from Lakeland in the 400.”

On the girls’ side, the Hodags added wins with Bergman in the 300 hurdles (49.33), Luna Grage in the 800 (2:45.39) and Bishop in the 200 (27.92).

Rhinelander took four of the top five spots in the 300 hurdles with Macy Myers second, Averie West fourth and Kyleah Hartman fifth. The Hodag girls were second in the 4x800 with the squad of Grage, Brynn Teter, Maria Hubler and Kara Monk. Maddie Legrey was second in the girls’ triple jump.

West added a third-place showing in the 100 hurdles, Kara Monk was third in the 1,600 and Zoey Walker took third in the 800. Eva Heck added a fourth-place finish in the 100 hurdles, Gehrig was fourth in the 100, Arieanna Crossman took fourth in the long jump and freshman Lucy Eddy was fourth in the 400, in a time (1:05.75) that was faster than was Gussie Gruett ran to qualify for sectionals in that race two years ago.

“Some years, you get into the 1:06, 1:07 territory, you never know what the region is going to bring,” Kraemer said. “We had Gussie Gruett reach the sectionals in the 400. You get that far and you’re putting those numbers down, you certainly can give yourself a shot at doing something special.”

The Hodag girls added fifth-place finishes with Shyanne Hueckstaedt in the 100, Gillingham in the 200, Heck in the high jump and Teter in the pole vault.

Even with top triple jumper Truman Lamers resting on Tuesday, the Hodags fared well in that event, placing three boys in the top five. Myles Eagleson came home second, Landon Catlin was third and Charlie Antonuk took fifth. 

“Over the last couple of weeks the boys’ triple jumpers and the girls’ triple jumpers have just continued to take coaching and listen. They keep getting better every week, in both the long and the triple,” Kraemer noted.

Barlog was second for Rhinelander in the 300 hurdles while Shawn Denis took second in the 800 meters. Connor Dumpprope (400) and Olson (200) added third-place finishes for Rhinelander. Avrom Barr (1,600), Durkee (high jump), Maxi Singhammer (pole vault), Caden Sieker (shot put) and Eric Parish (discus) scored fourth-place finishes. The Hodags got fifth-place showings from Zwaard in the 100, Jackson Weinzatl in the 1,600 and Evan Shoeder in the shot put.

Rhinelander also took third in the 4x800 with Jonathan Campbell, Allen Wisnewski, Weinzatl and Billy Leisure.

Now the attention turns to tonight’s Otto Bacher, which will finish under the lights at Jay Stadium in Merrill. The Hodags expect to field a strong lineup as a tune-up for the Great Northern Conference meet and WIAA regionals.

“Hopefully we take on Otto Bacher and show our conference and Merrill to show them what we’re all about,” Kraemer said. “We’re excited to do that. The kids are excited. They like the Friday meet. Hopefully the weather holds up and we’re excited to go back there this year.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].