Hodag track honors four athletes of the year

The Rhinelander High School track team celebrated a successful season — and one that is not over quite yet — with a banquet Tuesday in the RHS commons.

Four athletes took home top honors, and two of them will have a chance to add to their accolades today and tomorrow at the WIAA Division 2 state meet. 

Sophomores Aila Bergman and Libbey Buchmann were named the team’s female track and field athletes of the year at Tuesday’s banquet. Junior Zach Germain took home track honors on the boys’ side while sophomore Myles Eagleson was name the boys’ field athlete of the year. 

The four awards were all objectively-based, determined by the number of points each athlete scored in either track or field events over the course of the year. Bergman excelled in hurdles, and will compete today in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles at the state meet in La Crosse. Meanwhile, Buchmann will look for her second straight podium finish, and perhaps a state championship, in the discus on Saturday after breaking the school record in the event earlier this year. 

Overall, coach Aaron Kraemer said this year was about quality and quantity for his squad as large numbers yielded solid results. Both squads placed fourth at the GNC meet and sixth at regionals.

“This year’s track season was one that kind of blew me away, with the amount of athletes that we started with,” he said. “We had 106 at our parent meeting and tonight we’re going to be recognizing 104. We added some, gained some and lost some. We’ve had a great season with a lot of great accomplishments for our athletes.”

Bergman broke her own school record in the 300 hurdles at sectionals, with a time of 46.70 seconds that put her fifth in the event and 0.02 seconds away from earning a special invitation to race in La Crosse as one of the top eight times overall in the state. She won the GNC title in both the 100 and 300 hurdles, and made it to state in the 100s following a runner-up finish at sectionals.

“She’s really settled into the hurdle events,” Kraemer said. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch because of her control over the hurdles, how settled she is and how well she does in these events. It’s a 10 points (for winning) those hurdle events, and you know she’s going to score them. She’s the quietest, most humble athlete that I’ve seen. You love to see the success for her, because that’s how great she is.”

Buchmann threw the discus 134 feet, 9 inches May 18 at the Dale Peterson Invite in Antigo. That broke a 25-year-old mark of 133-0 set by Amy Stevens. Buchmann captured the conference and regional titles in the discus before placing fourth at sectionals in the event with a throw that was fifth-best overall in D2. Additionally, Buchmann finished runner-up in the GNC in the shot put and qualified for sectionals in that event. 

“She’s a dual sport athlete, so she doesn’t get the opportunity to score in all of our meets, but she certainly does score when she’s there, Kraemer said of Buchmann, who splits time between track and softball in the spring. “If it’s not 20 points, it’s 18 points or 16 points in the discus and the shot put. She’s someone that’s extremely talented in what she does and she’s one of the most responsible athletes you could possibly ask for.”

After focusing more on jumps last year, Germain settled into a role as one of the Hodags’ top sprinters on the boys’ side this year. He took third, individually, in the GNC in the 100 meters and narrowly missed qualifying for sectionals in that event with a fifth-place finish at regionals. Germain was part of a conference championship in the 4x100 relay and on the 4x100 and 4x200 squads that qualified for sectionals.

“This young man is extremely talented,” Kraemer said. “He is the twitchiest athlete I’ve ever coached. He’s a young man that can jump out of the gym, can sprint faster than most and as time has gone one, has had a lot of trouble staying healthy. This year he had a great, healthy season and he stood up to the challenges I put in front of him this year.”

Kraemer noted that Eagleson won the race for boys’ track athlete of the year by a mere nine points as he flashed onto the scene in both the long and triple jump. He nearly won both events at conference, taking the triple jump with a leap of 40-10 and runner up in the long jump at 19-8. Eagleson made it through to sectionals in the long jump, where his performance of 20-4 took seventh and was six inches away from qualifying for state.

“This young man surprised everyone as the year went on but as soon as I saw him jump at our home meet, he surprised me not at all. He continued to reach his potential this year,” Kraemer said. “He’s a guy that’s dedicated to his grind and getting better and a guy that next year, I swear, will be jumping at the state meet. He’s going to be back and better because that’s the kind of guy he is.”

Those were the main honors handed out by the team in the roughly 2 1/2-hour event. The team also recognized its junior captains — Truman Lamers, Greyson Gremban, Luna Grage and Callie Hoerchler.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].