Hodag track takes 4th at Otto Bacher

MERRILL — In its biggest dress rehearsal before championship season, the Rhinelander High School track team proved Friday it can hang with many of its Great Northern Conference counterparts. However, in order to content for a conference title, the Hodags will need to find a little something extra over the next week.

Both the Hodag boys and girls were third best among GNC schools, and fourth overall, in the 11-team Otto Bacher Invitational in Merrill. Every GNC school except Lakeland was in attendance. The Hodag girls won three events and the Hodag boys scored four top-two finishes in a meet coach Aaron Kraemer viewed as a major tune-up ahead of both the GNC Meet May 14 in Medford and the WIAA postseason.

“Overall, I’m really, really proud of where we’re at right now,” he said. “Today gave me a snapshot of what we need to work on over the next two weeks, where we’re strong, where we need to supplement our lineup so we can be as competitive as we can be at the conference meet.”

    Rhinelander’s Libbey Buchmann prepares to throw the discus during the Otto Bacher Invitational track meet in Merrill Friday, May 3. Buchmann won the event, one of three event victories for the Hodag girls in a fourth-place finish overall. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Sophomores Aila Bergman and Libbey Buchmann set themselves up well to reprise the strong showings they had at the end of last season. Bergman swept the 100 and 300-meter hurdles on Friday while Buchmann took first in the discus. 

Bergman, who set the school record in the 300 hurdles at sectionals last May, won that event going away on Friday. She crossed the line in 48.29 seconds, 3.41 seconds ahead of runner-up Evie Bates of Wausau Newman. Bergman was also the top qualifier in the 100 hurdles, backing up that performance with a personal-best run of 17.18 seconds in the finals to beat Medford’s Jaylin Machon by a half second.

“She could go out and win multiple different types of races but, for us, we’re just trying to manage her to make sure she can get through the season healthy, get to regionals and sectionals and, hopefully, make a push to state,” Kraemer said. “She’s doing everything that’s expected. She’s just a tough kid and she keeps working to get better.”

Buchmann, who finished sixth at state last year in the discus, didn’t have her best throws on Friday, but her toss of 112 feet, 4 inches was still good enough to edge Tomahawk’s Ayla McCormick by more than a foot.

“She’s got a lot more in her, I think, and we’re going to keep pushing her to be the best,” Kraemer said. “That discus is her event … Even though she won the discus today, she’s going to be disappointed with her throw. I’m not disappointed, but that’s the mark of a good athlete, that you want to continually be better. She’s doing that.”

    Rhinelander’s Logan Schwinger competes the shot put during the Otto Bacher Invitational track meet in Merrill Friday, May 3. Schwinger won the event with a toss of 44 feet, 3 inches. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

On the boys’ side, junior Logan Schwinger launched a career-best toss of 44-3 in the shot put, and did it earlier than Mosinee’s Jackson Lindell, as he claimed that event in a tiebreaker. That was the only win on the afternoon for the Hodag boys.

“He was up on his toes. It was a perfect throw and a really good job saving himself from going out (of the circle),” Kraemer said. “Logan’s just one of those guys that just continually works on his craft, does what’s expected and he’s quietly becoming one of the best throwers in our conference.”

The Hodags had three runner-up finishes on the boys’ side, the surprise of which was sophomore Connor Dumpprope, who threw down a time of 44.16 seconds in the 300 hurdles. Despite bring relatively new to the event, Kraemer said Dumpprope showed promise running the event last month in Eagle River, before a crash over the fifth hurdle knocked him out of that race.  

“When you take a tumble like that, it’s hard to want to get back into that race,” Kraemer said. “We knew he was capable of it, for sure, after watching the beginning of that race last week Thursday. It wasn’t a surprise to us but when you look at it, it’s really impressive.”

Truman Lamers scored a runner-up finish in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 10 inches. That was his only top-five finish of the night. He wound up seventh in the long jump and did not place in the triple jump after scratching on all three of his attempts. Kraemer said that included an unlucky break on Lamers’s third and final attempt that, had it counted, would have put him in contention for the win.

