Hodag girls win, boys 2nd at Eagle Relays

EAGLE RIVER — The depth of the Rhinelander High School track teams was on full display Thursday afternoon. 

The Hodag girls claimed six events and the overall title while the Hodag boys won seven events and earned a runner-up finish at the Northland Pines Eagle Relays.

The event was a unique format, in which virtually all the running events were relays while the field events combined individual performances to come up with team results. Both squads recorded nine top-two finishes in the eight-team meet that featured defending GNC boys’ co-champion Northland Pines and GNC girls’ champion Tomahawk.

“It’s a whole different type of meet when you can show off your depth,” Hodag girls’ coach Andy Wyss said. “There were instances where we had our, ‘JV relay or B team’ relays that were beating other schools A team relays. Rhinelander’s definitely in a position to be successful and meet of this format.”

There were plenty of similarities between strengths of both squads. Both teams excelled in some of the distance events, as well as a number of field events and the throws. 

    Rhinelander’s Greyson Gremban, right, hands the baton to teammate Avrom Barr in the 4x800-meter relay during the Eagle Relays track meet at Northland Pines High School in Eagle River Thursday, April 24. The Hodags won that race, one of seven event victories, as they placed second in the team standings. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

On the boys’ side, the Hodag distance crew continued to shine, winning the 4x1600 and 4x800 relays. The squad of Avrom Barr, Dean Gillingham, Jackson Weinzatl and Greyson Gremban took the 4x1600 in a time of 20 minutes, 18.72 seconds. Shawn Denis, Weinzatl, Gremban and Barr came back to score the win in the 4x800 later in the meet (8:46.72).

“They keep getting better and they’re scoring us lots of points and tonight they did the exact same thing. They had a heck of a race in the 4x1600, 4x800 and then a good finish in the distance medley too,” Hodag boys’ coach Aaron Kraemer said.

On the girls’ side the quartet of Luna Grage, Kara Monk, Brynn Teter and Macy Myers won the 4x1600 (24:55.17) and later scored the win in the 4x400 (4:34.79).

“The distance kids really held their own tonight and I thought had a great meet,” Wyss said. “They ran well and kind of made a statement of kind of where we are at in the conference, in the distance. I’m hoping that our distance crew can continue to build on that because they’re showing the versatility a little bit.”

The Hodag girls beat Northland Pines and Wausau Newman by 13 points for the top spot, and did so without two of their top athletes — juniors Aila Bergman and Libbey Buchmann — in the lineup. Even with the two absent, the Hodags fared well in their specialty events. Rhinelander senior Averie West won the 100 hurdles (18.57). Eva Heck was third in the 300 hurdles while West took fourth and the Hodags’ cumulative time for their three entries in that event was good enough for third-best overall. 

Rhinelander also claimed the shot put relay as Jalyn Zadnik came home second individually (29 feet, 11 1/2 inches) while freshman Tatiana Vadis placed third (28-1 1/2). Josie Stella added a fifth-place showing individual in the discus.

“To not have our are arguably best athlete competing for us, and you know Libbey, no doubt our best thrower, those are both state-level athletes (we were) without. So I felt great about those people that were able to step up into those positions and kind of not miss a beat,” Wyss said.

Not to be outdone, the boys’ throwers dominated the shot put relay. David Houg (43-4 1/2), Logan Schwinger (43-1 1/4) and Reid Schultz (42-5 3/4) went 1-2-3 overall in the event while Schwinger added a runner-up toss (117-10) in the discus. 

“That 1-2-3 was special,” Kraemer said. “David Houg broke meet record today, and he’s proud of that. All of those guys were real close to one another. I think they’re just small tweaks away in their form from popping off a couple of extra feet too. I think they really got a shot to do some damage in the conference and then of course in regionals and making it into sectionals.” 

The Hodag boys finished 10 points behind Northland Pines for the win and Kraemer said the meet format actually hurt the Hodags in that regard, minimizing the number of points it could gain in the field events. 

“It’s difficult when you have boys that throw 1-2-3 in the shot and we score a total 10 (points). That’s tough when you would score 24 points normally,” he said. “We’re very good in the field, and maybe it didn’t seem like that tonight because of the way the point shake out, but I’m really proud of where we’re at right now. I think that you’ll start to see that as we start getting into some of the marquee meets of the season.”

The Hodag boys also won the long jump, high jump and triple jump relays. Rhinelander went 1-2-4 overall in the triple jump, led by Truman Lamers (40-8) and Landon Catlin (37-3) in the top two spots. Lamers also claimed the high jump (6-0) individually and was fourth in the long jump (17-8). Sam Zwaard was the runner up for the Hodags in the long jump (18-5 1/2).

On the girls’ side, Rhinelander won the 4x100 relay with the squad of Ellie Cummings, Emeline Hintz, Olivia Ruetz and Violet Biolo. Biolo caught and passed Northland Pines’s Ava Carrillo over the final 100 meters to win that race with a time of 53.32 seconds. 

The Hodags added a runner-up showing in the 4x200 with Lexi Bishop, Cummings, Lucy Eddy and Biolo.

“We’ve been really experimenting with relays and just trying to give opportunities and this was kind of the first meet where we were trying to get a little more solidified with our relay lineup,” Wyss said. So it’s kind of the first time that, that group has had to work handoffs. It was, some of it, getting the rust off, especially that group.”

Rhinelander also claimed the pole vault relay on the girls’ side, Myers won individually, clearing 9-6 while Hintz tied for third with a vault of 8-6. 

The throwers also got a bit of running glory at the end of the night as Rhinelander swept the boys’ and girls’ 4x100 throwers relays. Sam Aschenbrenner, Vadis, Josie Stella and Taylor Dahlquist made up the winning girls’ squad while Houg, Schwinger, Leander Sprecksel and Dominic Lehmann ran to the win on the boys’ side. 

“There’s a lot of pride in that, more than maybe one I think, but yeah, if we can throw those throwers in there that don’t often get a ton of opportunity to showcase their speed and quickness, that is a lot of fun,” Wyss noted. “And they go in there with the mentality of ‘We’re going to go in here and win this thing.’ I appreciate that and that they have a real good time.”

The Hodag girls’ added runner-up finishes in the long jump and triple jump relays. Mady Treder was fourth individually in the triple jump while Karly Gillingham was fifth in the long jump. Ayden Myers and Charlie Antonuk both cleared 9-6 and Paul Denis made 9-0 as the Hodag boys were second in the pole vault relay. Rhinelander was also second in the boys’ 4x100 with Ben Olson, Sam Zwaard, Tripp Tanner and Landon Catlin. 

The Hodags enter the busiest part of the schedule with eight meets scheduled over the next four weeks. This week’s calendar includes the Sawmill Invite at Wausau East this afternoon and the Kaukauna Invite on Friday. Both Wyss and Kraemer said the goal will be for the squad to focus the efforts of its top-level athletes on one meet per week while using the other to provide more opportunities for the rest of the squad. 

“The goal for the next couple weeks backwards plan a little bit, so plan the weekend meet or Friday meet, make sure that we have a solid lineup because those are 28 individual entries, more like a competitive late season meet,” Kraemer said. “We’ll get our varsity guys in the in the later in the week and then try to keep them home and get them the workout they need to continue to push them.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].