Hodag Alpine skiers take second at Granite Peak

The Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine ski team tried to narrow the gap on Northern Conference leading Wausau/D.C. Everest Monday on the central Wisconsin co-op’s home hill.

The Hodags made a few inroads on the girls’ side, and remained stable on the boys’ side as they finished second in both divisions in the second round of the 2025 Northern Conference season at Granite Peak. 

Struggles in slalom ultimately kept the Hodags from closing the gap further against the Wausau co-op, but coach Rod Olson said he saw more speed out of his team on Monday in comparison to the field.

“I’m all about looking at the performance rather than the outcome so, within that, I see us catching up,” he said. “What I want to do, going forward, is get the kids more time on snow. Our crew is advancing and I can’t say that other kids aren’t but we definitely are. You see it measurably. We just need more time, more turns and more daily reinforcement of skills.”

Ben Olson, coach Olson’s son, paced the Hodag boys on Monday with a runner-up finish in the combined standings. He finished second in giant slalom, third in Super G and fourth in slalom on Monday, though coach Olson said the junior left some time on the hill in both his slalom and Super G runs. 

“Ben turned sideways, slipped (in slalom). He’s a second off in that (event). In Super G he over-skied. It wasn’t as technical of a course. He had the best turns, they were just doing a little too much and he could’ve let the line run out for a little bit more speed,” coach Olson said.

Northland Pines senior Jason Linn turned in another top-10 performance on Monday, finishing seventh overall. He finished in the top 10 in all three runs, led by a seventh-place performance in slalom (42.57). 

“Jason over-skied most everything but I was super impressed with his ability to be aggressive,” coach Olson said. “About a week and a half ago I said I told him ‘You’ve got to quit being so darn careful.’ He needed that and he’s starting to show that.”

Holden Schmitz finished 12th on the day for the Hodag boys, Eli Repenshek was 16th, Wyler Koput took 21st, Henry Schmitz was 26th and Robert Guolee took 30th in the 34-skier field.

The Hodag girls had a clump of girls in the middle of the pack once again, with five finishers between position 10 and 15. Senior Callie Hoerchler led the way with a 10th-place finish overall. She was ninth in slalom and 10th in giant slalom. Sophomore Lyndsey Hoerchler, Callie’s younger sister, was 12th on the day, followed by Northland Pines freshman Jessica Linn in 13th, Northland Pines senior Eliana Conrad in 14th and Rhinelander junior Karlie Yunkers in 15th. 

Linn was in the running for a second straight top-10 finish in the overall after a sixth-place finish in giant slalom and a seventh-place run in Super G, but a disqualification in slalom dropped her down the standings. Overall, slalom was a struggle for the Hodags. Aila Bergman (19th overall) and Lucy Eddy (24th) were both unable to finish their slalom runs cleanly.

“Aila lost a ski, Lucy straddled (a gate) and had issues, and then Jessica also straddled,” coach Olson said. “What’s happening is they’re all trying to run a faster, tighter line, and we need to build upon the skills for them to do that. But they’ve got the want to go faster, so they’re in enough control and all three of those issues happened from aggression.”

Monday’s races were contested in spite of bitter cold conditions. According to the National Weather Service, the temperature in Wausau around the time of Monday’s 10 a.m. start was minus-4 with a wind chill of minus-22. Though the ambient temperature crept above zero in the afternoon, the wind chill remained in the teens below zero.

“The kids are really doing a good job. They’re very much into it. It was bitter cold and the attitudes were awesome,” coach Olson said. “They did very well handling the adversity with great mental strength and really focusing on the racing.”

Tuesday’s meet once again did not have snowboarding. The Hodag boarders will finally get to race Friday, Jan. 24 when the third round of the conference season takes place at Snowriver Mountain Resort in Wakefield, Mich. The boarders will also compete in the Mt. La Crosse state scrimmage Feb. 3 and in the Northern Conference finale hosted by the Hodags Feb. 8 at Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich.

“We’re trying to amp up what we can there next year we’re going to have to structure those races a little better — make them races 1, 3 and 5 at the hills where we can race snowboarding so that the kids don’t have to wait so long,” coach Olson noted.

Note: The Northern Conference has amended the team results in girls’ skiing from its opening race held Tuesday, Jan. 7 at Christie Mountain. Ashwabay has been credited with second place overall in that race, finishing ahead of Rhinelander/Northland Pines 123-134 for the runner-up spot. The correction was included with updated year-to-date standings sent out by the league following Monday’s race. Initially, the league awarded Rhinelander/Northland Pines the runner-up spot 130-152 over Ashwabay, which the River News reported in its Jan. 10 edition based on results published by the league Jan. 8.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].