“On video, his foot is clearly behind the line and he jumps, what looked to be a 41-high and they called it a scratch,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. He was upset, but you just move on to the next meet and you go.”

Zach Germain added the third runner-up finish for the Hodags. He went 11.47 in the 100 meters and was edged at the line by 0.13 seconds by Northland Pines’ Eli Kerner.

“He keeps running with Kerner. He didn’t get a chance to see him in the trials, but he’s going to keep running with that kid and he’s going to push,” Kraemer said. “He’s a competitor and it would surprise me at all if he shocks everybody at conference and he’s able to win.”

The Hodags showed some depth in the sprints and the hurdles on both sides, getting every single one of its entries through the preliminaries and into the fast nine who made the finals. Abe Barlog was seventh in the 110 hurdles while Sam Zwaard took eighth in the 100. On the girls’ side, Averie West and Kyleah Hartman finished seventh and ninth, respectively in the 100 hurdles while the Hodags placed three in the top eight in the 100 with Lexi Bishop (fifth), Olivia Ruetz (seventh) and Violet Biolo (eighth).

    Rhinelander’s Lexi Bishop takes the baton from teammate Olivia Ruetz in the 4x100-meter relay during the Otto Bacher Invitational track meet in Merrill Friday, May 3. The Hodags finished second in the event. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

“Lexi Bishop keeps getting better every single day. She’s someone that’s extremely talented and she is this strong-willed person on the inside, on the outside she doesn’t show that,” Kraemer said. “Sometimes you’ve got to talk her into being great, but she’s a special athlete and she’s doing a great job this season. Violet and Olivia both, they just keep getting better too.”

That trio, along with junior Reese Gehrig, made up the runner-up team for the Hodag girls in the 4x100 relay. The Hodag girls took third in the 4x200 with Gehrig, Karly Gillingham, Nicole Long and Bishop. The team scored third in the 4x400 with Lucy Eddy, Hartman, Biolo and Ruetz.

Eva Heck and Macy Meyer added to a strong hurdling day for the Hodags, taking fourth and fifth in the girls 300 hurdles. Luna Grage was fifth in the 3,200 and fourth as part of the 4x800 relay team with Brynn Teter, Kara Monk and Maria Hubler. 

On the boys’ side, the Hodags welcomed back distance runner and sectional qualifier Greyson Gremban, who has been sidelined much of the season with a foot injury. He took fifth place in the 800 meters on Friday. 

“We missed him. He’s a big piece to the distance team that, once we get him back fully healthy, that’s a whole other set of points we get from him and leadership,” Kraemer said.

Ben Olson added a fifth-place run for the Hodags in the 200 meters and Rhinelander took fifth in the 4x800 with Jonathan Campbell, Jackson Weinzatl, Avrom Barr and Shawn Denis.

Wausau East cleaned up on the boys’ side, more than doubling the total of runner-up Northland Pines. Medford edged Rhinelander by two points for third. Mosinee took sixth, Antigo was eighth and Tomahawk placed ninth.

Tomahawk took the girls division by 30 points over Northland Pines, which rested state-champion distance runner Nora Gremban. The Hodags were 10 points ahead of Medford for fourth while Antigo took eighth and last year’s GNC champ Mosinee finished all the way back in 10th.

“I’ve been saying all year long, it’s going to be touch and go at that conference meet, on both sides, I think,” Kraemer said. “I think we got a chance to see everybody today, barring Nora Gremban for the girls and Lakeland for the girls’ and boys’ side. I think Northland Pines is going to be tough to beat, but I think there’s opportunities for us there. I’m excited. It’s going to be a fun next four weeks.”

The Hodags have two more meets before conference, beginning today with the Tomahawk Invite. The team returns home on Thursday for the Hodag Invite at Mike Webster Stadium.  

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].