Hodag harriers score top five finishes in Marshfield

The Rhinelander High School cross country team scored a pair of top-five finishes Tuesday afternoon in Marshfield. The Hodag girls came home fourth while the Hodag boys secured a fifth-place finish in the Marshfield Invite at Wildwood Park.

Once again the Hodag boys were led by the combination of senior Greyson Gremban and sophomore Avrom Barr, who notched top-10 finishes for a third consecutive race. The Hodag boys were the top-placing GNC school in the field and finished 36 markers behind meet-champion Stratford.

Gremban led the way for Rhinelander, covering the 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 2 seconds. That was 33 seconds behind individual winner Isaac Scheer of Marshfield Columbus.

“He really had a smooth run. He goes out hard, there’s no doubt, but he held in there and finished strong,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. “That really, truly is part of his total work ethic. That embodies what he’s about, every day working hard. That’s how he ran tonight.” 

Barr came home sixth in a time of 17:20. Sophomore Jackson Weinzatl was Rhinelander’s third finisher, taking 25th overall at 18:54 and senior Brody Kowieski was 31st at 19:04.

“You’ve got a really nice 1-2 punch with Greyson and Avrom,”  Laggis said. “Right behind that, you’ve got Jackson and Brody. We’re really pretty solid right there and we absolutely have to find something on the back side to shore that up.”

It was another minute and a half back to Rhinelander’s fifth finisher, freshman Wyatt Crowell in 52nd (20:35). Michael Brunette and Grant Gremban finished together in 67th and 68th at 21:03.

“We’ve got some kids that are making some really nice improvements,” Laggis said. “Wyatt was our No. 5 tonight, Michael’s been that kid and I’ll tell you what, Grant Gremban is quietly improving and competing. And Hank Kowieski’s made a lot of growth. We’ve got to find someone that can step up into that 5-hole and tighten it up and get us more competitive on the boys’ side.”

The girls’ order mirrored what it has been most of the season — with senior Brynn Teter leading the way and sophomore Macy Myers close in tow. 

Teter came home 22nd Tuesday with a time of 22:41. Myers was another 10 seconds up the trail as she finished 23rd. Sophie Miljevich was 31st (23:24), Kara Monk was 32nd (23:27). Hayley Schiek rounded out the Rhinelander scorers in 40th (24:11). Ella Miljevich took 65th (25:13) and Gabby Wanta was 67th (25:37).

“Brynn, as a senior, has been rock solid all year. That continues and that’s something to build on. I thought Brynn had a really nice race and Macy hung in there,” Laggis said. “Macy wasn’t at her best, but kind of a big thing tonight was Sophie Miljevich pulled up and went into that third spot. She’s really starting to show some senior leadership and showed a little difference race pace tonight. I expected her to start taking some jumps and that was really nice to see her do that.”

Marshfield won the girls’ title followed by Wittenberg-Birnamwood. GNC rival Medford finished third, seven points ahead of the Hodags. While Rhinelander had a tighter pack with its top five, the Raiders had the fourth-place finisher in Lindsay Khan. Laggis said it will be a matter of getting a bit of improvement from every spot in the lineup as the Hodags jockey to put themselves in the running for a conference title come mid-October.

“Even though we lost to Medford, we were pretty tight, pretty close,” he said. “On the girls’ side, we’ve got to get Nos. 4 and 5 a little bit tighter for sure and we need a more dominant from No. 1. We’ve got to get our leader a little further ahead in the pack. And then tighten up with Nos. 3, 4 and 5.”

Tuesday’s invite was the first of three straight for the Hodags hosted by Wisconsin Valley Conference schools. Rhinelander will travel to the Stevens Point Invite tomorrow followed by the Bill Smiley Invitational hosted by Wausau East the following Saturday. 

Laggis said tough fields and challenging courses over the next two weekends will test the mettle of his squad. 

“Tonight was good competition — in fact it was better than I thought it was going to be,” he said. “Saturday’s going to be fantastic competition with SPASH at Standing Rock. It’s a great venue for a race and we’re going to see some really good teams. 

“We’re going to get beat up and see some really good teams but, the truth of the matter is that that’s exactly what we need to do to try to compete in those GNC and local meets down the stretch. That’s really good for us.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].